| [DSL] Teksavvy 6M vs 12M speeds - Your experience Hi Guys,
So I've been considering for a while about upgrading to the 12M speed package. However, based on my analysis, I'm not sure if I would benefit from the better speed experience based on my own needs and requirements. My existing speed test results are attached at the end of the post.
I would appreciate comments from people who have upgraded from 6M to 12M and higher to see what kind of improvements they saw in their own internet experience. Bottom line, if I am unlikely to see a significant improvement in my online experience, I should just save the money and stick with my existing package!
My internet use is defined as follows:
1) Browsing - 70% use is browsing. I would really like to speed up the loading of web pages. However, I'm not sure if a 12M would bring a significant improvement to browsing speeds. AS I understand, given that you have a basic minimum amount of bandwidth available, browsing becomes largely a function of ping time and the computer's processing power. When I run my DU meter while browsing, the largest web pages only use 1- 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth. What are your thoughts?
2) Streaming from Netflix, Youtube - 25% use - I do watch movies from Netflix every weekend. However, even here I don't think I am being bottlenecked by my existing speeds. I am able to watch HD quality movies without buffering issues - which based on my DU meter shoots my download to the full 5Mbps capacity.
3) The occasional P2P download - 10% use - I do occasionally indulge in P2P downloads. I can absolutely understand how I would benefit from greater speeds on this front.
4) Gaming - No use - Once again, I can see how higher bandwidths would benefit gamers. No use for me on this front.
6) VOIP Phone - I user a Voip line which works fairly well with my existing speeds. The voice gets choppy if I use the phone while streaming from netflix or during a P2P download, however, a new router with QoS capabilities has alleviated this issue.
7) Concurrent users - Max 2 users at a time with both not running demanding applications at the same time.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
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| You may see an improvement on your VOIP services as the 12mbit package would offer a higher upstream. I think if the rest you are happy with then that is the only major factor. P2P and video content will obviously come down faster. That ping looks a little high to me.
I get about 8ms on speedtest.net using Radiant Communications (Toronto, ON) |
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| reply to shawn_on_ca
IMO it's not worth it to upgrade.
You might be on an Ikanos remote, in which case your upstream won't go up - only your downstream. VoIP issues won't be solved by more downstream - they're solved by proper working QOS. Also, P2P downloads probably won't come in faster if you're referring to torrents, where your upstream plays a part in how fast the swarm sends you stuff.
Very nice ping. You must be on a FastPath profile rather than interleaved, which means you have good line conditions. I'd stick with what you've got. I don't see much of anything that you do requiring a faster connection. I would probably opt to save the money.
Edit: You are correct. Most websites send out data at somewhere around 1-3mbit speeds. A 6mbit line will easily cope with two users browsing simultaneously. |
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| reply to shawn_on_ca
Question -- would 12Mbps be enough to properly stream HD TV? I have a Pivos AIOS media player, and can get HD TV channels (National Geo HD, A&E HD, Discovery HD etc., etc). At 6Mbps, I get quite a bit of choppiness to the point it's not watchable. Would 12 be the ticket or more than that? Thanks for any feedback on this. |
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| reply to BikeHelmet
BikeHelmet: You're right-on about the things you said. I am on an IKNS remote. If there's no hope of getting moved from this remote, there may not be a point paying for more DL speed when the UL doesn't go up. |
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1 edit | reply to VenusFlytrap
said by VenusFlytrap:Question -- would 12Mbps be enough to properly stream HD TV? I have a Pivos AIOS media player, and can get HD TV channels (National Geo HD, A&E HD, Discovery HD etc., etc). At 6Mbps, I get quite a bit of choppiness to the point it's not watchable. Would 12 be the ticket or more than that? Thanks for any feedback on this.
Question -- would 12Mbps be enough to properly stream HD TV?
I think 12Mbps would be sufficient for streaming HD. As I said in my post, I don't have any buffering issues streaming HD from netflix at my 6M speed (5M usable). Granted it may have to do with how the HD is compressed by your player.
There are ways to see if you are being bottlenecked by your speeds. For example, assuming your medix box takes an Ethernet input, you could connect it to your computer/ laptop and bridge your home's wireless network on the laptop. This way you can capture the media box's DL speed by using DU meter on your computer. This will tell you whether the full DL speed is being utilized when you run into the choppiness or whether this has to do with something else such as latency and the server's capacity. Make sense? |
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| reply to shawn_on_ca
You get much better speed using high speed proxy servers with 12 meg. Bell is still throttling free rapidshare in the daytime so using high speed proxy servers you get faster speed and can do many more downloads at the same time. |
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| I just underwent the 6M -> 12M update today. Prior to the update my line maxed out around 600 KB/sec. Now I max out around 1.2 MB/sec so that seems fine. Unfortunately, my router syncs at the exact same up rate as before (797 Kbps) which to me says 800, not the 1M the package says I should have. I asked the tech who came into my house and he said that Bell must not have upgraded my profile correctly so he will call them later today. Anybody else have this happen? |
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| said by Bitruder:I just underwent the 6M -> 12M update today. Prior to the update my line maxed out around 600 KB/sec. Now I max out around 1.2 MB/sec so that seems fine. Unfortunately, my router syncs at the exact same up rate as before (797 Kbps) which to me says 800, not the 1M the package says I should have. I asked the tech who came into my house and he said that Bell must not have upgraded my profile correctly so he will call them later today. Anybody else have this happen?
Tons of people.
Bell uses a variety of hardware. Some can sync around ~1087kbit up, providing nearly 1mbit usable bandwidth. Other hardware maxes out at 800kbit. Bell certainly takes advantage of that "up to" clause, and TPIA providers like Teksavvy have to as well because they resell the same service.
You should definitely get someone to look into it, but don't be shocked if they can't do anything for you.
It could be worse. I'm out in BC - my Teksavvy DSL goes through Telus, and I'm stuck on ADSL1 hardware that only syncs at 640kbit up.  I'm on the 6/1mbit plan. |
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| reply to Bitruder
said by Bitruder:I just underwent the 6M -> 12M update today. Prior to the update my line maxed out around 600 KB/sec. Now I max out around 1.2 MB/sec so that seems fine. Unfortunately, my router syncs at the exact same up rate as before (797 Kbps) which to me says 800, not the 1M the package says I should have. I asked the tech who came into my house and he said that Bell must not have upgraded my profile correctly so he will call them later today. Anybody else have this happen?
By 600 KB/sec, I assume you mean 600 Kilo BYTES = 600 * 8 = 4.8Mbps (Mega BITS per sec)?? |
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| Yes, the big B means bytes, little b means bits. |
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| reply to BikeHelmet
I don't know if this means anything, but my router (TP-LINK W8960N) says that my line has an up speed attainable of 1229 kbps. Does this mean it's just a setting on Bell's end or is that just a measure of the noise and signal stuff? |
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 EdT
join:2009-06-12
Saint-Laurent, QC | reply to shawn_on_ca
DSL technology has a limit and IMHO 10GB is about that limit, any speed after that is basically unreliable and subject to line conditions and telco equipment upgrades. Cable would be a better alternative if you what higher speeds. ISPs would like to have you believe that their higher speed plans will make your internet surfing faster, but the reality is that the net won't be any faster if the sites you are visiting is slow. The thing is you have the find a DSL speed that is a balance between usefulness and plain waste of money !
For web browsing, 6mb is more than enough, heck even 2mb is good enough. Just tweak your web browser and have the pipelines opened and you will notice a world of difference compared to the default settings. |
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aritek
join:2011-10-16
Toronto, ON | reply to VenusFlytrap
I recently did the upgrade specifically to be able to stream HD content. My results were mixed.
Some stuff that was unwatchable before got fixed. E.g. apple movie trailers in 720p now work just fine with no stalling/buffering, and even 1080p (although in the latter case the initial buffering takes a bit too long). Youtube @ 720p also works fine now, whereas before stalls were common.
However, what didn't work were the live TV HD streams that are accessible using XBMC + Navi-X plugin. There are a bunch of live tv HD streams that a friend of mine has working fine with a similar setup but using bell/sympatico. With teksavvy dsl 12mbps they just don't work: constant stalling/buffering. At this point I think this issue is clearly not due to the access rate but either to lower quality IP transport services or higher link utilization/saturation on teksavvy's own uplink connections to Tier2/Tier1 internet carriers.
So, my results were so and so. |
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| I don't think it's a connection issue.
Install Eden rc 2 and follow the instructions for buffering issues with the 1Channel plug in.. btw the 1Channel plug in is better than Navi-X. |
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 TwiztedZeroNine Zero Burp Nine SixPremium
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON
kudos:3
 ·TekSavvy Cable
4 edits | Eden is now official full release out of beta.
But yeah lemmie check out that 1Channel plugin' first I've heard of it. BTW where the hell is 1Channel eh? Sure ain't easy to find. Are you sure you're upto date with things? meh got it... and Linked.
This Anon123 person doesn't exist. I hate it when idiots don't register their names. Freeking cowards. Kicks anon123 for being a PITA.
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| Thank you for learning to use one of the many search engines on the web. I kept things brief so there wouldn't be huge OT post. |
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TwiztedZeroNine Zero Burp Nine SixPremium
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON
kudos:3 Reviews:
·TekSavvy Cable
| said by anon123 :Thank you for learning to use one of the many search engines on the web. I kept things brief so there wouldn't be huge OT post.
No thanks to you PITA boy. |
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aritek
join:2011-10-16
Toronto, ON | reply to aritek
said by aritek:I recently did the upgrade specifically to be able to stream HD content. My results were mixed.
Some stuff that was unwatchable before got fixed. E.g. apple movie trailers in 720p now work just fine with no stalling/buffering, and even 1080p (although in the latter case the initial buffering takes a bit too long). Youtube @ 720p also works fine now, whereas before stalls were common.
However, what didn't work were the live TV HD streams that are accessible using XBMC + Navi-X plugin. There are a bunch of live tv HD streams that a friend of mine has working fine with a similar setup but using bell/sympatico. With teksavvy dsl 12mbps they just don't work: constant stalling/buffering. At this point I think this issue is clearly not due to the access rate but either to lower quality IP transport services or higher link utilization/saturation on teksavvy's own uplink connections to Tier2/Tier1 internet carriers.
So, my results were so and so.
I have to correct myself here. The one other possible cause for the stalling 720p streams was my dsl modem; this was a long shot because some of the streams (notably Apple's) were working fine after the upgrade. I was using a linksys ag310 with integrated SIP client - which implies I had to use in in routed mode, otherwise the SIP client wouldn't work. Sometime ago I switched my voip line to a SIP-enabled siemens phone so I was not using the integrated SIP client in the modem anymore. So as a very last resort, I went ahead and bought a thomson 516v6 modem; it took my five minutes to set it up in bridge mode.
Lo and behold, all the navi-x HD streams started to work right away, even over wifi (my small HTPC has wireless-n connectivity). Just like that. hereby I retract my words RE teksavvy's IP Transit providers and link utilization policies. 
The upgrade to 12Mbps was well worth, if a bit painful (Bell technician's screwed the first installation attempt which left me with no access for about 5 days)
ps. the 1-channel plugin is kind of cool. Thanks for the tip. |
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| Cool, glad things worked out.
Also try a plug in called "LiveTV." It has ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, NatGeo, CNN, etc and as the name suggests these are live feeds.
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