47 megabit adsl is really only 2 megabit... wtf...

[mrmachine]

what's with all these 40 plus megabit adsl plans. when everyone i've known who has adsl can only get about a 2-6 megabit connection. fair enough, it's a "best effort" service, but 2 out of 47 is a pretty fuckin piss poor effort.

is adsl just fucked? or is it just cos i live in the middle of nowhere? my building is wired for j-com and ntt fiber (which i didn't know before) but i chose adsl because it was cheaper than j-com, and claimed to be faster (47 vs 30), and i'd heard something about fiber being shared among all residents of the apartment building, and not dedicated to my connection.

so what's the real deal? should i switch to ntt fiber? or j-com? i've heard you can pickup a fake j-com modem in akihabra and use their net for free.

[This is a pen]

Sorry........... But who cares?
It's just not that important.
(Just how fast do you need to receive your email?)

Try turning off the computer and going outside.

[IkemenTommy]

That's simple.
You're getting less than what's being "advertised" because they claim 48Mbps as in bits and you're benchmarked score is in probably bytes. Anyone in computer networking would tell you that there are 8 bits in a byte so theoretically you're supposed to get about 6MBps. But I am saying theoretical because there are lots of other factors, such as ping time and latency, that affect your maximum throughput.

[emperor]

Sorry........... But who cares?
It's just not that important.
(Just how fast do you need to receive your email?)
Try turning off the computer and going outside.

He clearly wants it for downloading large sized and/or large quantities of files.

[IkemenTommy]

is adsl just fucked? or is it just cos i live in the middle of nowhere? my building is wired for j-com and ntt fiber (which i didn't know before) but i chose adsl because it was cheaper than j-com, and claimed to be faster (47 vs 30), and i'd heard something about fiber being shared among all residents of the apartment building, and not dedicated to my connection.

There is also a good chance that your carrier isp could be far from where you live. If that is the case, then you will definitely see degradation in the signal and lose your maximum bandwidth.

If the line is being contracted by the aprtment and being shared by multiple users, then your speed will be greatly affected. If someone is running a war*z or bit torrent server, then you're equally f*cked. Is your contract directly with the adsl company or did you sign up with your apartment community?

[IkemenTommy]

He clearly wants it for downloading large sized and/or large quantities of files.

There are ways to registry tweak your OS to change the packet handling if it is not XP. XP is pretty much tweaked already and you won't get a whole lot of gain. I think there were a test utility and some tweak files at http://www.speedguide.net

[mrmachine]

thanks, i know all about bits and bytes. that's not the issue. they've advertised 47 megabits per second (best effort) and the modem is telling me it's connected at 2200 kilobits per second. my max throughput is ~240-250 kilobytes per second which is roughly 1920 kilobits per second which adds up to about 90% of the actual connection speed, sounds about right.

what i want to know is, does anybody actually get anything even remotely close to the advertised 47 megabits per second throughput? or is it just a scam, with a big "best effort" disclaimer? if i complain, can they upgrade the lines or something? how can i find out if my isp is close, or switch to another one if it is not? i'm living in musota (1st express stop on JR line from wakayama city to osaka city), and my isp is asahi-net (i'd heard good things and they have english support).

if adsl will never get any better, will fiber be any better? my contract is directly with ntt and asahi-net, there is no community or shared net. i'm the only person downloading, and the difference between 2 megabits and 40 megabits is about an hour to download 1 gigabyte vs a few minutes. pretty big difference.

oh yeah, im using osx tiger. i have 2 windows machines on the network as well, the throughput is the same. and if i start downloading 100KB/s from another machine, the mac slows down by about the same amount.

[IkemenTommy]

(i'd heard good things and they have english support).

You should try to hit up your isp service and ask them what their policy is for their 48Mbps contract.

[omae mona]

Folks, your ISP doesn't own the Internet or even the system you're connecting to on the other end. They can only give you 48Mbps (or whatever) from the DSLAM at the phone company out to your modem. There is a lot of other stuff on the internet between their equipment and whoever you're connecting to. Not the least of which is the local connection to the web site / FTP site (etc.) you're using. Imagine they're on an old 1.5Mbps T1. Your'e not going to exceed that bandwidth no matter how fast your ADSL is.

Also, bandwidth is different than throughput. The latency and choice of protocol can have a big effect on actual download speeds (but FTP or HTTP will usually give you throughput close to the full bandwidth).

[mrmachine]

the point is, the modem is connecting to ISP/DSLAM/whatever at 2200 kilobits per second. i've tested multiple sources all of which are capable of filling a much larger pipe than this, and the bottleneck is always the same, which just happens to be roughly 90% of the modems connected speed. and when other machines on my network start pulling down some data, my speed drops by the same amount. it's obvious where the bottleneck lies, and it's not some overloaded between me and every other data provider on the internet. all i want to know is, does anyone have 40 plus megabit adsl and actually obtain anything close to that? if so, what's your isp and where are you located. if the low connection speed is a result of bad lines because i'm too rural, what are my chances of getting it upgraded, and would it make a difference? if not, should i bother switching to fiber, or is it going to be slow as well?

doesn't anyone use fiber or adsl around here who can share their experience?

[omae mona]

Sorry, mrmachine. I missed your point about your modem reporting a slower speed. Sure does seem like that's the bottleneck; don't know if it's a modem configuration issue or your ADSL provider (NTT?) is ripping you off.

FYI, I regularly get 450-500 kilobytes per second for Japan-based FTP sites on my ADSL. Things are slower when I exchange data with overseas systems.

[mrmachine]

what dsl plan are you on? i think im gonna have to whinge to ntt and see if they can upgrade the lines.

[omae mona]

what dsl plan are you on? i think im gonna have to whinge to ntt and see if they can upgrade the lines.

You know, to be honest, I couldn't remember! I just took a peek at my bill and it says I am using (in Katakana) "Flets A Moa". referring to the NTT web page, it tells me 12mbps, which sounds right. Now, given that I really never am able to exceed more than 1/3 of this bandwidth, it seems fine (even though I could go to 48mbps for 100 yen extra per month!)

I also use asahi.net as my ISP.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

Today I got 6902 KBytes a second connecting from Japan to Logitech.

A 50MB file took like 2 seconds. It was so fast it made my computer a little slow.

The wonders of fiber optics. I recomend tepco. Except their installation was late, they didnt give me the password for connection until after I phoned them. But would only post the password. So even it took 6 weeks to install I had to wait another 3 days.

But all in all, I doubt if they ever have dropped a packet on me. The only service problem I have has is that my router overheats and needs to be reset about 1ce a week.

[mrmachine]

7MB/s sounds much more like it. but isnt fiber shared with everyone in the building? hmmm... i haven't paid anything yet... is it too late to cancel and switch? i didnt know we had fiber here when i moved in... doh!

[IkemenTommy]

ADSL should be a dedicated line.
If you haven't given them your bank account info, then maybe you can get away without paying.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

7MB/s sounds much more like it. but isnt fiber shared with everyone in the building? hmmm... i haven't paid anything yet... is it too late to cancel and switch? i didnt know we had fiber here when i moved in... doh!

If its less than 3 months then you can canel at any time. But you have better do it fast. At the same time most new installations actualy take a bout a month so you dont want to let yourself with out a connection.

Its a shame though that although Japan is so far ahead in available services. They are so slow in installing them. My optical cable had to be built up right from the base station. Like 2 km away.

[Charles]

ADSL should be a dedicated line..

It's not so much an issue of a DSL dedicated line, the real issue is dedicated routing. Sometimes you can get a business-priority account that assigns higher priority to your packets than consumer-grade accounts. Good luck trying to negotiate that [grits teeth sternly to avoid griping about my own 100k upstream bandwidth].

[Big Booger]

When I had ADSL, periodically I called them, and one of their reps ran down to the OC DSLAM room, and tripped the modem, resetting my connection. I did the same on my modem, and amazingly my speed went up to the level of where it was supposed to be.

I did this maybe once every 3 months or something. ANd it worked.

[mrmachine]

tripped the modem? its been switched on and off a few times... connected to direct from osx pppoe and the router's pppoe...

how long will it take to install fiber when this building is already fiber enabled? there's a poster downstairs that said we could use it from august... there's a j-com socket on my wall... does ntt b-flets use the same socket? or do they have to put a new one inside the flat?

[IkemenTommy]

so what's the real deal? should i switch to ntt fiber? or j-com? i've heard you can pickup a fake j-com modem in akihabra and use their net for free.

<whisper>Shhh.. you can't mention any of that stuff on here</whisper>

I have yet to see one out there though. You can't really buy a box and hook it up to the wall and get free service, as in cable TV. The isp has all the mac addresses of their modems so that people don't rip off the internets. I was hoping to get performance gain with my cable modem because I knew my connection was being tapered at the modem level. To make the long story short, I brought back the Motorola surf modem hoping it would work with my isp.. dead wrong. The thing won't even get on the network because the internal mac address isn't registered and now I have a useless extra modem lying around taking up space in my already tiny ass apartment.

By the way, if you really want FREE internet, then just get an IEEE802.11 antenna and maybe you can pick up a signal from nearby. But you'll get what you pay for.. a really shitty speed and it defeats the purpose of this thread.

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

so what's the real deal? should i switch to ntt fiber? or j-com? i've heard you can pickup a fake j-com modem in akihabra and use their net for free.

<whisper>Shhh.. you can't mention any of that stuff on here</whisper>

I have yet to see one out there though. You can't really buy a box and hook it up to the wall and get free service, as in cable TV. The isp has all the mac addresses of their modems so that people don't rip off the internets. I was hoping to get performance gain with my cable modem because I knew my connection was being tapered at the modem level. To make the long story short, I brought back the Motorola surf modem hoping it would work with my isp.. dead wrong. The thing won't even get on the network because the internal mac address isn't registered and now I have a useless extra modem lying around taking up space in my already tiny ass apartment.

By the way, if you really want FREE internet, then just get an IEEE802.11 antenna and maybe you can pick up a signal from nearby. But you'll get what you pay for.. a really shitty speed and it defeats the purpose of this thread.

You are right and wrong, it depends on the modem. I know that surfboard modems can be hacked to shit. Some companys the MAC address is actualy taken from your network card, if you have a router or your modem has a built in router, some are able to snoop the mac address from your NIC.

As that is what I often had to do to share my connection with my flat mates. You can also edit the mac address and other settings that allow for a smaller packet size( traverses a network faster than a large but not as a robust, the largest packet sizes are actualy used for mobile phones) and a larger window size. Some services such as P2P actual use a fixed packet size, as in p2p for legal use i.e. skype and other VoIP.

Another trick in japan is making all you packets identifiable as VoIP as NTT and other major coms have QOS for VoIP packets. You can do this by swapping out the time stamp in the tcp packet header, but its not all that great a hack. (plus you probably need a linux box and TCP masquerading set up)

DRTCP is a program that you can use of adjust various packet options. Also turn off packet scheduling on you boxes its the shitest protocol ever.

Sorry its not so cohearent but nor am I.

[Big Booger]

tripped the modem? its been switched on and off a few times... connected to direct from osx pppoe and the router's pppoe...

Did you call NTT and ask them to trip the DSLAM on their end? That's what improved my speed dramatically.

It also depends on the quality of copper line in your home, as well as the distance from the OC DSLAM...

[Grumblebum]

First, go here:

http://www.ntt-east.co.jp/line-info/

Click on the link in the middle of the page, then click 'Next', then click on the Login button on the page which pops up. When the new page loads, enter your ADSL line phone number in the box on the left hand side (inlcuding area code) and click on 'Jikkou' (the top left button).

The second box on the right hand side will tell you the distance between you and the exchange in metres. This is usually the major factor affecting ADSL speeds.

If you're in an NTT-West area, then the following link does more or less the same thing:

http://www.ntt-west.co.jp/open/senro/senro_user_index.html

Finally, take a look at the graph at the bottom of the page here:

http://www.nifty.com/setsuzoku/adsl/speed/

Basically, ADSL speed drops off dramatically as you get further away from the exchange. If you're more than 3-4Ks away then you've got little or no chance of getting speeds higher than around 5Mb.

If you're within 2-3Ks of the exchange then you should definitely be getting more than a 2Mb connection. If this is the case, call the ISP and complain.

All that being said, if you have NTT fiber already in the building, that is going to be miles faster than anything ADSL could do, even if the fiber is shared.

[mrmachine]

thanks for the links grumblebum.

i did talk to asahi-net who gave me a long but simple checklist of possible bottlenecks to eliminate, which i did. i also called ntt and complained. ntt said that adsl is a best effort service and if it was 100 kilobits per second they would do something, but 2 megabits is pretty stable so they won't do anything.

i told them i want to cancel and get fiber. they checked, and told me i can't get fiber yet and that when i could, a message would go into my mailbox or the apartment block notice board. but, the notice is already downstairs. i told them it's downstairs, but she just kept saying i can't get it yet.

she checked with some regional manager who knows my building. apparently it's about 4km from the exchange, so i won't get more than 2 megabits per second. but they estimated i should get at least 20 with fiber.

so i applied for fiber anyway, through asahi-net. they have a campaign to waive all construction costs and my first 4 month fees (asahi-net fee and ntt fee).

we'll see if i can really get it or not. if not, i'll have to go j-com. i'll keep the adsl until i get something better connected.

when i moved in we had no net for about a week, and i had to move one of my laptops over to the kitchen window to pickup one of a few very weak wireless signals that were unsecured. but the connection was shit, dropping out all the time and even when it was connected i couldn't reliably ftp upload a 5kb file to my work server.

thanks for the help.