Is this latency normal? Newbie question

lotus123

lotus123

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I've been trying to get a handle on ADSL performance since activating the "semi-shaped" service on Friday.

So far, to be honest, I'm "underwhelmed". Compared to 3G (when that works properly) ADSL 384 is not that great. I realise that HSDPA will beat the pants off ADSL 384 for raw download performance, and I've factored that into the experience. The thing that bothers me is the response time/latency.

When things are going well with 3G I get about 80ms (which I realise is outstanding for 3G). What I'm hoping for with ADSL is similar or better, but instead I'm getting about 105ms on speedtest.net. I've checked the router stats for SNR etc, and these are:
SNR Margin(Upstream) 23 dB
SNR Margin(Downstream) 44.0 dB
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 8.0 dB
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 15.5 dB
CRC Errors(Upstream) 2
CRC Errors(Downstream) 2
Latency(Upstream) Fast
Latency(Downstream) Fast

All looks good there.

I called Tech Support at Axxess for advice, and all I got was a "that's how it is - tough luck" kind of response (did I mention I'm underwhelmed with Axxess tech support too?).

My question is - am I expecting too much in respect of latency (response time)? I haven't been able to get a sense of this on reading through the forum, so I'd appreciate some of your views. I realise that the 4mbps service will be infinitely faster, but if ADSL is normally so slow to respond then I doubt that I'll get much more value by upgrading.
 
Your latency- is the speedtest.net connecting to a local server? Local latency for a 384 line should be around 30-60ms and international anything from 300ms to 500ms. That's what I get and I have a very clean 384 line.
 
froot said:
Your latency- is the speedtest.net connecting to a local server? Local latency for a 384 line should be around 30-60ms and international anything from 300ms to 500ms. That's what I get and I have a very clean 384 line.
Click to expand...

i also get about 105ms so i think thats normal:confused:
 
PING telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=1 ttl=124 time=25.1 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=2 ttl=124 time=24.3 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=3 ttl=124 time=25.5 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=4 ttl=124 time=24.2 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=5 ttl=124 time=25.5 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=6 ttl=124 time=25.0 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=7 ttl=124 time=22.1 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=8 ttl=124 time=113 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=9 ttl=124 time=23.9 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=10 ttl=124 time=22.2 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=11 ttl=124 time=24.8 ms
64 bytes from telkomsa.net (196.25.211.40): icmp_seq=12 ttl=124 time=25.4 ms

--- telkomsa.net ping statistics ---
12 packets transmitted, 12 received, 0% packet loss, time 10998ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 22.157/31.803/113.109/24.540 ms
root@*****:~# ping www.mybroadband.co.za
PING www.mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=26.9 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=25.7 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=27.9 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=28.5 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=26.6 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=24.9 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=23.9 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=8 ttl=56 time=24.8 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=9 ttl=56 time=26.0 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=10 ttl=56 time=27.3 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=11 ttl=56 time=25.3 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=12 ttl=56 time=26.9 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=13 ttl=56 time=27.5 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=14 ttl=56 time=24.6 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=15 ttl=56 time=26.0 ms
64 bytes from mybroadband.co.za (41.203.17.1): icmp_seq=16 ttl=56 time=25.1 ms

--- www.mybroadband.co.za ping statistics ---
16 packets transmitted, 16 received, 0% packet loss, time 14999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 23.984/26.170/28.519/1.265 ms
 
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\MatrixIS>ping telkomsa.net

Pinging telkomsa.net [196.25.211.40] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=124
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=124
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=124
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=124

Ping statistics for 196.25.211.40:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 23ms, Average = 21ms

C:\Users\MatrixIS>ping mybroadband.co.za

Pinging mybroadband.co.za [41.203.17.1] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 41.203.17.1: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=56
Reply from 41.203.17.1: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=56
Reply from 41.203.17.1: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=56
Reply from 41.203.17.1: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 41.203.17.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 36ms, Maximum = 52ms, Average = 44ms

C:\Users\MatrixIS>


From My 2x4mb lines
 
Shows you that my 384 line is not far behind your 8Mb line (or technically speaking 4Mb....), MatrixWeb.....
 
froot said:
Shows you that my 384 line is not far behind your 8Mb line (or technically speaking 4Mb....), MatrixWeb.....
Click to expand...

i had a 384k line , its great , i only upgraded when i wanted to download huge games then a few months later i needed more speed and just a few days now i have my 2nd line installed and combined with my draytek router(thanks for your help with that:))
 
Hehe. Don't steal his thread. Was a pleasure helping you though. You enjoying it? What is your peak transfer per hour?

Can you send us your ping for mybroadband and telkom please, Lotus?
 
froot said:
Hehe. Don't steal his thread. Was a pleasure helping you though. You enjoying it? What is your peak transfer per hour?

Can you send us your ping for mybroadband and telkom please, Lotus?
Click to expand...

my lines dont sync at full 4mb so i get about 600-650kb/s which is great ,
 
Hi Froot

Did that -- here are the results.

Pinging telkomsa.net [196.25.211.40] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=116
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=116
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=116
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=116

Ping statistics for 196.25.211.40:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 34ms, Maximum = 36ms, Average = 34ms

Pinging telkomsa.net [196.25.211.40] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=116
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=116
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=116
Reply from 196.25.211.40: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=116

Ping statistics for 196.25.211.40:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 34ms, Maximum = 36ms, Average = 34ms

Doesn't look too bad on these servers. The speedtest.net result is from the "Johannesburg" server (indicates "~50mi").

I also checked international and got:
Pinging google.navigation.opendns.com [208.69.34.231] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 208.69.34.231: bytes=32 time=208ms TTL=51
Reply from 208.69.34.231: bytes=32 time=207ms TTL=51
Reply from 208.69.34.231: bytes=32 time=209ms TTL=51
Reply from 208.69.34.231: bytes=32 time=206ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 208.69.34.231:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 206ms, Maximum = 209ms, Average = 207ms

All in all, maybe not too bad. It will be interesting to see how this looks tomorrow out of "semi-shaped off-peak" time.

You say you're also using 384 - could you compare it to 3G performance?

Regards
 
3G has the problem of having a slow response time, in other words high latency. This is only an issue with real-time applications such as games, share trading, VOIP (Skype and the like) and anything else where you need the data immediately. Anything unshaped should be faster, but no guarantees though. 35ms isn't wonderful, but there's nothing wrong with it.
I can't compare the ping on your intl ping right now (end of month mate.... :D) but it's not bad.
 
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