Is BT Infinity really faster?

baza52

forgotmyname wrote: »

People expect fibre to be an instant fix to everything and it wont be. Unless your current connection is super slow webpages may load exactly the same speed as before. Getting the page a fraction of a second faster maybe nothing compared to how long it tales your browser to display it properly.

Where it does win is the download speed for larger files. I was on 4mb before and 70+ now. Webpages open at a similar speed, The only faster ones are the picture heavy ones and then its usually the web server that slows me down.

But i can download a 1gb file in a couple of minutes easily.

100% agree

pullenuk

Those are the headline figures. There are other factors. The ping (lag) of the connection and the speed of the device you are using.

The 70mbps part is simply how much in theory you can download a second. Its NOT speed. Its simply the size of the data that can be moved.

The lag is important, is is how quick the data transfers. A high ping will results in websites appearing to load slowly. A low ping simply means that the data is going quicker. Combine a low ping with the higher 70mbps means you transfer more data quicker.

Finally a lot of computers simply aren't always fast enough to give you that snappy response. Therefore you might not always see the difference. Cheap computers brought a couple of years ago is likely not to be fast enough to show the full benefit of fibre. Also wifi/ethernet needs to be higher than the broadband otherwise it's not possible to transfer data quick enough internally.

My parents run fibre in their house. But the companies office next door runs on standard ADSL. They are both about 12 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. The problem is the rural location so the fibre is barely any faster. But the ADSL connection is quicker simply because the ping is so much lower. So websites load really quick combined with new computers. The ping on the fibre is double the ADSL so it makes a difference.

kwikbreaks

pullenuk wrote: »

The lag is important, is is how quick the data transfers. A high ping will results in websites appearing to load slowly. A low ping simply means that the data is going quicker.

This is complete and utter tosh.

pullenuk

kwikbreaks wrote: »

This is complete and utter tosh.

then you know nothing at all. I'm trying to explain in a simple way for beginners out there. Speed is not just the large figure you see advertised. There are other factors. Instead of being rude feel free to clear it up.

kwikbreaks

The ping or latency is a measure of path delay between the two ends of the link. It would typically rarely exceed a few tens of milliseconds for a UK based website. It is not a measure of how long it takes to transfer a given block of data - that is the line speed which you see quoted.

Having fibre speeds will not result in a large perceptible improved website load time over halfway decent ADSL but it is most certainly not because FTTC latency is significantly higher that ADSL latency.

My average latency to SamKnows is measured by them at 8ms on FTTC. I doubt ADSL would be significantly better and even if it were it would only be gamers that would care.

forgotmyname

The issue with speed tests is that not only are you testing your connection speed, Your also testing the speed of the connection/server of the test site also.

If they are busy then you may get lower results. Just done these 2 with vastly different results. Just tried a download and its over 8MB/sec so no issues at my end.