Internet connection speed discussion/moan thread.

[Amorbis]

I don't get all of this telephone exchange business, I live on the same street as mine yet my connection is still awful. I currently receive an 8 Megabit package, but at the most you can see I only get 2 of those 8.

But according to this chart, in the UK that's all we should expect. Plenty to moan about I suppose.

[Dark_Phantom_89]

It's because the UK are still using copper cables for its broadband, which is considerably slower than fibreoptic. The reason that Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea have such fast speeds is because they went straight to fibreoptic.

[blackwiggle]

Australia is still using copper cabling as well, you will see that we are actually ranked lower than the UK atm.
Thankfully the Aus government has realized that something needed to be done, and quickly, so that we didn't drop behind Nigeria, Tonga and the highlands of Papua New Guinea in internet speed.
The have started a national upgrade of the internet infrastructure [Aus$43 billion over 8 years] that will give us 100mbs.
Unfortunately they are also intent in bringing in a national web content filter system which will inevitably slow things down, it's in trial stages atm.

mic-dk wrote QUOTE
I don't really buy the whole National Security Filter theory. My guess is the wildly differing ping times has more to do with interconnects between the different ISPs than any Echelon style government conspiracy.[/QUOTE]

It's not a government conspiracy, it's an already in place, system in operation, fact, and has been in one form or another for around the last 15 years.
The only difference is that now it is turned on 24/7 in the USA [where the have the infrastructure to make it not as obtrusive], where initially it was only used under a court order on specific targets.
You'd be fooling yourself to think they didn't have it in place and use 24/7 in the UK as well, what with heighten security being as it is, particularly after the London bombings.

My older brother has been working with this stuff since the early 90's, it's interesting to hear how it works and how it's evolved over the years.

[KIGO1987]

The second half of the title of this thread is stupid " / moan thread". Its a joint discussion of what peoples internet speeds have from all over the world.

Australia is still using copper cabling as well, you will see that we are actually ranked lower than the UK atm.
Thankfully the Aus government has realized that something needed to be done, and quickly, so that we didn't drop behind Nigeria, Tonga and the highlands of Papua New Guinea in internet speed.
The have started a national upgrade of the internet infrastructure [Aus$43 billion over 8 years] that will give us 100mbs.
Unfortunately they are also intent in bringing in a national web content filter system which will inevitably slow things down, it's in trial stages atm.

I wonder what will happen if (most likely) there is a change in the Federal Government in the next election, which will be in the coming months. Will the whole plan of upgrading the country's internet infrastructure will still go ahead, or would it be pulled off and shelved for another time.

[blackwiggle]

It's a signed deal, especially since Telstra has been slapped into pulling it's finger out a to stop stalling the roll out.
Even if there were to be a Liberal government after the next election, which I really don't think there will be, they would be absolutely crazy to try and rescind it.
Not only would it show how totally inept the Liberals are at any forward planning for the countries benefit, it would end up costing the Australian tax payer a fortune to pull out of now the ball is rolling, and also not have anything to show for the money already spent.
Telstra would just love to take any government, be it the present one or a future one, to court for pulling out of the deal and get a nice fat payout for doing F**K All.
The Liberals are just a big enough bunch of stupid reactionary halfwits to do something like that, they would quite happily cut off their nose to spite their face.
We have already had 1950's politics twice, once with Chifley 1945-1949 and a second time with John Howard 1996-2007, why the hell would Australia want it a third time with Tony Abbott.

[DreamyElf]

here is my results:

i'm paying for a 24 Mb/s but i never had above 6Mb/s... lol
i have to say that ISP's are like politicians: always promising things that they can't deliver!

[KIGO1987]

i have to say that ISP's are like politicians: always promising things that they can't deliver!

Like most things in life

[mdhay]

Here's mine:

[KIGO1987]

Interesting ISP name there.

[mic-dk]

It's not a government conspiracy, it's an already in place, system in operation, fact, and has been in one form or another for around the last 15 years.
The only difference is that now it is turned on 24/7 in the USA [where the have the infrastructure to make it not as obtrusive], where initially it was only used under a court order on specific targets.

I'm not questioning that such systems exists - I know they do - I'm just trying to point out that they're not likely to cause these weird ping scenarios you see AUS->UK and UK->UK. Since my ping times to the UK seems OK, it leads me to think that it is more a question of peering (or the lack of!) between the different ISPs.

Of course there is the possibility that my traffic is exempt from all government snooping, but my ego ain't that big

[mdhay]

Interesting ISP name there.

I know, last time I checked it, it was AOL that provided it. :S

[Medusa]

I live in the middle of (very nearly the middle, yes) a huge country. Ping to Ontario, just a province away, goes up to 90ms. To the UK, it's 457ms. To Spain, 173 ms. To Australia, 521ms. Interestingly the UK is almost as bad...blackwiggle's suggestion seems to make sense to my internet connection.

[Dark_Phantom_89]

I know, last time I checked it, it was AOL that provided it. :S

AOL merged with Carphone Warehouse so that's the reason that the ISP name is different. The worst thing they ever did if you ask me - I had numerous problems with my net straight after the merge and had no Internet for a week. And I wasn't the only one.

[TarquinFarqhuar]

here's mine, no idea what the fuk it means but here it is,

[mdhay]

Upload and the ISP could be better, but it's okay otherwise.

[TarquinFarqhuar]

Cool, yeah, i'm just waiting for my contract to end, then i'll be switching..

[yeldar2097]

Epic ping

[Dark_Phantom_89]

Yeldar, how come your ISP has a rating of 4.2/5.0?

[yeldar2097]

Because technically we're on a 24Mb connection -_-

[mic-dk]

Heh, Yeldar, that is epic! Not in the way the ISP would like, I'm sure, but still epic.

I think it's time for facepalm...