Fibre Optic Connection - disappointed

Ross Balfour · Apr 24, 2011

A lot of hype was about about fibre optic connection that was being installed by BT in Northern Ireland last Friday, so as our old connection was pretty poor we decided to get it.

When I ran the first speedtest it came up 30mb download and 6mb upload speed - which is nearly 10 times quicker then our older connection. Now surely the expectation would be that when I go to download something, it will be insanely quick - it sure as hell wasn't. I tried 3 or 4 different downloads from different websites and all were the same - nothing over 200kb/s - which is exactly what my old crappy connection gave me.

Now I'm not sure whether they're are settings to change, or else fibre optic connection is no different to usual wireless connection.

Am I missing something?

Eric Estes · Apr 24, 2011

For some reason, around 200 kbs seems to be a common throttle on downloads, or at least where they commonly end up. Have you tried multiple simultaneous downloads or usenet?
Of course, now you can play online without trouble while 2 other people watch streaming movies and another downloads the latest Windoze service pack (theoretically, of course).
Serious envy for that connection.

Craig Stevenson · Apr 24, 2011

BT claim a lot for their new optical fibre network but when compared to VM's network it is still waaaay behind IMO, I'm on 100Mbps with VM and it rocks as did all the other top tariffs when they were rolled out.

Generally though you have to max out your connection to get full speed, set 4+ downloads going and look at the overall download speed, you will probably find you are approaching the max speed of your connection. I use Newsbin a lot for downloading from Usenet and I have 36 connections running, 12 to VM server and 24 to Easynews server, always maxes out the connection at about 98Mbps.

I think you have to take into account the speeds at which the files are being served, upload bandwidth is apparently very expensive to provide hence why even on my 100Mbps connection the upload speed is still only 10Mbps.

Jim Cole · Apr 24, 2011

Speed is relative. Any download initiated from an internet server is going to be just as fast as the slowest link in the chain you have to go through. This being said, I would pay more attention to pings rather than dl speeds as with the fiber optics, your ping should be seriously low now.

As others have said, how much you can download at any given time is going to require that you start multiple downloads, possibly from different sources at the same time to see how much you are getting per second. Also, if your ISP has a throttle on bandwidth it won't make any difference what type of line you are transmitting through, it will still not exceed the max bandwidth that your ISP will allow.

Adam Vaughan · Apr 25, 2011

Sounds like to me the download source is capping you, most file sharing websites do this and also as downloads are more popular from these websites for pirated material ISP's cap these websites.

Remember this is only fiber to the cabinet so yes its behind Virgins cable service so its still copper wire to that little green box outside your street (from your house).

Youd need a super quick download source that is not being capped or restricted by the source and BT to see how quick your getting. But a speed test is relatively accurate to what is available to you

.

Chris Butcher · Apr 25, 2011

Copper wire in theory is still capable of gigabit speeds, so you don't really need to worry about that.

The most likely explanation is that the download source is capped, 200KB/s is the quickest I normally get from "public" file hosting sites.

I get 1MB/S from RD downloads, which almost covers my 10Mb speed. 1MB = 8Mb

As has previously been said, it will only be as fast as the weakest link, so it is highly likely it is nothing to do with your connection. You'll find now though that you can have a high number of simultaneous downloads, stream video, and play online games all at the same time. Don't be disappointed

Lee Palmer · Apr 25, 2011

I got Fibre couple weeks ago now. Really does depend on the file hoster for example downloading Portal 2 on steam I hit 4MB at one point. But then sites such as MediaFire I'm not getting much past 800KB's.

F12010.co.uk · Apr 25, 2011

I have 40mb fibre optic BT broadband, Most website's dont support super fast speeds yet though

Omer Said · Apr 26, 2011

Still no fiber here, but my mother's cousin has it and he is flying. It seems it's about what Lee said.

Scott Webber · Apr 27, 2011

Sounds like BT have not yet sorted it out at their end, it still be be capped at there end.... im on 50MB Fibre Optic..... some sites i get 4-8MB download Speed and then on other's i can get a poxy 400kb to 100kb, it all depends on where you download your files from too, remember not all sites support fast connections yet (as some1 pointed out above me)