Upload Speed Limited to 2 MB/s

[nick_g]

Hi, 

I noticed that upload speeds are slow/being limited on my NOW TV broadband connection. SFTP currently maxes out at  2 MB/s, despite speedtest.net reporting a connection upload speed of 7 MB/s? 

To test if it was my computer I tried the same upload connected to an alternative network (Eduroam) and speed hit a consistent 24 MB/s. 

Any help in increasing the speed / removing the limit would be greatly appreciated!  

Plan: Super Fibre 

NOW TV network upload speed: 2 MB/s 

Speedtest result: ~7 MB/s (average of 3) 

Alternative network upload speed: 24 MB/s 

[redchiz1]

Can you just confirm that you are using the correct terminology? Speed is measured in megabits per second (Mbps), rather than megabytes (MB/s), which is the volume transfer rate. There are 8 bits to the byte. 

[nick_g]

Apologies, Mbps for the speed tests and MB/s for the SFTP transfer. 

The speed test result is here: https://ibb.co/SxDYYLZ

And here is the terminal output from the SFTP command (usernames and host replaced): 'sftp user@host:upload <<< $'put /Users/XXX/Desktop/cluster.zip': https://ibb.co/9WbFKZH

Connection was via Wifi both on the NowTV network and also on Eduroam, close to AP's in both instances with no physical barriers between computer and AP.

The transfer maxes out at 2MB/s on NOW TV network, on Eduroam 24MB/s. 

Apologies for the image upload links, I don't have permission to upload images directly to posts! 

[gavs82008]

@nick_g 

When you said you did it on your computer was this a Ethernet connection?

Is your speed poor on Wi-Fi?

[nick_g]

WiFi in both instances yes - I actually don't own an ethernet adapter for the computer in question! 

However, I still don't understand why I would observe a 2MB/s on the NOW TV network and 24MB/s on Eduroam - unless its router hardware related? 

[redchiz1]

What are the the speedtest results on the Eduroam connection you are using? 2MB/s on NOW equates to 16Mbps, so pretty much near the top level available.

[Anonymous User · Accepted solution]

I was about to say the same as @redchiz1 , if you are getting 24 MB/s on Eduroam (whatever that is) it equates to nearly 200 Mbs, you can't get that on VDSL. You would need FTTP, which Now doesn't offer.

Edit: Your Speedtest result https://ibb.co/SxDYYLZ matches exactly what you are getting using SFTP.

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User @nick_g 

I found out what e-duro-am (how I read the name at first, but now I know it’s edu-roam 😛) is by the obscure method of looking it up on Google:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduroam
which half-explains it, but what I am not clear about, @nick_g , is exactly how you go about accessing it?

Not through the Now router, surely; but if you are using some enormous university computer with a fat pipe to high-speed internet the thickness of a tree-trunk, that’s not exactly a fair comparison with the piece of wet string leading from the Now router…..

[redchiz1]

Read the first post again @RoyB when the OP explained that this was a different speed connected to another network, rather than NOW. 

[RoyB]

@redchiz1 

For my job, WFH, I have to connect to several networks, albeit one at a time, over VPN connections, but they are all going out from my work laptop, and going out over my BT router, and via BT as my ISP.

So @nick_g could have meant the same thing - but as my posting made clear, I hope, I rather expected that he didn’t.

[nick_g]

So for both networks, I only connected via WiFi from a macbook. 

So last week at work (Edu-roam) I ran speedtest.net and got an average of 22Mbps upload from three runs, however I have re-run the test at work today and had an average of 438Mbps!! Maybe I ran the tests during some maintenance, or maybe connected to a further away AP (there has been some limited cabling work done in the building).

I will also be more careful reading units in future as the Mbps vs. MB/s  certainly caused me some confusion. 

Thanks for your help guys!

[Anonymous User]

@RoyB 

For some reason. I never looked at wiki, I just went to their website and was none the wiser. When you realise it's edu-roam it makes sense.

[Anonymous User]

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@nick_g wrote:

WiFi in both instances yes - I actually don't own an ethernet adapter for the computer in question! 

However, I still don't understand why I would observe a 2MB/s on the NOW TV network and 24MB/s on Eduroam - unless its router hardware related? 

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Yes it's hardware related, the hardware in question being the long bit of cable between the Now router and the Openreach cabinet.