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After connecting to the National Broadband Network on 12 December 2013, I was somewhat disappointed by the actual transfer speeds. I have a 25/5 link (25 Mb/s down, 5 Mb/s up), but the speeds I got with Exetel are closer to 10/4. On 21 December I finally connected to a second service with SkyMesh, which shows considerably better performance, but which also usually falls short of what I would expect.

The information in the table below is the information returned by http://www.speedtest.net/, which in some cases is dubious. In particular, I've measured up to 33.62 Mb/s downlink speed. It's not clear whether this is an issue with the NBN rate limiting, or just inaccurate reporting. One thing that's clear is that the speed test gets confused by the fact that I use two different routes to get to the servers. It reports the ISP by which I'm connected to the speedtest web site, not the test server.

Date       Time       RSP       Server       Ping       Downlink       Uplink       Comments
17 December 2103       9:34       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       31       14.73       4.24
17 December 2103       9:36       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       37       11.95       3.97
17 December 2103       9:38       Exetel       Optus Melbourne       45       7.60       3.73
17 December 2103       9:39       Exetel       Telstra Melbourne       30       9.70       4.45
18 December 2013       11:00       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       33       10.60       4.00
18 December 2013       11:03       Exetel       Internode Sydney       68       11.16       3.94
18 December 2013       12:06       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       46       12.52       4.22
19 December 2013       11:26       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       14.09       4.09
21 December 2013       12:50       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       38       12.65       4.33
21 December 2013       12:52       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       61       18.59       3.32
21 December 2013       12:54       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       60       20.97       3.75
21 December 2013       12:56       SkyMesh       Telstra Brisbane       50       8.49       3.95       Recommended server, clearly wrong
21 December 2013       12:57       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       59       22.16       3.91
21 December 2013       13:00       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       34       12.82       4.16
22 December 2013       9:06       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       44       13.88       4.18
22 December 2013       9:26       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       60       19.14       3.97
22 December 2013       9:28       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       60       19.41       3.86
23 December 2013       17:27       Internode       Internode Melbourne       46       11.31       0.94       12/1
23 December 2013       17:29       Internode       Internode Melbourne       30       11.40       0.89       12/1
1 January 2014       15:49       SkyMesh       SkyMesh's favourite       36       9.40       4.70       Clearly not a good choice
2 January 2014       16:14       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       62       17.51       3.74
2 January 2014       17:37       SkyMesh       Telstra Melbourne       29       17.15       4.71
2 January 2014       17:39       SkyMesh       Telstra Melbourne       29       14.50       4.75
2 January 2014       17:40       SkyMesh       Telstra Melbourne       26       10.99       4.67
2 January 2014       17:42       Exetel       Telstra Melbourne       40       8.86       4.39
4 January 2014       9:22       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       58       22.55       4.02
4 January 2014       9:25       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       41       14.42       4.18
7 January 2014       8:56       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       35       12.78       4.29
7 January 2014       9:00       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       60       19.43       3.87
8 January 2014       8:27       Exetel       Telstra Melbourne       30       8.28       4.14
8 January 2014       8:34       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       57       23.13       3.59
8 January 2014       8:48       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       62       32.22       3.88       nonsense result?
8 January 2014       9:02       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       57       26.25       3.63       nonsense result?
8 January 2014       9:22       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       58       33.62       3.83       nonsense result?
8 January 2014       12:26       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       16.99       4.02       Link
9 January 2014       8:43       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       38       13.79       4.37       Link
9 January 2014       8:49       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       55       20.59       3.95       Transiently to 55 Mb/s
9 January 2014       8:53       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       62       23.14       3.79       Link
9 January 2014       8:55       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       61       23.61       3.86       Link
11 January 2014       17:57       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       61       23.61       3.86       Link
11 January 2014       18:00       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       61       23.61       3.86       Link
12 January 2014       13:16       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       62       13.11       3.51       Link
12 January 2014       13:20       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       12.25       4.16       Link
14 January 2014       18:27       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       32       14.39       4.28       Link
14 January 2014       18:30       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       57       20.52       3.66       Link
15 January 2014       9:40       SkyMesh       Vodafone Frankfurt       349       2.49       0.64       Link       Speedtest's choice of server
15 January 2014       9:52       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       52       10.06       3.42       Link       Hung during test
15 January 2014       9:55       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       57       23.17       3.55       Link
15 January 2014       9:57       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       31       11.90       3.96       Link
16 January 2014       9:29       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       29       10.89       4.41       Link
16 January 2014       9:31       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       51       24.02       3.94       Link
17 January 2014       11:42       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       11.39       4.13       Link
17 January 2014       11:44       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       53       20.02       3.67       Link
17 January 2014       12:18       Exetel       Optus Melbourne       54       7.92       3.86       Link       Directly connected to pain.lemis.com
17 January 2014       12:19       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       31       12.82       4.03       Link       Directly connected to pain.lemis.com
17 January 2014       12:20       Exetel       Optus Sydney       52       7.63       3.71       Link       Directly connected to pain.lemis.com
17 January 2014       12:22       Exetel       Internode Sydney       47       9.83       3.52       Link       Directly connected to pain.lemis.com
17 January 2014       12:42       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       40       6.49       3.51       Link       Changed routing
17 January 2014       12:45       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       35       11.15       4.14       Link       Changed routing
17 January 2014       12:46       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       45       2.59       3.47       Link       Changed routing
23 January 2014       13:32       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       31       13.50       3.65       Link       pain.lemis.com
23 January 2014       13:40       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       33       12.56       4.15       Link       pain.lemis.com
29 January 2014       14:30       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       40       11.71       4.30       Link
29 January 2014       14:34       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       59       16.02       4.05       Link
29 January 2014       16:30       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       11.74       4.40       Link       New routing
29 January 2014       16:32       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       59       16.02       4.05       Link       New routing
29 January 2014       17:06       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       22.87       4.32       Link       Shaping 23 Mb/s
29 January 2014       17:07       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       36       27.74       4.42       Link       Shaping 24 Mb/s
29 January 2014       17:11       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       36       33.59       4.33       Link       Another try
29 January 2014       17:12       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       40       13.16       4.34       Link       Shaping disabled
29 January 2014       16:30       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       38       23.37       4.42       Link       Shaping 24 Mb/s
30 January 2014       17:11       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       29       13.21       4.25       Link       Exetel “policer”
30 January 2014       17:12       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       38       10.27       4.24       Link
30 January 2014       17:22       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       44       13.14       4.18       Link
30 January 2014       17:22       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       43       13.32       4.23       Link
31 January 2014       16:31       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       49       12.01       4.14       Link       Policing frobs
31 January 2014       16:34       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       33       12.14       4.30       Link
31 January 2014       16:34       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       29       12.11       4.23       Link
31 January 2014       16:41       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       39       24.14       4.23       Link       Shaping again 24 Mb/s
31 January 2014       16:45       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       41       24.61       4.27       Link       Shaping again 25 Mb/s
31 January 2014       16:55       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       63       25.19       4.00       Link
1 February 2014       8:23       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       45       25.74       4.19       Link
1 February 2014       8:25       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       59       35.20       4.16       Link
6 February 2014       11:54       Exetel       Telstra Melbourne       29       23.63       4.71       Link
6 February 2014       11:55       Exetel       Internode Melbourne       27       23.32       4.30       Link
6 February 2014       12:04       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       51       23.08       3.73       Link
14 February 2014       10:03       SkyMesh       Internode Melbourne       55       22.69       4.12       Link
14 February 2014       10:08       AussieBB       Internode Melbourne       36       26.20       4.20       Link
17 February 2014       10:03       AussieBB       AussieBB       25       23.22       4.56       No link available

Sine 6 January 2014, Exetel has been looking in to the problem (ticket number 7460458). I'm currently thinking that it's a matter of rate limiting, as the results for 29 January suggest, and that the problem might lie at least partially with the NBN.

Tests with ftp and axel

These tests show the aggregate transfer speed of an approximately 100 MB file across the network using various clients. axel uses multiple TCP streams to work around window size restrictions, so it should be much faster. It isn't always, so some other issue must be causing it.

I originally tested two sites: ozlabs.org and octopus.com.au. It took me a while to realize that ozlabs.org's uplink was slower than my downlink, so I'm no longer keeping those results. The ones I made are here.

Date       time       RSP       program       concurrency       server       speed (kB/s)       Comments
21 December 2013       13:00       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com       886
21 December 2013       13:02       SkyMesh       axel       10       octopus.com       879
2 January 2014       16:04       SkyMesh       axel       10       octopus.com       2250
2 January 2014       16:17       SkyMesh       axel       10       octopus.com       2199
2 January 2014       16:20       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com       1135
2 January 2014       16:21       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com       1156
2 January 2014       16:23       SkyMesh       axel       10       octopus.com       1764
8 January 2014       9:25       SkyMesh       axel       10       octopus.com.au       2294
8 January 2014       9:26       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com.au       2393
8 January 2014       9:26       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com.au       2393
8 January 2014       9:30       Exetel       axel       10       w3.lemis.com       702
8 January 2014       17:50       Exetel       axel       10       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       1185
8 January 2014       17:56       SkyMesh       axel       10       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       2718
9 January 2014       8:59       SkyMesh       axel       10       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       2769
9 January 2014       9:05       Exetel       axel       10       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       2753
21 January 2014       9:14       SkyMesh       axel       10       octopus.com.au       2036
21 January 2014       9:16       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com.au       2134
24 January 2014       9:10       Exetel       axel       10       octopus.com.au       1077       Window size 64 kB
24 January 2014       9:10       Skymesh       axel       10       octopus.com.au       2122       Window size 64 kB
24 January 2014       9:13       Skymesh       axel       30       octopus.com.au       2476       Window size 64 kB
24 January 2014       9:14       Exetel       axel       30       octopus.com.au       1427       Window size 64 kB
24 January 2014       13:31       Exetel       axel       10       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       1018
24 January 2014       13:33       Exetel       axel       30       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       1328
24 January 2014       13:36       SkyMesh       axel       10       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       2214
1 February 2014       8:26       SkyMesh       ftp       1       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       941
1 February 2014       8:29       Exetel       ftp       1       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       768
1 February 2014       8:29       Exetel       ftp       1       debian.mirror.exetel.com.au       760
6 February 2014       11:59       Exetel       ftp       1       http://octopus.com.au/speedtest100mb.bin       766
6 February 2014       12:06       SkyMesh       ftp       1       http://octopus.com.au/speedtest100mb.bin       766

Original output from axel

Exetel has asked me to give the original screen output of the axel runs on 24 January 2014 shortly after 9:00. I don't understand why, but here are the results.

Speed test servers

To select a route for the speed test servers, you need to know its IP address block. Internode's speed test server in Melbourne is cdn-edge1.mel4.internode.on.net (IP 150.101.208.62), and Telstra's is vic.speedtest.telstra.net (IP 203.39.77.13). In my case I switch between the routes with the route command:

=== root@eureka (/dev/pts/24) ~ 67 -> route delete 150.101.208.0/24
delete net 150.101.208.0
=== root@eureka (/dev/pts/24) ~ 68 -> traceroute cdn-edge1.mel4.internode.on.net
traceroute to cdn-edge1.mel4.internode.on.net (150.101.208.62), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  sky-gw (192.109.197.174)  10.586 ms  9.450 ms  5.378 ms
 2  1-208-181-180.cpe.skymesh.net.au (180.181.208.1)  66.714 ms  47.260 ms  47.395 ms
 3  180.181.129.235 (180.181.129.235)  42.690 ms  59.327 ms  60.111 ms
...
=== root@eureka (/dev/pts/24) ~ 70 -> route add 150.101.208.0/24 air-gw-2
add net 150.101.208.0: gateway air-gw-2
=== root@eureka (/dev/pts/24) ~ 71 -> traceroute cdn-edge1.mel4.internode.on.net
traceroute to cdn-edge1.mel4.internode.on.net (150.101.208.62), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  air-gw-2 (192.109.197.153)  0.597 ms  0.405 ms  0.380 ms
 2  226.2.96.58.static.exetel.com.au (58.96.2.226)  90.372 ms  31.297 ms  29.889 ms
 3  97.2.96.58.static.exetel.com.au (58.96.2.97)  29.987 ms  31.378 ms  30.012 ms
...
=== root@eureka (/dev/pts/24) ~ 72 ->

air-gw-2 is the router connected to Exetel's port on the NTD, and sky-gw is SkyMesh's router, connected to their port.

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