Internet upload speed

[pantscat]

That's really interesting - thanks, @exa_mark. Edited July 21, 2016 by elsiegee40

[e4e]

EoFTTC is not uncontended (like for instance a leased line would be) no matter what your supplying ISP may state. It is only proportionately guaranteed. There is a guaranteed symmetrical throughput (subject to certain small print) of 75% of the maximum upload rate.

 

So for instance if you are told you are expected to get 10Mbps (upload) and your router has a synced upload speed of 10Mbps Up and 50Mbps Down then your guaranteed speed would only be 7.5Mbps Up AND Down. Everything above the guaranteed part is on best efforts, and the main provider of EoFTTC services (from a Telco perspective) is running this on the same infrastructure (at cabinet and exchange) as their residential service so don't expect all the bandwidth to be always available, it simply won't be.

 

If you are then maxing out your upload connectivity, and schools are using more upload that ever with various cloud based services (email, VoIP/Hosted PBX, learning platforms) and with virtual firewalls/routers these all add up and 7.5Mbps is not a lot. Once that caps out then you will see significant perceived slow down in your download speed (even if it is not maxing out the throughput) as the upstream is saturated.

 

Of course it could be hardware related but most routers (home user cheap model or not) should be able to handle your type of speeds without any issue. You could also be seeing an issue with maxing out SSL connectivity on your firewall too (this would show similar symptoms), and with the massive amount of SSL content this is worth investigating too. A single iPad or Chrome tablet can easily generate dozens of simultaneous SSL connections.

 

Using sites such as speedtest.net is okay but these often have bandwidth limitations themselves and don't give accurate representation of your ISP. You would be as well to run a speed test within your ISP's network first to ascertain whether the speed issue lies between you and them or beyond their network. If you are still seeing really slow speeds from your ISP on speed checker that will help them and you narrow down where problems exist. This is a more general comment too, as opposed to this specific problem.

 

Finally and I am assuming you have checked this already, and this is an issue that we find this more often that you'd think, have you checked your offsite backup schedule? Assuming you have one of course. If you have limited upsteam bandwidth (which you appear to have) then make sure you are not running the backup throughout the day (on constant incremental changes) and that you have it set for your quieter hours (lunchtime or after school hours).

 

Hope some of this helps at least a little bit.

 

Thank you there is several points to look at here. I am putting a box on the internet connection to give me more information of what internal IP's are sending out traffic which in turn may be able to point me into a direction where I could find a solution.

[e4e]

Managed to get to the bottom of this! But waiting on a solution. For some reason the CCTV is taking up the full bandwidth of the upload. As soon as this was disconnected the speed immediately came back. We have a maintenance contract with this so it has been passed to them to resolve.

 

Thank you for suggestions, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack

[EXA_Mark]

Managed to get to the bottom of this! But waiting on a solution. For some reason the CCTV is taking up the full bandwidth of the upload. As soon as this was disconnected the speed immediately came back. We have a maintenance contract with this so it has been passed to them to resolve.

 

Thank you for suggestions, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack

 

Well done on tracking it down, as you say things like this can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. You might well find if you really are limited to how much upload you can get at your school that the easiest path is to simply get them to install a dedicated internet connection for it. Doesn't have to be an expensive one, just one that works!