Samknows Performance Managment Results Thread.

[Ben Atkinson]

Just created this thread for the results of the samknows performance monitoring so far, Iv confirmed we are allowed to share these results so find below my personal stats  , Im sure others on the KC network might want to share theirs?

[Ben Atkinson]

Latency - ICMP ping round trip times
Latency can effectively be thought of as the responsiveness of your internet connection. This is especially important in time sensitive applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and online gaming.

Time in milliseconds. Lower is better.
Historical latency results (ICMP round trip times)
   Minimum    Maximum    Average
2008-06-01   14.4ms    55.7ms    20.0ms
2008-05-31   14.5ms    39.1ms    20.3ms


DNS query times
The importance of an ISP's DNS (domain name service) servers are often overlooked. It is these machines that turn "www.google.com" into an IP address - 66.249.91.103 for example. If these servers are running very slowly, then you'll see frequent delays when browsing websites. As a broad guide, anything above 100ms is pretty poor.

Time in milliseconds. Lower is better.
Historical DNS query times
   Minimum    Maximum    Average
2008-06-01   16.2ms    52.0ms    21.6ms
2008-05-31   16.3ms    46.9ms    22.0ms


DNS query failures
The importance of an ISP's DNS (domain name service) servers are often overlooked. It is these machines that turn "www.google.com" into an IP address - 66.249.91.103 for example. If these servers are failing in their duty then you're likely to see delays or even the familar "Could not find server" error. As a broad guide, if more than 2% of queries are failing then something is amiss.
Show:
Perecentage of DNS queries failed. Lower is better.
Historical DNS query failure rate
   Failed queries
2008-06-01   0.3%
2008-05-31   0.2%

Web page loading times
Visiting a web page is probably the most common task people do whilst on the internet. This test emulates that process and shows the average of how long a selection of pages took to load on each ISP. Given that all of the websites we're checking are based in the UK (and are therefore physically close to your ISP's network) then we'd say any result over a couple of seconds is pretty poor.

Time in seconds. Lower is better.
Historical web page loading times
   Minimum    Maximum    Average
2008-06-01   107.0ms    10,195.0ms    377.1ms
2008-05-31   108.0ms    10,247.0ms    289.2ms


VoIP Mean Opinion Score
The Mean Opinion Score (MOS) is a standard metric defined by the ITU that is used to measure perceived call quality in VoIP phone calls. We are using the E-Model here to find the R-value, and then derive the MOS from R. Our calculation accounts for delay, packet loss, out of order packets and jitter. We simulate a G.711 (64kbps) VoIP call for the purposes of this test.

The Mean Opinion Score runs between a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being "perfect"). The use of the G.711 codec here means that we can never score above ~4.4. Anything above 4.0 can be considered a good quality call though. You can read more about the MOS here.

Mean Opinion Score (1-5). Higher is better.
Historical Mean Opnion Scores
   Minimum    Maximum    Average
2008-06-01   4.0918    4.3866    4.3398
2008-05-31   4.3722    4.3844    4.3793

NOW THE DOWNLOADS.

Web download speed test
This page shows the raw Mbps (Megabits per second) average speed of your connection when performing an HTTP download. Note that this does not factor in your line length, the product you are using, or the speed your connection has synchronised at.
Show:
Speed expressed in raw megabits per second (Mbps). Higher is better.
Historical web based download speed test results (in Mbps)
   Minimum    Maximum    Average
2008-06-01   1.38    5.10    3.26
2008-05-31   2.54    3.02    2.78

UPLOADS ALL SAME SPEED.

Non-web download speed test
This page shows the raw Mbps (Megabits per second) average speed of your connection when downloading a file from something other than a web server. Note that this does not factor in your line length, the product you are using, or the speed your connection has synchronised at.
Show:
Speed expressed in raw megabits per second (Mbps). Higher is better.
Historical non-web based download speed test results (in Mbps)
   Minimum    Maximum    Average
2008-06-01   1.39    5.03    3.24
2008-05-31   2.52    3.30    2.91

There is more but might be boring you...

[psxsid]

Had it running for two days
My results


Historical latency results (ICMP round trip times)
              Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 18.4ms 163.4ms 26.9ms
2008-05-31 18.5ms 35.9ms 22.5ms

Historical DNS query times
                Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 20.2ms 174.3ms 32.0ms
2008-05-31 20.5ms 55.8ms 27.9ms

Historical DNS query failure rate
 Failed queries
2008-06-01 0.2%
2008-05-31 0.9%

VOIP Historical Mean Opnion Scores
              Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 2.9345 4.3858 4.2718
2008-05-31 4.3645 4.3851 4.3775



Historical web page loading times
                    Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 139.0ms 10,420.0ms 434.1ms
2008-05-31 140.0ms 10,149.0ms 408.0ms


Speed tests
Single stream

Historical web based download speed test results (in Mbps)
            Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.68 1.87 1.46
2008-05-31 1.87 1.87 1.87

Historical web based upload speed test results (in Mbps)
           Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.35 0.37 0.36
2008-05-31 0.37 0.37 0.37

Historical non-web based download speed test results (in Mbps)
           Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.73 1.87 1.53
2008-05-31 1.87 1.87 1.87

Historical non-web based upload speed test results (in Mbps)
          Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.37 0.37 0.37
2008-05-31 0.37 0.37 0.37


Speed tests
Multiple  stream

Historical web based download speed test results (in Mbps)
          Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.74 2.42 1.70
2008-05-31 1.93 1.93 1.93

Historical web based upload speed test results (in Mbps)
        Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.37 0.37 0.37
2008-05-31 0.37 0.37 0.37

Historical non-web based download speed test results (in Mbps)
         Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.76 1.91 1.54
2008-05-31 1.89 1.89 1.89

Historical non-web based upload speed test results (in Mbps)
        Minimum Maximum Average
2008-06-01 0.37 0.37 0.37
2008-05-31 0.37 0.37 0.37


Sid

[Ben Atkinson]

Loading times not looking to good...

[miken]

Why is non http based traffic getting the same speed as http? Wonder what protocol it actually is, ftp or something?

[Nosivad]

 Now available: first Performance Monitoring report

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/news/now-available-our-first-performance-monitoring-report-417.html

[miken]

Thanks,

This may surprise some - particularly if you are a frequent reader of the various
broadband related forums online. Users in Hull, where there is no choice for fixedline
broadband (with Karoo being the only option), were particularly keen to have
their provider represented here. Many of these users were convinced their provider
would stack up poorly against the competition, so the fact they are on-par should be
the source of some comfort that they are no worse off than users in other areas.

Oh no.

I still want to live somewhere where I could get o2 20Mb for £15 though (o2 customer) or Be for £18/£22

[dylan]

This is true, I suppose one observation missed out is that of price!

Dyls

[stormy]

Thanks for posting, all interesting and proves that the bull that broadbandchoices print is just not true. 

[SamC]

This is true, I suppose one observation missed out is that of price!

Very true, price and customer satisfaction is not something I took into account. Perhaps in the future...

[dylan]

This is true, I suppose one observation missed out is that of price!

Very true, price and customer satisfaction is not something I took into account. Perhaps in the future...

It'd definitely be interesting if you could Sam. But thanks for taking the time to include Karoo in your survey, I know that we're a small part of the market but it's nice to be included :-)

Also Stormy, it does kinda look like the broadbandchoices results are just top ten table places for the highest bidder.

[stormy]

I noticed they are running a new campaign to sign more people up to this and I am going to give it a shot.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/pm/signup.html

One thing it doesnt seem to mention in the FAQs is I know for a fact my connection during the day is fine, its in an evening when its garbage. Does this thing do testing always at set times during the day or will it highlight the fact evening performance is a joke? Does it do tests during different times of the days? ie some during the day and some in the evening?

Cheers,

[stormy]

Been sent an email for this to check some speeds on my line before they decide if they want to select me to take part in the testing. I guess I should do the speed tests before 6pm so my line doesn't look like a total waste of space.

Anyone who has been on this test before, do they do tests at all times during the day, I could not see from the reports produced any distinction between peak and off-peak testing.

My speeds will drag Karoo WELL down the league table when the next report comes along if nothing changes with Karoo Max crippled in an evening.

[biggms]

I used to do this testing, until lightning blew up the test kit

They test at various times of the day, normally at regular intervals but it wont test if it detects that a lot of traffic is passing through the network.  So basically if you aren't D/Ling during offpeak ( which is nigh on impossible ) it should do some testing.

Good information is given on their webpage, I used to see a huge dip in performance at 4pm, but not on all ports

[Adrian]

I also received the email earlier asking to do the speedtest and complete address details. I was on the earlier Samknows trial with the Linksys WRT54GL but it lost its firmware and they wouldn't send me the firmware to put back on