Questions for the network geeks (CM, HH, TC, NF, etc)

I am considering adding a second P2P wireless provider, as the current provider seems to be having issues. The new provider I am looking at offers 2 packages:

1) "Up to 3 Mbps", $39.95
2) "Up to 5 Mbps", $49.95
3) "Static IP, 2.5 Mbps Dedicated with QoS", $59.95

Usage- Currently I am using the connection for basic web surfing and heavy usage of a VPN connection for work. No gaming at this time, although we do have a Wii that can connect to the internet. It the future, I may be moving to an "EasyLink Teleworker" system with always on connection to work and a VoiP work phone.

Would I be better off with option 2, or option 3, and why?

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Originally Posted by Titus

I am considering adding a second P2P wireless provider, as the current provider seems to be having issues. The new provider I am looking at offers 2 packages:

1) "Up to 3 Mbps", $39.95
2) "Up to 5 Mbps", $49.95
3) "Static IP, 2.5 Mbps Dedicated with QoS", $59.95

Usage- Currently I am using the connection for basic web surfing and heavy usage of a VPN connection for work. No gaming at this time, although we do have a Wii that can connect to the internet. It the future, I may be moving to an "EasyLink Teleworker" system with always on connection to work and a VoiP work phone.

Would I be better off with option 2, or option 3, and why?

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Option 3 if you can swing it. They are guaranteeing you 2.5MBps (Million bits per second) with QOS (quality of Service). Where the others are "Up to" speeds. This means you should see a reliable connection and won't suffer from the delays that may happen durign high usage times.

QOS allows them to do traffic shaping and give priority to certain types of traffic or even whole IP ranges. This is how they are guaranteeing the 2.5Mbps.

+1 for QoS.

You can have them prioritize your voice traffic and VPN traffic to allow for reliable work communications.

The biggest things to look at are QoS AND the ability to do decent upload speeds. You don't want unbalanced upload/download speeds if you can help it. Your voice quality will suffer from that.

Ya these are download speeds. For good VPN, the upload is just as important. I bet you're stuck with a 256 or 512k upload.

It looks like the 2.5 Mbps QoS is symmetrical, while the 5 Mbps is only 1 Mbps up.

Option 3 is your best bet for work. Probably also the best bet for eventual gaming.

If it's wireless, it's going to suck for gaming and VOIP honestly... even if you get the 2.5 symetrical with QoS. Most "prosumer" (meaning not large wireless carrier) wireless gear is pretty craptastic and latency will be a huge deal.

Unfortunately its all he has available at his house. No cable/fiber or other providers out there.

Yep... the cable companies don't come out here and the phone company uses hand-me-down hardware out here (they don't even offer voicemail). I don't care about gaming. I am hoping the VOIP will be OK. My current provider and the one I am looking at offer it as a stand alone product, but I would be getting it through my connection to my work's network.

The current provider has been having major problems lately. They fired the whole IT staff a month ago and started over to try to improve things, but there has still been 3 outages (a 4 day outage, a 5 hour outage, and a 1 hour outage) in the last 45 days. The last time I was able to get them on the phone, they said something about the tower being vandalized (with a vague implication that the former IT staff may have messed with it). The other provider just sent me an offer of free installation, so that is why I am considering the switch.

So I have the Qos 2.5mb symmetrical package up and running, but tests seem to be showing something different than advertised. I expected consistency between tests, and between upload vs download, but that isn't what I am getting. A few sample tests are below. Does it look like I got a different package than I paid for? Is there any way to actually test for QoS?

http://www.speedtest.net/result/446047148.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/446051114.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/446051475.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/446051884.png

What is defined as "QoS"? Meaning what traffic has priority? If you are running VoIP priority should be given to voice packets.

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Originally Posted by ken o

What is defined as "QoS"? Meaning what traffic has priority? If you are running VoIP priority should be given to voice packets.

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No VoIP. Package is called "Gamer Edition", and is described as "Symmetrical 2.5 Mbps + Static, Public IP Address, Tuned QoS".

From a network standpoint that is fairly consistant. Interesting about the upload vs. download speed on the symetrical link. Although based on a test I just ran from my office it may be normal.

We have a 20MB fiber link (in and out). Here are the test results I just had.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/446107253.png

As you can see it shows our outbound speed to be slower then our inbound which I know is not true. Even taking the normal traffic into account on that link it should not be that much of a discrepancy. So I am willing to bet the difference is on the speedtest.net end and not on your actual link speed.

Ran a couple of more tests and the upload speeds are consistantly lower then the download speeds.

Based on your ping response times it looks like a decent link.

Cool... thanks!

I would say there's something strange. QoS only kicks in when congestion starts. If there isn't any congestion then the traffic simply flows.

It also depends on what they are trying to prioritize and the types of queueing set up. You might have strict queues and limited rates on certain traffic types.

If they went with LLQ/CBWFQ (Low Latency Queueing/Class Based Weighted Fair Queueing) for the queueing algorithm then it would be dynamic and non prioritized traffic could use up the whole pipe if there wasn't any prioritized traffic needing to go through.

I doubt you'd be able to find a tech on the phone that could tell you any of that though. ;)

RJ

I agree with CM and HH. It is pretty rare that you will see the exact advertised numbers by running one of the speedtests. But looking at your results, I would say they are pretty typical and in the range that I would consider normal.

As far as QoS queing is concerned, it depends on how it's implemented. If, for exapmple, you have the "gamer package", maybe they are prioritizing popular game packets after scanning packets for content. Also, it depends if your NIC has QoS prioritizing turned on.

And another thing that could impact your percieved network speed is weather or not your AV/Firewall software has an impact on network traffic.