FORUM

We are with Free.fr

Our Internet speed has need about 5 mbps for about 6-7 years.

However about 3 weeks ago it seems to dropped to about 2mbps...sometimes even less.

Went to Free shop in Perps who say there is nothing to be done...perhaps more people are using the service is the reply.....

I use from time to time a VPN....and sometimes when using tihs service the speed goes upto 5 mbps...if I then disconnect from VPN and check speed without VPN service speed back to about 2 mbps.

Does anyone have any thoughts what is going on and if there is anything I can do

Nigel wrote:We are with Free.fr

Our Internet speed has need about 5 mbps for about 6-7 years.

However about 3 weeks ago it seems to dropped to about 2mbps...sometimes even less.

Went to Free shop in Perps who say there is nothing to be done...perhaps more people are using the service is the reply.....

I use from time to time a VPN....and sometimes when using tihs service the speed goes upto 5 mbps...if I then disconnect from VPN and check speed without VPN service speed back to about 2 mbps.

Does anyone have any thoughts what is going on and if there is anything I can do

When you use a vpn, you effectively hit the internet at the far gateway of your vpn. If you are using the most common Speedtest (Ookla) then it looks for the nearest responder which will be different from the one that you use locally.

Try noting the responder that you get with your vpn and then manually test to that responder without the vpn.

The problem may be as simple as your local responder is malfunctioning and in reality your speed hasn't changed - have you noticed a difference in performance?

Internet connections do slow down over time as more use is made of them but then the providers periodically upgrade the service and the cycle starts all over again.

we had terrible problems with Free adsl last year... our speed dropped back to 2mbs max (from +/-8 mb/s) and was very unstable.....after months of trying to get them to do something, we switched to Orange Jet and for 10 euros a month more than Free we now get a regular 45 mb/s peaking from time to time at over 50 mb/s. BTW we live in a Village and have just a copper wire telephone line. just tested ....48 this morning....it appears there had also been a fault on the line which Orange came and fixed within 24 hrs....after Free had claimed there was nothing they could do for 6 months... i do however like Free 2 euro Mobile !!!

to troubleshoot you need to measure your speed (speedest.net) using a wired connection
connect a network cable, from laptop rj45 port to rj45 on router

measure speed, if lower than you pay for , call your ISP

over wifi your speed will be lower than wired, and your ISP will understandably say wifi speeds cannot be guaranteed and are not covered by their SLA

kenny wrote:to troubleshoot you need to measure your speed (speedest.net) using a wired connection
connect a network cable, from laptop rj45 port to rj45 on router

measure speed, if lower than you pay for , call your ISP

over wifi your speed will be lower than wired, and your ISP will understandably say wifi speeds cannot be guaranteed and are not covered by their SLA

good luck with the free help line. completely useless

Correct me if I am wrong but your data must go through your normal IP's system before it reaches the VPN (or vice versa) so it is impossible for the vpn to speed up your connection. I agree with Alan that the difference observed is more a function of the different servers the speed testing system uses than anything else.

Russell

I think too much reliance is placed on SpeedTest, it doesn't measure the speed of your connection at all. It measures the rate that data can be uploaded and downloaded to/from a known server.

Normally that server is the nearest SpeedTest server to you, the assumption is that your connection is the slowest link in the chain and therefore the results will be indicative of your connection speed but it is only a moment in time reading and can vary minute by minute.

In real terms, knowing the speed of a connection to somewhere to which you have no interest in connecting to, isn't terribly useful.

To give an example, I recently stayed in a hotel in Thailand that boasted ultra-fast internet. SpeedTest to a local server gave an impressive 49 mbs but when I connected to a server in the UK, the speed dropped to 2 mbs so as far as my connection to the UK was concerned, the SpeedTest was totally meaningless.

SpeedTest is a useful guide to the speed of your link, but not of how fast you can access other sites.

just did a speedtest. with ookla. 54.69mb/s.
connected to my vpn (iportal.me) and the speed was 80.44 mb/s
not being too computer savvy....not sure what makes the difference....

montgolfiere wrote: not being too computer savvy....not sure what makes the difference....

See Alan's post above.

Russell