Large File Download appears to be considerably slower than my current ISP (Trial User)

[chrandles]

I currently have Comcast internet (Vallejo CA)

I agreed to do a 'Trial' with 10gb sonic service in tandem to Comcast after a Sonic rep came to the front door.

I am in tech (30yrs).

I bought a cat7 Ethernet cable and a 10gb nic.

I have performed many timing tests using different websites and different large file downloads (ranging from a couple of gb > 24gb) from different world-based sites.

While web-site access and web-site load times appear to be comparable to Comcast (sometimes faster, sometimes slower), large file download is considerably slower in most cases.

Is there anything that can be done as regards the Sonic service to improve the large-file download speeds or is this simply a consequence of the Sonic infrastructure and it's access points/connectivity to the www?

If I can't find any solution, I will be sticking with Comcast, as large file download is a part of my job.

Anybody have any real experience with this kind of issue with the Sonic service?

Please, no time-wasting questions about the hardware I'm using, it is a fast machine and not at fault. I'm using the very same hardware/nic/ethernet cable to access both ISPs (but not at the same time).

[dane]

If you use a native speed test app (not web browser based), what sort of speed do you see? Should be around 8000Mbps.

Do you have the Sonic Max 7 router that has 10Gbps ports, or the 6 series which has 2.5Gbps ports?

Have you tried connecting directly to the ONT with a PC? This is NOT the recommended configuration for regular usage, but can help determine if the router is the point of slowdown.

Support can also check your connection. We could have an issue with light levels or a bad splice or similar. (The installer should have tested to 10Gbps, and that should be stored in your support record, which helps us assure it is functioning when they complete the install.) Support can be reached by text or phone, request a call or send a text at: https://www.sonic.com/support

[chrandles]

>If you use a native speed test app (not web browser based), what sort of speed do you see? Should be around 8000Mbps.

The speed tests show very fast download and upload speeds which were around that 8000mps mark. The installation engineer also ran those tests on his laptop and showed me a screen capture of the results.


>Do you have the Sonic Max 7 router that has 10Gbps ports, or the 6 series which has 2.5Gbps ports?

I'm not sure of the actual model, but it has 2 ports marked 10GE and GE. Of course I used the 10GE port.


>Have you tried connecting directly to the ONT with a PC? This is NOT the recommended configuration for regular usage, but can help determine if the router is the point of slowdown.

This is what I have been doing. Cable straight from the back of the PC to the ONT.

[jerrielm]

Hello chrandles!

I am currently not seeing any connections to the ONT. If you have the chance, can you connect your PC to the ONT and then do a speed test? Can you do this again but then put your router between the ONT and your PC?

After that can you retest your downloads. If you don't mind me asking, what sites and what downloads are you using? Does it have a peer to peer download option?

Also, knowing the router that you are using will help me understand your setup a little better. If you could provide any extra details about your setup, that would be greatly helpful!

Best Wishes!

[kgc]

While web-site access and web-site load times appear to be comparable to Comcast (sometimes faster, sometimes slower), large file download is considerably slower in most cases.

Can you share some examples with traceroutes? Is the router/firewall you're using the same on both services?

[chrandles]

> I am currently not seeing any connections to the ONT. If you have the chance, can you connect your PC to the ONT and then do a speed test? Can you do this again but then put your router between the ONT and your PC?

I am currently using xfinity which is why nothing is connected to the ONT. I can redo the speed tests, yes. I won't be putting a router in-between as I only have a 1GB router and would only purchase a 10GB router if I can get the file download speeds up.


> what sites and what downloads are you using?

The file downloads are over http. I'm not specifically using any transfer client other than a browser.

My main work site I download from and upload to is https://updates.suse.com however, I have tried many different sites that offer file downloads to perform tests. Anything over 1GB in size and the difference in speed becomes very obvious.


>Also, knowing the router that you are using will help me understand your setup a little better. If you could provide any extra details about your setup, that would be greatly helpful!

Dell 5820 Xeon + 256GB Ram + SSD + Win 10 + Vimin X540-AT2 Nic (Intel clone) + Cat7 cable - Not using a router in my testing. I have many TB of disk attached and plenty of free disk space on the system drive and most of the other drives.


>Can you share some examples with traceroutes? Is the router/firewall you're using the same on both services?

I'm not sure that Traceroute is going to be useful as the routes are always going to be different between the 2 ISPs and it's going to vary depending on which site I download from. I'm also not using any additional router in my testing (PC <> ONT) and the windows 10 firewall is default and remains the same config for all tests via both ISPs,

However, I will reconnect to the ONT and provide some traceroute output within the next few days.

[virtualmike]

@kgc, back in the days when I had Fusion X2, there were some files on Sonic's public FTP space that one could download (with an FTP client) to test the speed directly on Sonic's network.

I'm traveling and on a slow connection, so it's tough at the moment for me to see if I can find them. Do you know if they still exist?

[kgc]

Talk about an old piece of history. Imagine using a 10mb file to benchmark your downloads.

ftp://ftp.sonic.net/testfile.compressed.1000meg
ftp://ftp.sonic.net/testfile.compressed.100meg
ftp://ftp.sonic.net/testfile.compressed.10meg

The naming convention predates me.

[kgc]

Do you see anything unusual in wireshark? Do you have another computer to test with?

[virtualmike]

Thanks, Kelsey!