Download Speed from Internet

I notice that when I download something from the internet using Ody or IBrowse that the speed seems to peak out at about half of my maximum speed.

If I download multiple things at the same time from the internet then the combined speeds add up to what is about my maximum rate.

Transfers on my local network seem to be normal.

@rjd324

Are you sure it isn't the remote host that is limiting the speed? Either because their connection isn't faster than that, or because they want to let more people share the bandwidth, so they put a limit on each download connection?

I haven't noticed this myself. I usually download with Odyssey, e.g. from OS4Depot, and it normally runs quite close to my VDSL's nominal DL speed of 20 Mb/s.

Best regards,

Niels

@rjd324

Yup, generally I find transfer speeds on OS4 to be a fraction of what my network and hardware are capable of.

When I used to still run Linux, I would get much higher speeds on the same hardware, both upload and download.

I subscribe to FileFactory, which allows me full download speed. Downloading a movie from there by Odyssey can take a couple of hours. On Windows, its much quicker - maybe 30 minutes.

I had a bit of a moan about it somewhere - probably here on Amigans - a few years ago, but, like Niels' response, was met with bafflement. So I don't know if its just some of us or what. Maybe local config? Maybe something with our ISP? Dunno.

@nbache

No. I tested this out using my Linux machine and found that was transferring at the speed I expected.

There were some Roadshow settings posted not long after OS4 was released, which improved the network throughout. They might be on aw.net.

@rjd324

Or to test if roadshow slows you down, simple rename the roadshow drawer inenvarc and env and try again.

I don't use roadshow settings with above method since years and I'm as fast as my line provides

@rjd324

Quote:Okay, then that's obviously not the reason.

What is the nominal download speed of your connection? I.e. what speed should you see? (As I wrote above, mine is 20 Mb/s.)

Best regards,

Niels

I should see about 3.9MB/s. As I said, one file at a time I seem to get about half of that. Multiple, simultaneous files - added altogether - result in about 3.9MB/s.

This is also the case on AmiTube, too. ~~ half the maximum speed.

@rjd324

There is something wrong with OS4 network drivers. On my XE I have managed full throughput with the built in 3Com Ethernet. Both with OS4 and Linux.

On my X1000 I need to use an RTL8169 adapter but I have never got full speed. For some reason the RealTek drivers are crippled on OS4. I don't recall but it may have been a tenth of what the card can do. My comparison is Linux which, unlike in OS4, can use both the RTL8169 and built in Ethernet. On Linux it easily maxes out my net speed.

Apart from that downloading from Amiga servers can be slow. It always is for me. No computer in my house can max my net speed. I've only got 12.5Mbps currently so it can't be that hard. I just did a 15MB download from OS4Depot. It started off slow but did reach 1.2MB/s max so manged to peak close to my top speed. But from OS4 it never gets any higher. I get about 200 to 400KB/s.

However, I've found that location can affect it. I thought I was in a slow country because the distance between me and the Amiga server was worlds apart thus causing the way slow speeds. And all other Amiga people must have been close as their speed was always good. But, I've taken my XE and X1000 to my Amiga club which is closer to the city, and the speed was way faster. In fact the speed I was getting would be the top speed of my connection. From Linux at least. So, somehow OS4 net speed is affected by OS4 drivers and your internet location.

@Chris

I recall playing with some. I needed to fix MTU at one point when a new router broke my ADSL. But I don't know what changes are needed for an RTL8169 to act "normal" in my X1000. I took a look and recall playing with some settings but never fixed it. It's just one of those Amigaisms that network speed on OS4 drivers is slow.

Mas speed I was able to get with an RTL8169 card was about 50 MB/s (yes MB/s, roughly 600 Mbs) when transferring by FTP locally.

At this speed the PA6T-1682M reaches its limits (nearly 100% of CPU usage).

But when downloading from the Internet with Odyssey, I cannot get more than 2 MB/s (roughly 25 Mb/s).

For Odyssey, it is important to have the ENV: setting OWB_POLLTIME set to 1

My X5000 seems to have a problem with the onboard ethernet port.
I cannot connect my X5000 to my router with a 10 meter cable. The link will not negotiate. But my laptop has no issues. So now I have a small ethernet hub in between. Sometimes I connect with a 1 Gb link but most of the time it starts or it falls back to just 100mbit. The link between hub and router via the 10 meter cable is a stable 1Gb link.

Checking ethernet speed from Oddyssey, with for example www.fast.com will give about 65mbit/s. This is slow, even for a 100mbit connection.

I have a 1Gb up&down fiber connection to my isp. And can reach 960 mbit up&down for my PC with www.speedtest.net.

Downloading "linux distributions " from usenet also gives me close to maximum download speeds.

same here on my X-5000 and onboard ethernet port : I am supposed to have 510Mbps (on the pc) and got only 56Mbps on the Amiga side ??

You can tweak the Roadshow settings to get better throughput.

@arfcarl

I rename/disable the roadshow entry in ENV, rebooted and speed is the same as before (50Mbps, should be 500Mbps)

what are these magical settings to help getting the full network speed back onto NG Amiga ?

Check the Roadshow manual; Try a larger TCP window size for example.

Downloading several 1GByte files in parallel from my isp gives me about 14MByte/s total in Odyssey.

But there's also a nice little python script on os4depot called speedtest-cli. This is basically the python version of speedtest.net.

speedtest-cli --list lists a couple of server for you. Otherwise it selects a server based on the smallest latency.

8.RAM Disk:speedtest-cli> python speedtest-cli --server 1747
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from ( redacted info )...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Retrieving information for the selected server...
Hosted by Solcon Internetdiensten B.V. (Dronten) [38.98 km]: 6.75ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 183.19 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed................................................................................................
Upload: 76.42 Mbit/s

No great, not terrible.

On the other hand. Even my mobile phone gives 769.63Mbps download to the same server. And that's with Wifi6 (802.11ax) instead of 1gigbit wired to my router

@geennaam

This is the same when using Linux on the X5K.
When speedtesting using a browser, the speed will never exceed values around 100Mbit.
When using the CLI speedtest 500Mbit+ is not a problem.

Could be that the process of running a Webbrowser impacts the speed a lot. (the P5020 is a communications processor after all and not a desktop CPU)

@Skateman

So when the X5k can do 500mbit+ with Linux, it's a SANA-2, stack or driver issue.

I would have expected the P5020 to shine in this area because it was build for this purpose.

@geennaam

I Agree with you... but we might need the "Real" DPAA drivers that Jamie krueger is working on.

Here a recent screenshot of my Linux speedtest-cli getting to 594Mbit