How We Tested
Identical test systems were provided by Gateway for our Sydney and Melbourne test sites.
The test rig was a Gateway Select 1000 boasting the following configuration:
- AMD Athlon Processor 1000 MHz
- 128MB SDRAM
- 45GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
- 32MB nVidia GeForce 256 Graphics w/ TV Out
- 17in VX720 Colour Monitor
- 56k PCI SF-1156IV+R9A Data/Fax Modem
- Sound Blaster Live
- Boston Acoustics Digital BA7500 Dolby Digital surround sound speakers
- MS Windows 98 (Second Edition)
We performed four series of tests on each ISP under the following conditions:
The tests were performed in three different time slots 9:30am to 12pm, 2pm to 4:30pm, and
6:30pm to 9:30pm over several days of the week. This enabled us to compare how the ISP
handled the varying loads present during the day. Each morning and afternoon test was
performed using the ISP's Sydney and Melbourne Points of Presence (POP) while the night
tests were only performed at the Lab's Melbourne POP. All ISP POPs are not necessarily
created equal and this test allowed us to compare the relative performance of the two
locations.
In addition, at our Melbourne site we tested using two carriers: Telstra and Optus. This allowed us to determine what, if any, difference there is between carriers when connecting to a particular ISP. It is very important to note that the results do not imply that one carrier is superior to another across the board. It simply illustrates the difference in carriers in the Bundoora area in Victoria.
Test 1:
Trace and ping to the Digex site in USA.
The IP address of the Digex Mae-West site is 165.117.59.29.
The trace and ping to the Digex Mae-West site was performed using a very neat little
utility called Netlab V1.4.
Test 2:
Trace & Ping from the Digex site in USA.
The URL of the site is as follows: http://nitrous.digex.net/
We then went to "Mae-West Looking Glass", selected "Trace", and then did the same for
"Ping". In each case we inserted the IP address of the test workstation. The Digex site
then performs a trace or ping to the nominated workstation from their site in the US giving
return path and ping information.
The significance of using the Digex site is that it's all very well pinging or tracing a particular site but this only gives you information on the path to the site, and as the Internet uses asymmetrical routing the return path can vary significantly in both the number of hops and ping times. And, for downloading, you are going to be much more interested in the performance of the return path.
Test 3:
Download from a reliable local site.
A compressed file was downloaded from a very reliable and consistent server-the Monash FTP
server. The file was 1306624 bytes in size and we timed from the moment download began to
the end of the download. To put things in perspective, we downloaded the same file over
RMIT's LAN from the FTP site and the absolute worst case was just 12 seconds, which works
out to around 109KB per second.
Test 4:
Download from a reliable international site.
For this test we chose the US Cisco Web site, a very reliable and consistent US site. The
file we downloaded was 176627 bytes in size and again we timed from the moment download
began to the end of download.
Test Scoring
Even though we carried out the ping and trace tests we feel they are not particularly
important in most day-to-day Internet activities. They do, however, provide an interesting
"map" of the hops and relative performance of an ISP but, when it's all said and done, how
fast you can drag that darn file or Web page down is what really counts. As a consequence
we scored the "downloads" far higher than the pings and traces, our score breakdown is
shown in the table below.
1%
4%
Do not use Dodo ADSL- They have really bad customer service. And technical support.
On their unlimited plan. You start downloading until it get to 1G and then the service starts to have ‘problems’ and you can’t connect no more.
When you call technical support, they give you a phone number to call only to find that a machine answers and ask you to leave your phone number. And then no one call back.
When you call customer service, you speak to a person, they redirects you to a blank line and then you hear a dial tone. Which means the line hung up.
I spoke to a customer sales representative called Steve to pay the bill using credit card. When I asked him to select a plan for the next month, instead of having to call back, his reply was : “ You have to call back next month to select.” And then he hung up on me. This is the kind of service Dodo provides.
I have never spoke to any customer service person who hangs up on the customer.
And then later I find that my service was suspended. Even though I had just spoke to Steve 5 minutes earlier to pay for that month using my credit card.
I am on a 3 months contract with DoDo. I still have 2 months left to go. After this kind of customer service I get I will not be using them after the 3 months period.
Note: If you disconnect before 3 months they charge you a disconnection fee $100.
Don’t sign any long term contracts with any ADSL Provider unless you are sure that you trust the service.