How’s the Covid vaccination 💉 going in your area?

We live in a semi-rural area in the South Island of New Zealand. We don’t even have copper phone lines in our road, so fiber probably won’t arrive this century. I pay about $150 for 200GB/month, plus $30 for off-peak unlimited data (midnight to 5pm) for 4G access. Speeds vary, but average around 25-30 down. I can also get reasonable speeds on my Vodafone mobile.

I ordered a Starlink dish a few months ago, but I don’t know when it will arrive. I think they need a few dozen more satellites. When it starts up, I should be able to get unlimited data at 100-150mbps, possibly for around $170/month. But we’ll see.

Gee, seems like some of us on the pacific rim are being royally ripped off.

Not all thought : Singapore 1GB/second, $44 a month on a 2 year contract.

Australia’s internet speed ranks 61st in the world

New Zealand ranks 23rd for fixed broadband.

However, not sure how true Singapore’s 1Gb/second.

All gamers know that some nations have horrible connections to the rest of the world, especially Australia and Brazil.

My little gaming addiction of iRacing initially had one server, in Boston. But as the game grew latency issues with those in other nations became acute, and iRacing added two servers, on in Holland and one in Australia.

A quick screen grab. “PING” is what matters.

This is the US server, almost everyone is OK. Two of the three European racers, from Germany (DE_AT_CH Germany Austria, Czechoslovakia) and Scandinavia are at 150.

Yea, Spain (Iberia) sucks too.

I’m gonna be so sad when I leave this country…
South Korea 245.50 Raned #1

Just did a speed test using OOKLA. It’s 0818 Saturday here.

Ping: 1ms. Download Speed: 54.39 Mbps Up 18.42 Mbps

Behind a VPN: Ping 95ms Down 28.58 mps Up 9.1g mbps.
I do not use the VPN often

For those in Oz: I use Aussie broadband, and PUREVPN. I was using ‘Mate’
and getting lag with netflix. Changed ISP, no lag. I’m on a monthly contract except for my VPN which is for 5 years prepaid. I’m beginning to think that might have been a mistake. They are currently bugging me to buy a special version of their VPN.

My nerdy mate plays a lot of online games and is very happy with the speeds. By ‘a lot’ I mean most days, usually around 12 hours, and sometime as much as 24 hour. Why yes, he’s a recluse, why do you ask?. He suffers from morbid obesity. It’s called that because it’s going to kill him some time soon.

Because we have the bastardised FTTN here our speeds vary considerably depending on time of day. I pay for a 50MBPS plan and unless its 3 in the morning normally reach about 35Mbps up and 16.5 down through the supplied wi fi router.
Add 10mbps if I used cable direct to the outlet. All through Optus.

My VPN has little effect as the node is here in Perth if I choose. Which, unless I am researching some esoteric shite or wanting to listen to Radio Alba, I will use as default. My VPN is included in my Internet protection suite, 3 year renewal covers all devices including mobiles.

No point in paying extra for 100mbps as Optus tell me I will rarely get to 80mpbs. I wont see the difference in speed until we get to about 150Mbps consistently.

I don’t understand. Which node?

The reason for my confusion is that I have NBN fibre to the house rather than to the node, which is more common.

Not sure about my speed at night. I shut down my PC between 6 and 7.30. Watch Netflix anytime between 10.30 am and about 10 pm. Have had no trouble with buffering since I left Mate and went to Aussie.

Every vpn has a node or “home” that is the IP (identity) it changes your computers IP to when you switch it on. Most VPN have a network (or share a network) that is worldwide in scope.

You can choose (with a decent VPN) which geographical location suits you best. I am lucky in that most VPN only have a choice of Melbourne or Sydney in Australia, mine also has a node in Perth so the lag is very much reduced.

Oh, I chose Dar Es Salaam. I’ll try it with Australia :

Ping: 11ms Down 51.63 up 17.70.

Mm, I think There’s a lesson there. Please pardon my ignorance; is using an Australian address less secure?

Nope. All VPNs operating Australia MUST keep your metadata for at least two years, must allow Authorised Government agencies access to your data on demand.

If your intent is to visit proscribed porn or terrorist sites you WILL be reported by your ISP/VPN. They WILL turn your data over to the requesting agency (read all of them) It is in the very very fine print.

A VPN will avoid a casual snooper or a hacker from discovering your computer by way of a website, hostile website, app or game simply by changing your computer’s address. You can also access geo fenced programs/websites/data by setting your node to London or Madrid or Prague or Moscow or Washington DC (if your VPN has a node there)

If you want to be anonymous and secure then using TOR over a commercial VPN is about as safe as you will get without a shitload of tech gear and a Masters. It WILL slow you down some. Thats the price for military grade encryption.
Having said that, some governments have started “lying in wait” at known TOR nodes and will piggy back you as as soon as you leave a TOR node as your IP is unmasked again…which will (if you use one) lead them to your VPN.

Same if you use a VPN over TOR. It is important that you set up TOR properly to avoid those trackers.

Your Aussie VPN is as secure as any other…but anonymous it ain’t.

They seem high to me? Mine is showing as under 50. That’s in milliseconds right? Is it the delay between your game and the server? I used to play a lot of COD online at one time, and blaming the connection was a favourite excuse when someone was unlucky enough to find an exceptionally skilled gamer. :smirk::grin:

The measurement is dependent on the server one is referencing. Obviously, you will get a much higher ping from Australia to a Boston server than from Toronto to Boston. The packet routes are longer and the speed of light is a factor, and the number of steps along the way, since each step has the potential to add to the ping time.

Ping does not measure the volume (Mbps), just how quick your computer talks to the final destination. Mbps is how much data you can push down the pipeline in one second.

I prefer to use the built-in Windows tool to measure ping, found in the old Command Prompt (DOS). I bring up Command Prompt, and type in “ping 8.8.8.8” and hit enter. (8.8.8.8 is the Google server IP)

And if I desire to examine any problems along the way, I use the trace to see WHERE the packets traveled. One assumes they go directly from your computer to the final destination server, but that may not be true. Same Command Prompt, but this time “tracert 8.8.8.8” and Enter.

And for example, if I did an IP search, 108.170.250.241 is physically located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View California, USA.

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Yes, but it is the “round trip” time; that is often overlooked. So if it takes 10ms for you to send info to the server, and 5ms for it to send it back, your “ping” (or delay) is 15ms.

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