Update: I did upgrade the Time Capsule to the 4th generation model, see the new section at the end of the article.

I got a new Internet connection at home today to replace Comcast cable modem service. It’s from Webpass, a local Internet provider currently serving San Francisco and Oakland. Webpass brings connectivity to our building via a microwave link on the roof. They run a mesh network across similar buildings in the city. The buildings get connectivity and are hops to reach other buildings at the same time. From the roof, they distribute the network to the units that subscribe to their service. They only offer this service in buildings that already have cabling infrastructure to support this. There’s no modem or router in the unit, the connection goes straight to an Ethernet jack.

Image by SAF Tehnika

The service is advertised as 45 or 100Mbit/s, depending on the cabling in the building. I found it hard to measure the actual throughput with a tool/website that is not tied to one of the providers, but the new connection is about five times faster, I see download speeds of about 60Mbit/s. See below for some measurements.

One thing that’s new is that the upload and download speeds are symmetrical so upload is very fast compared to cable or DSL. On most days I wouldn’t care because I need a lot more download- than upload-bandwidth, but every once in a while I do have to upload very large files to servers at work, and then it’s great to be able to do so quickly.

One thing I noticed is that the bottleneck is now my wireless network, even though I use a draft-N 5GHz AirPort Extreme base station. I’ll try replacing the one I have, which is several years old, with the latest generation model to see if I can optimize it a bit (I did this, see below for an update). I probably still won’t be able to reach the Ethernet speeds.

The cost for the service is US$ 400.– per year, about $33.– per month. The installation was quick and easy, the technician was very friendly, competent and efficient.

If you can get it in your building, I highly recommend this service, as do most of the reviewers on yelp.

Speed Tests

Here are some measurements. They were taken with the computer connected directly to the Ethernet port, no wireless.

Stanford netspeed test

Comcast:

Webpass:

Download of a big test file from a web server

Comcast:

Webpass:

Webpass Speed Test by Ookla

Not sure how reliable/unbiased this one is, since it’s provided by Webpass.

Comcast:

Webpass:

Base Station Upgrade

After noticing the difference between Ethernet and wireless throughput when performing the initial tests, I upgraded the Time Capsule from a second to a fourth generation model.

The difference in performance is quite dramatic, download throughput doubled from 40 to 80MBit/s:

2nd Generation:

4th Generation: