what gives with internet download speeds even for fast services?

Hi:

I recently got 100 meg.sec speed cable internet for fast speed in all. The speed check shows around 100meg (from 99.98 to 100.20) but when I go and download from usual sites instead of getting 9, 10 12 meg/sec download. I get 100kb to 3meg/sec depend on sites?

So what good is if you get super fast speed if your download is not that much different then when I had 20 meg speed?

Heck my provider has promised and upgrade to 1000 meg/sec when their upgrade lines are finished. But even with that speed i do not think the downloads would speed up much.

So anyone know what the issues is or having similar issues? IS it the pc, the network cars, operating system, or sites or lines or what? What can I do to increase the download speed? What good is to get fast speed when you can not benefit from it.

As always thanks for your replies and help.

 

You're limited to the speed allotted by your ISP. I can get a maximum of 7 MPS from mine. Present speed is 5 MPS.

Cable has faster speeds - up to 60 MPS on a cable ethernet line.

We're not likely to see super-high download speeds for the foreseeable future.

 

Don't some servers also throttle download speeds?

 

Actually, slower download speeds are probably caused by server-side congestion and generally slower modems.

Everybody's banging on about MTM (for non-Aussies, our governments messed up royally with the NBN, the incoming post-election government saw it wasn't broken, so they fixed it), but we must remember that even in other countries with fast internet, coverage is not yet universal. I'm reasonably sure that some servers still have 28K modems

I have FTTP at 25/5 here, but even I have to watch some things crawl painfully over broken glass to get here. And other stuff lands even before I push the button Time of day is not very important any more.

 

thx for replies. I tried a download test via microsoft.com downloading a file. I was told their server is fastest and good for real testing. Well I hot about 11meg/sec. ( which is normal i guess) thats more then 88 meg/sec speed. SO must be throttling by some sites and things like that.

 

Same here. I have 25/5 Fixed Wireless, some things are quick, other stuff is slow.

 

You could try using a download manager to see if having multiple connections speeds up the slower downloads.

 

I've used DLExpert for donkeys' years. Even on ADSL2+ it was brilliant. On my current connection it doesn't make much difference. When the other end is slow, the download is not going to be fast.

 

I've just got ADSL 2, and having 35 connections to a file, make a very big difference when downloading from a slow server.

 

I have a 100mbps connection, but my downloads are quite slow downloading through a browser. It could be a limitation of browsers.
With a download manager, my downloads fly.

 

Yup they do. I'm having the same issues as others. EFF talks about a utility to test if throttling is going on but it's an involved process and hard to prove. For example if you're watching youtube and you get buffering when you know your system is well able to handle your chosen quality then it's hard to know if its YT or your ISP. There's a lot of variables like loads on servers at the time, your own system, your ISP etc.

 

What are you actually getting on Speedtest, guys?

 

I had that issues a few years ago. YouTube videos would always buffer, even though my download speed was around 7Mbps, which was more than fast enough.
I believe it was an ISP issue, rather than one with YouTube.

 

Buffering doesn't normally happen at your ISP. It's more likely to be imposed by whatever backbone the ISP uses. Think of congested traffic on the highway. To some extent you can get faster throughput--as distinct from speeds--by "buffering" with traffic lights at intersections. However, when the highway is totally choked, no amount of buffering will improve throughput, and that is what we see now, as current networks are physically insufficient to carry the unexpected loads they get.

Unfortunately, IT designers are subject to the same funding assumptions as transport engineers with roads and railways: the beancounters cannot see further than next weekend.

 

Yes. But ADSL of any kind won't easily go to fiber speeds, and it's those speeds which--counterintuitively--make download managers less effective. But they still have uses, one of which is programmed downloads, to take advantage of better time-slots, and hopefully give restart abilities.

 

So, you don't get fast speeds any when using many connections to the same sever? With Download Accelerator Manager, I can have up to 35 connections to the same file, if the server supports that many connections.

 

Remember that the speed advertised by the company is the "absolute speed", it doesn't take account the distance of you location from the DSLAM, the congestion, the cable quality, etc...

 

It doesn't bother me but where can I download at the fastest speeds to test my throughput? Cause at speedtest I get 12-25MB and the max speed I've downloaded a torrent is 2.5MB.

 

Fiber speeds, Megabits/Second, is much faster than any ADSL. At those speeds, you get buffering imposed mostly by backbone providers, which means that all your connections will be tied up in the traffic jam. This is why fast internet makes download managers ineffective. Most modern browsers have a fairly efficient download manager built-in, so any major slowdowns are really at the uploader's end. You will get some contention in the late afternoon when all the school-kids get home, but that's when the buffering is at its highest.

DLExpert can give me up to 100 reusable threads--but I normally see only 30 or maybe 40 of them. And on a 25Mb line, DLExpert is no faster than my browser. FWIW, I usually see 19-22Mb, 24+ in the early AM, and 15-ish in the late afternoon/evening.

 

Your speed test is a file download, followed by a file upload. Choose your speed tester carefully, some of them use bigger files than others, which is better because the big files even out the dips and bumps in the road. I believe Ookla is one of the better tests.

 

Yeah, except:


Remember, I've got a 25/5 connection. This was using my VPN through somewhere in the UK.

 

It seems to vary wildly. A friend of mine has a small business he downloaded Ubuntu Studio while I was there cause he wanted me to help him set it up. The download completed in 19 minutes. I was like, damn what kind of internet is that! Ubuntu Studio is about 3GB!

 

its not your modem or cable; its the ISP's backbone and its expensive to maintain it and you can only imagine how it much it would cost to upgrade it. I'm happy with my modest speed.

 

I know for a fact (now) that my ISP quietly began a throttling process a few months ago. Seems they are allotting a certain daily time period for it and then it returns to normal again. I really should call and mentioned something to their tech support but my plan is been a decent one for years and you now how sometimes raising an issue when it comes to bandwidth speed always drags along a recommendation to buy a higher plan. No thank you.

My guess and speculation is that they started doing it to accommodate all those fb/tweeter customers who rapidly fog up a tower in no time flat.

Speaking with some others in my area on other ISP's they too are noticing a huge scaleback on bandwidth forcing some libraries to keep machines 0FF unless occupied where they used to just let them run connected.

 

Speed tests are pretty worthless because they will almost be the same or more than what your ISP advertised. You will never get full speed if the server you are connecting to is on a slower connection or is being accessed by others at the same time. Slowdown during peak hours does not necessarily mean you are being throttled. It could just be that it is peak hours and everybody else is sucking up all of the bandwidth too. They could be throttling you and I'm sure their terms of service says they can but it does not mean that is what is happening every time something is slow.