# Internet speed.



## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

I was wondering why my internet at home was acting slow. I was at the mall downloading a movie at 220kb/s. I am home now downloading again and it's holding at 100kb/s.

What gives? Can I change this somehow?

Oh, and I'm talking wireless both places.


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## smark (Dec 2, 2008)

Better call your internet provider and ask what gives. I believe they charge by the package and each package provides up to a certain speed. 
You might want to ask them how much speed is in your package.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

You can test your internet speed here:
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

That will help you determine if your connection is the problem or if you need to do something to your computer like clear the cache.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

They could be choking you like comcast did with bittorrent.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> Can I change this somehow?


Probably: Pay more $'s! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 

KN: that was said humorously but was kinda serious.

The buzz word is "bandwidth". The more bandwidth you wish to usurp on a peak basis the more you pay.

To give you a basis via utilization of Com's referenced site from Dallas tonight the average speed is Download=600KB/sec and Upload=70KB/sec.



COM said:


> You can test your internet speed here:
> http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/


COM: That is a handy dandy little site! (I obviously bookmarked it.)

You got any more useful sites which you have not published?? (You may know this but back in the DOS days they were referred to as utilities and were typically com (no pun intended) assembled.)

I would like to reciprocate but back in the DOS days I had a ton and now have only a hardware firewall check which I used in the early days of the IN and doubt that I can even find it now as even common hardware firewalls function currently.


Folks:

I tried COM's link from all locations and although I know that switches affect download speed I believe that the critical element is the speed of light and the dielectric constant (refractive index is similar and better explained) of fiber-optic cable.

TR


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## jamesandmanda (Sep 17, 2008)

also remember that it also depends on the speed of the servers witch you are downloading from. 
Plus wireless never gives you a good download speed tho n1 is the best.


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

WOW I would be upset with those speeds. I am in the basement and the wireless router is upstairs at the other end of the house and these are what I test at. And it seems slow to me at times.

Download Speed: *1922* kbps (240.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: *2475* kbps (309.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

I know it is much faster when I plug in direct. I considered running a cable to the other end of the house just so things would go faster.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

Doc - what kind of internet connection do you have? I want it.


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

Download Speed: 6595 kbps
Upload Speed: 1808 kbps


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

Downloading speed is 4903 and upload is 453
Second time 2740 473

Seems to me the first test is faster then the rest.


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## darkstar (Nov 25, 2008)

> I was wondering why my internet at home was acting slow. I was at the mall downloading a movie at 220kb/s. I am home now downloading again and it's holding at 100kb/s.
> 
> What gives? Can I change this somehow?
> 
> Oh, and I'm talking wireless both places.


Unfortunately this isn't proof that there is even a problem let alone what solution might be for you. Enquiring why your getting a different speed somewhere else is akin to asking why your best friends shoes don't fit when he's a size 38 and your a size 43...in other words it's to be expected. Plus, if you were using bit torrent to download your movies, as suggested above, then this is in no way is useful test to show your average download speed.



> I tried COM's link from all locations and although I know that switches affect download speed I believe that the critical element is the speed of light and the dielectric constant (refractive index is similar and better explained) of fiber-optic cable


Can you explain further as I fail to see the connection (no pun intended).



> Downloading speed is 4903 and upload is 453
> Second time 2740 473
> 
> Seems to me the first test is faster then the rest.


Without doing mutiple tests at various times of the day (preferably to mutiple connection test sites)to work out your average speed, one or two tests at the same time of day proves very little unfortunately.
If however you are constantly unimpressed with your connection speed then upgrading your package would be next the logical step.


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

I have the poorly mentioned Comcast. We use to be under Insight until Comcast claimed they had the rights to this area. So Insight had to back out and give it over to comcast. 
I think that is what is known as a monopoly. They claim it is not since we have the option of dish tv. I dont know why to land line cable companies are not allowed to compete in the same area. 
I guess in Illinois you just accept the the way the nice trusting politians have set laws for the big companies and trust that they benefit all involved. LOL


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

darkstar said:


> Can you explain further as I fail to see the connection (no pun intended).


Yes: (and kinda funny pun btw).

The speed of light (energy) in a vacuum and in a region of the universe where no gravitational effects exist (the second is of course not possible and is subject to debate) is the maximum speed attainable = C.

The speed of light in any other medium or with gravitational effects is less than C.

(The following comes out the physics world (which is simplistic) and I could not easily find an appropriate treatise when Googling.)

Epsilon (e) is the dielectric constant of the medium and is always > 1.

The velocity of light (V) in the medium is V=C/e.

Have you ever noticed that when you put a stick in water it appears to break (ie. change angles) at the surface.

This is due to dielectric constant of water (We) which differs from the dielectric constant of air (Ae).

The "break angle" which you perceive in radians is Ae/We*.

TR

*I hope and not the inv tan as I could find on the IN and my physics 401 book is 226 miles away tonight.


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

14043 download

2761 upload

14571/2753 second test ... 

these seem a little high especially when compared to www.speedtest.net which is about half of these readings. 

a lot depends on "where" you are connecting to and from as to the speed of your tests. speedtest.net has many testing points throughout the US. This is a prime example of why one site will run like gangbusters and you can click, click, click right through and others are painfully slow and nothing has changed in your own connection.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

fish_doc said:


> I think that is what is known as a monopoly. They claim it is not since we have the option of dish tv. I dont know why to land line cable companies are not allowed to compete in the same area.


I seem to remember reading that this was policy was widely adopted to prevent an overpopulation of unsightly telephone / utility poles. I guess that made sense at the time, but now we put these cables underground so who cares?


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

COM said:


> I seem to remember reading that this was policy was widely adopted to prevent an overpopulation of unsightly telephone / utility poles.


Chris: IMHO two major factors wrt overhead are one:

Many subdivision deed restrictions have predicated underground for approximately the last 45 years but many years ago Federal Common Law was created (I do not remember the Case) such that these deed restrictions could not be enforced against franchisees of the various governments within areas dedicated to the public for roadways or alleys.

Hence you will note major overhead utilities along the major roadways, where at one time overhead was less expensive to install than underground, than along residential streets.

and two:

Now days fiber optic has become much cheaper to install and, as you can imagine, due to its' weight and required shielding does not lend itself to overhead installation.

In addition the cable utility companies and the telephone utility companies pay a "contact" fee to the electric utility companies. With the current cost of fiber optic cable, amplifiers, switchgear, etc you may note that many of the non-electric utilities are being placed underground in older areas with unpaved alleys as like a 5 year payback is possible.

TR


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