Internet Speed Tests

Both speed rating services agree: I have (on dialup - nominal 56 kb/s) 0.04 to 0.05 mb/s download and about 0.4 upload speeds. This translates into a download speed of about 180 megs an hour. When downloading film clips and such, I have become accustomed to speeds of about 18-20 megs an hour, at best. (The download box shows speeds that jump around between 4-6 kb/s.)

Therefore, each of these speed raters think, as a result of actual test, I should have speeds of ten times what I actually do get. (To be fair, I ran the test assuming a local connection. How much difference it would make for a distant one I have no idea.)

Every time I complain to my ISP about dropped connections they tell me to complain to the phone company and the phone company suggests I complain to the ISP.

I wish I knew. Feedback welcome.

Very helpful if it works!
This is what i saw
209.191.122.70
maximum 30 hops
What does that mean?

I'm not sure what might be going on, but I visited the website on Internet Speed Tests, and I did not download anything, - but an icon showed up in my system tray with two little computers in blue and the Mbps speed, and I have no clue where this came from. Only that it wasn't there yesterday, but showed up on startup today. Can anyone tell me where this came from?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you click the link in my article, or key it in? IF the latter, all bets are off. Consider doing a System Restore if you can't remove this with Control Panel's Add/Remove option. See http://askbobrankin.com/system_restore.html

My DSL is rated at 2.5 Mb/sec. I use iTunes for downloading podcasts and can check the speed they are downloading. The speed sometimes varies depending on the website I am downloading from but usually is at the max 2.5Mb./sec. (1 minute to download 20 MB).
I also can check the speed by downloading files in Safari where the speed is 311 KB/s (5 minute to download 100 MB) which is the same time.
Thank you Bob for pointing out the difference between Mb and MB. Lets see, 312.5 bytes times 8 equals 2500 bits.

I have 2 choices. Dial up or Satellite. The best money can buy with wildblue is 1.5MB and I NEVER get anywhere close to that---and at 30% higher that the cost of cable. Any suggestions for folks like me?!!!

Keep in mind that the speed claimed by your ISP is a theoretical "maximum" speed, one which you'll seldom see. Like claiming your car will do 120mph, even though most of the time you'll be doing closer to 40, and an average is more like 25.

Your ISP should specify a minimum, and that's more typical of what you'll normally see, with occasional bursts of higher speed.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not necessarily, it depends on what type of connection you have. On a cable connection, you're sharing the bandwidth with everyone in your neighborhood. Think of this like the water lines in a typical building -- everyone share the reource, nobody has a line direct from the source. But with fiber, you do. My Verizon FIOS shows 20Mb/sec download speeds all the time.

One of the hardest aspects to explain about broadband connections, is how the 'trunks' work throughout the country.

It really doesn't matter if you are using DSL or Cable or Fiber optic, lines are connected and interconnected. When 'traffic' gets 'jammed up', that is when your download speeds slow down, frequently slow way down. You can have the fastest connection in town, but if, the lines are 'jammed', it really doesn't matter, things typically slow down. It's really like a typical traffic jam on the highways, everything can slow down to almost a 'crawl'.

One point, DSL lines are now up to 6Mbps. Do you get 6Mbps? Not usually. You get a good, strong, solid 5Mbps +. Plenty of 'juice' to get the job done. }:O)

Robin,

I certainly relate to your issue. However, you happen to live in the 'no man's land' where there isn't any DSL or Cable or Fiber optic lines. That is your only choices, Dial Up or Satellite. Not only do you get lousy download times, but, you may only be limited to 200MBs or less downloads per day!!! For most of us, that seems like a lot of downloads, per day. In reality, it is nothing.

It can take up to 100MBs to download a Microsoft Update or a tune or a movie or a game. For those of us, who have DSL or Cable or Fiber optic, we are literally spoiled and don't even think about the amounts we download daily. Those with Satellite Internet Service have to count all of their downloads to make sure, they haven't 'maxed' out for the day. Plus, the pricing for their service is, in my opinion, 'off the charts' and really outrageous.

Bottom line, any suggestions? No. Simply, pray that a Cable or DSL or Fiber optic line comes to your house, someday soon.

I turned green with envy when I saw Bob's hopping speeds on his trace route. I just ran one on my satellite connection, and the min. hop time was 698ms and the max. 3290. and all the criticisms about throttling, pricing etc are correct. The only thing I can't criticise is actually the brute force download speed. Once you get it started, it whizzes away, and drops the ball surprisingly rarely. ONCE you get it started. The latency is so high, some sites get fed up of waiting, and you have to reload, and reload. It streams films adequately, I suppose because film streamers send enough advance data to cope with the rollercoaster. The real problem is surfing from one site to another, and streaming music, and don't even think about playing games. I use www.numion.com to measure. They measure surfspeed as well as latency and down- and upload, and explain it all quite well.
If your only choice is mobile or satellite, it's not as clear cut as some make out. If you are clear about the pluses and minuses of each, your personal needs and priorities will determine your better option.

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What does this mean? It is 10:50 pm GMT Thursday, Jan 26 where I am... should be very little activity on internet right???? I have DSL, wired...

Thanks!