cable internet download speeds

[Chaloupa]

I use cable net on the island...and my speeds lately are absolutely AWFUL! Sorry to say but at least this shows me, it's not just me! It makes online gaming very painful at times.

[Doug]

I,m with the local Westman cable and with Speakeasy, {Seattle}, mine shows 5753 up and 928 down. However when loading sites like Fox & CNN news and others such as TSN, my computer is sooooo slow, its terrible. And I thought I had a decently fast set up.

[Jason McK]

In Delta BC there is a small independant cable company DCCNET is my provider. I love the speed
from Shaw test site 583KBS
from Speakeasy 4785KBS

J

[Swags]

Regardless of who your provider is, your network speed is always dependent on the slowest server (and your connection of course), thats why some sites load fast and others don't, load balancing, server speeds, and general network health are huge factors. I have read reports that SPAM takes up 40% of all network traffic at any given point and time, that means no spam, faster internet for all of us. The internet is a highway, when I am travelling to Calgary, the Trans canada has speeds of 100 km/h, when I hit any city, it slows down because of traffic lights, more cars, construction etc... network is no different. Having a 5 MB pipe allows you to get that, but you will always be limited to the slowest server between you and what you want.... the weakest link so to speak. Another cool stat about the 'network', 85% of all installed fibre optic cabling is not lit!

[om6acw]

I am in Edmonton, AB using High-Speed Xtreme Internet and my test result is 18.3Mbps down and 1Mbps up, so download is almost 8.5 higher because they guaranty you just Up to 10 Mbps download speed

[wolf_bluejay]

>Regardless of who your provider is, your network speed is always dependent on the >slowest server (and your connection of course), thats why some sites load fast and >others don't, load balancing, server speeds, and general network health are huge >factors.

Usually, it's one of 3 things that is at fault - 1. The server you are connecting to is under heavy load, 2. You're network connection sucks, 3. You computer is very slow, or loaded down with anti-virus scanners. Try turning them off, and turn of Internet explorers "anti-phising filter".

I have read reports that SPAM takes up 40% of all network traffic at any given point and time, that means no spam, faster internet for all of us.
Umm, trust me, NO! spam only accounts for less than 0.5% of network traffic. It is 90% of the actual email traffic, but all things considered, email is not much of the load on the internet.

>The internet is a highway, when I am travelling to Calgary, the Trans canada has speeds >of 100 km/h, when I hit any city, it slows down because of traffic lights, more cars, >construction etc... network is no different. Having a 5 MB pipe allows you to get that, >but you will always be limited to the slowest server between you and what you want.... >the weakest link so to speak.

Nicely put, it seems that speekeasy can't do better than this:

Download Speed: 23726 kbps (2965.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 10134 kbps (1266.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

They limit the speed test to near this at their end (I am straight on the backbone with 1Gb network speeds) . So you won't really be able to "test" much higher than that.


>Another cool stat about the 'network', 85% of all installed fibre optic cabling is not lit!


Sad, but true. Years ago I worked on installing a few cross country fibre lines. 164 fibers per line and I think about 5 are acutally in use.

[Zoaelite]

Thanks for the post wolf, learned something non fish related on Canreef today!
Levi

[jpdutton]

mine was 9620 down and 981 up.

[Snaz]

I work for an ISP, we sell all the connection types. ADSL, cable, T1, Fibre, Radio and good old 56K. I can clear up a few things.

Yes for home use cable will usually always be faster for downloads as it has a nice "burst" option. Bursting is a temporary increase in download speeds.

Yes the server you connect to also has to have a fast connection too as you can only download as fast as it uploads.

Yes cable users will experience a slow down when more users on their "loop" jump on the Internet. We call this "After School Syndrome" when all the kids come home at 3:00pm and start up their Halo servers. ADSL is a direct connection between you and your ISP and so speeds are more consistent.

ADSL speed is determined by what your are paying for, line quality and inside wiring issues(ISW) and how far your house is from the nearest Central Office(CO). The ISP can test your line quality and loop length remotely and set your speed accordingly to get best stable speeds.

ADSL is USUALLY piggy-backed on a telephone service but any telephones, fax machine, alarm systems, Interac machines or other analog devices MUST be behind an ADSL filter or the ADSL signal will be crappy and intermittent. POTS filters are usually installed at the DMARC(the box outside your house) and all analog devices must chain off the "phone" side of the POTS filter. Inline filters sit on the phone line of every analog device. If you do not filter out your phones and other analog devices your ADSL will be intermittent.

ADSL that is not on a telephone service is call "Naked ADSL" or Dry Copper ADSL" the signal still comes over a pair copper wires like a phone line but their is no dial-tone and no telephone service. Dry copper is cheaper as you do not pay for phone service and their is NO CHANCE of an analog device interfering with the signal. Very nice.

The length of telephone wire from the ADSL modem to your wall jack should NEVER be longer than 6 feet, this wire is unshielded and if it is long the signal will be degraded. This is often overlooked.

Upload speeds will rarely be above 650 kbps for cable or ADSL.

When doing speedtests do NOT choose the small size files as the test is over as soon as it is started and thus not accurate. For download testing choose at least 3.0mb file size unless your connection is really slow.

Any accurate speedtest will take at least 45 seconds to complete.

Speeds Degrading? Reboot your modem, routers, switches and hubs, but do so one at a time. If your connection is degraded, reboot your modem. If that does not solve it then reboot your next device, usually a router. If after rebooting the router things improve then you know the router is at fault and not the modem. Rebooting everything at once you will be chasing your tail trying to ID the failing device.

Do you have to reboot your cable or ADSL modem more than once a month? Call your ISP and demand a new one.

That's it for now. Any questions please let me know.

Snaz.

[mark]

realize there's variables but about what's should I expect from a service such as Shaw for cable downloads speeds (been using Shaw's 20MB file)