Internet Connection Help

S

scalprum

Joined
Sep 28, 2005
Messages
37
Hey, my family recently upgraded our internet connection from dial-up to DSL. Overall there has been a great improvement, but we seem to be unable to utilize the full potential of the new connection.
It is rated at 100 Mbps, but I have never seen it use more than about .65% of this. Even when downloading large files(70-100 MB), it only works at speeds of 10-20 Kbps. Is this normal?
 
According to the computer savvy wife, your connection will only be as good as your hardware. If your phone lines are older, they may not be capable of a better connection. If your computer is older, it may not be capable of a better connection. If you are like us, your internet company never delivers as good a service as they promise. She says to talk to your internet provider about the problem and see if they have anyone there who knows what they are talking about.
She also says to see if your computer needs to be cleaned of junk. Adware and spyware will slow everything down, including downloads and uploads.

Good luck.
 
I had DSL and it never worked as fast as they claimed. Call you ISP and they can do a line analysis which may include sending someone out to physically run test at your demark.

Is you ISP the same as you phone line supplier? If not good luck, the phone co that provides the line will blame the ISP the ISP will blaim the phone co.

I once had a verizon tech and a ISP tech look at the line together and even when the test equipment showed imbalence in the pair, the verizon guy left still claiming it was an ISP problem. :jerkit:

Also are you running a wireless network on your PC, that may be the slowdown. Also check your plug connections are tight both at the plug and the outside box. Try a new network line between your DSL and PC, as well as new lien between your DSL and the plug too.
 
Well, first off, generally when someone advertiseds a "100 Mbps" connection they mean "up to 100 Mbps... maybe." You will probably never get 100 Mbps for as long as you're using DSL.

DSL also depends on distance from the main hub, and general traffic. So if you are far away, it will be slower, and also if there are many heavy users saoking up the bandwidth.

And, lastly, just because *you* may have a 100mbps download speed, doesn't mean the server you're trying to connect to is going to have a 100mbps upload speed. You will only ever be able to connect as fast as the slowest of the two of you.

Anyway, I recommend you test your bandwidth, and depending on the answer, possibly whinge at your ISP about false advertising, although there probably won't be anything to do about it besides drop their service.

Fyi, cable internet tends to have a nicer pipe (in comparison to the cheaper DSL) but also tends to be horribly overpriced.
 
Well, I tested the connection using Dunhausen and Saunterer's links, here are the results(I ran each test 5 times):

2Wire.com
18.50 Mbps
21.94 Mbps
20.20 Mbps
25.59 Mbps
22.26 Mbps

dslreports.com
Download-432Kb/s Upload-126Kb/s
Download-273Kb/s Upload-111Kb/s
Download-420Kb/s Upload-124Kb/s
Download-410Kb/s Upload-124Kb/s
Download-464kb/s Upload-124Kb/s

CNET.com
403.6Kbps
419.8 Kbps
475.6 Kbps
409.9 Kbps
446.3 Kbps

So why are the results from 2Wire so different from the other two sites?
 
scalprum said:
So why are the results from 2Wire so different from the other two sites?
Click to expand...

From 2Wire's web site:
What does this test actually measure?
This connection tests how fast your computer can load a Web page from the 2Wire Website. It does not measure the speed of your ISP connection, but rather the speed at which the page is received and appears in your browser.

Why do other "bandwidth" meters give different results?
Bandwidth does not always mean the same thing, other meters measure how fast your connection is able to find a requested Website, or how fast you can send and receive email.

How do I determine if my results are good or poor?
Your results should be consistent and should not change dramatically. If you receive inconsistent results, such as a high number then a low number, you may be experiencing a problem with your connection.
Click to expand...

J-
 
This is a cool tool. Just point your browser to:

http://www.socket.net/traceroute/

and watch the output. For example, the traceroute to my computer is:

traceroute to c-24-1-172-253.hsd1.il.comcast.net (24.1.172.253), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 fw1.como.socket.net (216.106.88.148) 0.900 ms 0.483 ms 0.464 ms
2 rtr1.como.socket.net (216.106.2.1) 0.785 ms 0.680 ms 0.842 ms
3 hdlc.stmo-como.socket.net (216.106.23.66) 4.259 ms 4.182 ms 4.215 ms
4 gw2.stmo.socket.net (216.106.5.6) 5.796 ms 6.200 ms 5.337 ms
5 sl-gw9-kc-5-0-TS7.sprintlink.net (160.81.124.37) 11.749 ms 13.973 ms 10.663 ms
6 sl-bb21-kc-1-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.23.65) 11.146 ms 11.938 ms 10.493 ms
7 sl-bb26-fw-13-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.8.63) 21.638 ms 22.957 ms 22.357 ms
8 sl-bb23-fw-12-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.11.41) 23.705 ms 22.431 ms 23.554 ms
9 144.232.8.14 (144.232.8.14) 26.124 ms 26.547 ms 29.703 ms
10 tbr2.dlstx.ip.att.net (12.123.16.6) 32.433 ms 38.641 ms 39.932 ms
11 tbr1.sl9mo.ip.att.net (12.122.10.89) 39.918 ms 32.529 ms 31.550 ms
12 tbr2.sl9mo.ip.att.net (12.122.9.142) 31.673 ms 32.989 ms 36.400 ms
13 tbr2.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.45) 31.423 ms 31.773 ms 33.404 ms
14 gar14.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.6.85) 31.262 ms 30.706 ms 30.842 ms
15 68.87.229.113 (68.87.229.113) 30.899 ms 32.697 ms 30.840 ms
16 po-10-ar01.elmhurst.il.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.229.114) 32.832 ms 32.940 ms 32.017 ms
17 te-3-2-ur01.homewood.il.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.229.66) 34.677 ms * 33.755 ms
18 te-8-3-ur02.homewood.il.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.230.134) 35.754 ms 34.588 ms 36.108 ms
19 te-3-1-ur03.homewood.il.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.231.138) 34.529 ms 33.521 ms 35.102 ms
20 te-8-4-ur04.homewood.il.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.229.78) 35.102 ms 33.521 ms 33.736 ms
21 te-3-2-ur01.griffith.in.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.229.82) 34.647 ms 34.043 ms 35.287 ms
22 te-8-1-ur01.valparaiso.in.chicago.comcast.net (68.87.230.166) 42.858 ms 36.102 ms 35.170 ms
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 *
Click to expand...

The returns are pretty confusing, but the thing to look for is the times for each "hop" in ms (milliseconds). Each line is a "hop" from one bit of hardware to the next, usually routers, but sometimes firewalls, switches, etc... You can see that on mine, once I get into the chicago comcast network, things REALLY start to slow down. This is likely due to number of customers and max bandwidth between each leg of the journey.

This is a GREAT tool if things start feeling a bit slow. Check the traceroute and see if there are any glaring problems before you call tech support. When you tell them that you ran a tracerout and their router: te-8-1-ur01.... is showing a return of over 243ms they really sit up quickly!:D

J-
 
Scalprum, about four months ago I switched our Internet connectin from a dial-up to a DSL, as you did. Overall the experience has been good, but I'm dealing with a good local ISP who uses some of the bandwidth (?) of our local phone company. This is as I wanted it to be so I could call local people if I need tech support or to handle a billing problem, and I can get a monthly statement by snail mail so I can send them a check.

I would recommend that no one ever get hooked up with a company that wants to bill your credit card monthly. After using an AOL dial-up connection (48,000 BPS) for the first several years of my "online existance" I finally gave them the boot, not just for the increased speed of the DSL, but because of repeated double billing on my dear wife's card which they never corrected, no matter how hard we tried to get them to. She had to cancel her card account to stop their BS. (No, the credit card company would not or could not help us, either.) Everytime I called AOL for so-called customer service or tech support I reached somebody who didn't speak or understand my version of English and was in some far away country, most notably India, Argentina, and finally St. Lucia, a tiny Caribbean island! No matter how nice somebody was trying to be, they were clueless, and everything they said was a lie.

Ghostwolf, your wife gave some good advice for you to pass along to Scalprum. I can tell she's smart like my wife. Thank God for smart wives! :D
 
Which ISP do you have and where do you live? If you live in the US I can almost guarantee your line isn't rated at 100mb/s. Verizon FiOS and Optimum Online are just about the fastest in the country, offering around 30mb/s down.

You can also try testmy.net and speedtest.net for more speed tests.

It could also be that your TCP settings aren't configured for the high speed and are still stuck on dial up settings, but I'll tackle that once I get more info from you.
 
I'm not the most IT savvy guy so I won't even attempt to address the specifics of the different types of internet, but IF you live in an area where you can get Cable (such as roadrunner) yes it's overpriced but in my opinion it is worth the money bc I use the computer at home so much. Also check around cable companies often bundle Cable and/or phone package with high-speed internet for much lower prices then any of the services along. I've never had DSL, upgraded from phone line straight to cable, but I've not been impressed with the DSL service I've seen at friends houses.

Also some pretty old computers can fly on cable/ethernet service you don't have to have a monster a computer as you may think, just check to see what the cable co. recommends as "preferred" not "minimum" requirements.
 
I can add a few things here

1. DSL doesnt scale to 100Mbps the most you are likely to have is ADSL2+ which provides a theoretical maximum of 24Mbps download speed. As one previous post mentioned the 100Mbps youre seeing is probably the speed of the inside Ethernet interface of your ADSL router.

2. Almost all DSL connections are contended. That means that several people share the same bit of bandwidth back to your local exchange. Typical contention ratios for domestic DSL are 50:1 which means that 50 other households in your neighborhood could all be sharing your 24Mbps. Its just the way they set things up to keep costs down. If youre the only one of those 50 people on there you will get the full bandwidth, if all 50 are on there downloading concurrently you can expect around 1/50th of your stated bandwidth.

3. As another post already said, the bandwidth limitation may be somewhere else on the Internet. Your file transfer will only run at the speed of the slowest bit of the link.

4. A common misunderstanding when transferring files across networks. Files are measured in megabytes, network speeds are measured in megabits per second. There are 8 bits in a byte. Lets work through an example to illustrate:

eg. I have a home ADSL connection that had 8Mbps download speed. I assume I'm the only one on the contended link at the time and everything on the internet is tickety boo so im pulling a full 8Mbps. I decide to download an album from itunes thats 80MB in size. On the face of it 80Mb on an 8Mbps link should take 10 seconds (I'm pulling 8Mb per second so in 10 seconds I can get 10x that?) Unfortunately youre pulling 8 megabits per second so to transfer that 80MB file will take

8 megabits per second = 8 / 8 = 1 megabyte per second
80 megabytes / 1 megabyte per second = 80 seconds = 1 minute 20s

now lets work it though if you download this in the early evening or a prime time spot at the weekend when all other 50 households sharing your contended link are downloading stuff too.

Your bandwidth is 1/50th of 8mbps = 0.16 Mbps
0.16 megabits per second = 0.16 / 8 = 0.02 megabytes per second
80 megabytes / 0.02 megabytes per second = 4000 seconds = over an hour

These are two extremes, you will probably find that you get quite high download speeds most of the time but at peak times performance will be poor. My advice is to go and do something else when its like that and come back when all the kids have gone to bed or early in the morning when theyre all still in bed. And dont forget that sometimes its something else on the Internet thats the problem not your link

As an average rule of thumb if when youre downloading a file your browser is repeatedly telling you youre pulling less than 50 - 60 kB/s you should get on the phone to your ISP. Or just call them anyway but bear in mind what I said, they might not be trying to fob you off if they tell you theres nothing they can do!
 
We live in the Texas panhandle, and our internet is through our local telephone company, West Texas Rural Telephone(WTRT). I don't think the LAN is being overloaded, since there are only about 15-25 houses within 10 miles of ours, and the hub is about .25 miles down the road. Norton hasn't detected any addware or spyware either.
 
Ok then yeah, definitely not rated for 100mb/s. I can't find the speed package because the web site is extremely bad, but I'll guess it's under 10mb/s.

20KB/s would equate to roughly 160kb/s, I don't think it should be that low. I'd call them up and ask them what speeds you're paying for, or check an old bill to see if they say there.
 
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