longgone Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Lately, I have been experiencing some really slow download speeds. Normally, when I am downloading a Linux OS to play with my d/l sppeds run around 156kpbs (asa indicated on the bittorrent site) and this is on DSL. I recently bought a GPS unit and went to their web site to d/l any updates, total size was 4.3GBs, It took the better part of 2 days at the blazing speed of 24kbps, with a jump now and then up to 85kbps. I have just tried two different web sites for speed tests and on one my d/l speed is listed at 186kbps the other at 0.22mbps with an upload speed of 0.32mbps. My ISP is earthlink, I am using a NETGEAR N750 dual band DSL/ROUTER combo unit. The internet portion is wired (regular DSL setup), the printer is wireless. Any suggestions where to start at to get back up to the 1.2mbps I had just a month or so ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Wow, are you on the 3MB download pipe with your DSL? What company? Recently a friend of ours did the same thing and they are on Cox Cable, it still took a few hours but it was done before they went to bed that night. And they have the low tier of 3 Mbps on Cox Cable in Hampton Roads area of Virginia. I know some of that could be due to the server itself too. Could be being hit heavy due to the holiday too. Granted Cox Cable in Hampton Roads beats DSL hands down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 The ISP is earthlink and I am on the (supposed) 1.5mbps down/768kbps up plan. Cox is out here too and they have a plan that they say has a 28mbps down. Cox would be my last ditch choice if I have to change ISP's. ATT has this "uverse" plan but from what I can gather all it is is a real fast DSL which would be on the same phone line that my current DSL is on so I don't know how they can get speed that fast using the same line that I already use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Depends on the area of course, but in the Hampton Roads area of Virgina (except here of course, sigh! where we can't get any wired solutions), Cox Cable has the best speeds for the area. You have to do some research to be sure they are the same there as here, but if so, I would definitely give Cox Cable a try in your area. DSL Reports page for CT Cox Cable DSL Reports page for Earthlink DSL Just based on those two links at DSL Reports, I would move to Cox Cable if it were me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Here's the same pricing I talked about for Hampton Roads in CT: Cox Cable HSI Connecticut Residential pricing Just in case it would be helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Dale, There's a couple things at play here. When you think about it, three things determine the speed of your download- The speed of your computer (very small factor) The speed of the site you are downloading from The speed of the network between your computer and the remote computer If the remote computer you are downloading from is bogged down, you will see slow speeds. There is very little you can do for this If your computer is slowing it down somehow (very unlikely), than you can fix it yourself. And that brings me to the last part- the network between you and the distant server. When connecting and downloading from a site, your ISP will send the packets in one direction towards the distant end. Hoever, thy may not take the same route every time. It means you have less control over the data once it leaves your house, but the multiple routes is what makes the Internet so resilient to any major failures. Here's another problem with ISPs. The two major ISPs in my area (Cox and Verizon) both filter, or slow down, traffic to some sites such as YouTube. In your case, it is possible that your ISP is slowing the traffic down, but I don't think that is the main issue. I think the GPS manufacturer simply did not want to pay for high speeds on their end and perhaps you were downloading at the same stime as a whole bunch of other folks, slowing the speed down even more. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 @ LilBambi .... I will have to check all that info out. I have, on several ocassions fussed at Earthlink about their projected time line to have cable in my area, that is like the monkey and the football talking to them. Their techs and/or customer service do not strike me as having a full deck between their ears. @ Adam .... at the time I built this box, it was a smokin', haul butt machine. AMD quad 4 cpu (AM2+ I think), 8GB paired ram, all the stuff I could get for speed. I have not, however, tried to overclock it. Of the two "speed test" sites I used, one is about 30 miles from me (Tiajuana MX) with a 72ms ping speed, had same results from a server in Los Angeles 130 miles distant (give or take a mile or two). One thing I need to do is try a d/l that has no video embedded in it, like an OS from distrowatch. After that I will have a better idea where this anchor is at. Fwiw, in the past when I have had problems similiar to this, it was caused by AT&T, once was water in the connection, the other was from them doing some line repair and somehow or other (their words) I was grouped with a large group of subscribers (duh,, thought my phone pair was all mine, not shared). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Dale, If you can get a speed test to show close to the speed you are paying for, then nothing is wrong with your computer, or your connection to the Internet. There are then only two things that could make that download run slow. First, would be some kind if Internet congestion. Second, the server you are downloading from may be overloaded. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 Adam, I agree, and there is nothing I can do about either one of those two items. I just ran some speed tests from the web site speedtest.net to several different servers with various ping times but the upload/download speeds were pretty much the same for all of them. Another site, 2wire.com does not allow for me to change servers but the down speed from it is in keeping with the other site. The best I have ever achieved is when I d/l a Linux OS, it is usually around 156kbps with a rare bump to a little over 200kbps. Have never had anything higher. An example, if I am d/l an OS that is several GB in size, it is normally around 4 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 Ah haa,,, progress, good progress,,, I am back to 1.2mbps on the speed tests and d/l speed of 140-160kpbs. The problem waas with the AT&T line, the tech/lineman switched me to another pair and all is good. I did have a trouble call in to them for static on the line and an echo. All is gone now, until the next time that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Ah haa,,, progress, good progress,,, I am back to 1.2mbps on the speed tests and d/l speed of 140-160kpbs. The problem waas with the AT&T line, the tech/lineman switched me to another pair and all is good. I did have a trouble call in to them for static on the line and an echo. All is gone now, until the next time that is. This is not the first time you've run into this issue, huh? Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Adam,,, no, not at all. This is the third time AT&T has had to send out a lineman for this very same problem. I have had several instances where the problem cleared up between the time I made the trouble call and when they called back (several days) to check and see if the problem still existed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 That would be very frustrating. I remember when we were still on dialup and had major water issues on the line. Every time we would call, by the time the technician got back to us, the rain had dried and drained. Finally after 2 yrs of this crap, they finally called back while it was still raining and they heard the ghosting and crosstalk on the line, and came out. They found water in one of their flying splice boxes and fixed it and voila, after 2 yrs it was working right again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 A bit of humor here on this Saturday... I just ran the speed tests again (3 different sites), 2 of them are pretty much the same 1.2 - 1.3mbps down and .32mbps up. The 3rd site (must have a serious problem) says that my down is ... 4000mbps (they don't give an up) a second test read the same. Ran it again after a bit and it was 1836mbps, again, back to 4000mbps. strange thing is, that at that particular site, the initial reply was 0kpbs. That is the Saturday humor from this end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 What speeds are you paying for? 3mbits down? Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Pretty sure it is the 1.5mbps down/768kpbs up. I will check though to be sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burninbush Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 @ longgone ... I urge you to get the Firefox extension named Down Them All -- it will open multiple connections to any download site, and download your file in parallel, so to speak. In the example where speedtest.net says you have 1.2mbps download, but then a source server is limiting you to [say] 200kbps rate, DTA will open 6 sessions to get your speed up to the maximum your local connection can support. Occasionally I'll find a site that doesn't allow multiple connections, but most will. Makes me feel sad about all those folks in rural areas that can't get cable internet -- I saw my Comcast connection running at over 3 megabytes per second recently when downloading a linux distro. I think it's very unlikely that your local hardware is the cause of your slow download speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Not all sites like those types of download managers and it can get quite messy when they don't. Just have to remember to disable the download manager if the site complains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burninbush Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Not all sites like those types of download managers and it can get quite messy when they don't. Just have to remember to disable the download manager if the site complains. Well, my experience here is that DTA will drop back to one session in that case. Never had it fail. Obviously you can't exceed the speed of your local connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Excellent. Haven't tried DTA. Mostly because I have to be careful with our connection anyway, sadly. That is great to know though. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longgone Posted July 17, 2013 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 Thought I would throw this out for comment or information. That same d/l for that GPS unit that took the better part of to days just a dew weeks back, took 15 - 18 minutes just 2 days ago. Exact same unit, exact same updates, everything the same with one exception. First time around, I was lucky to get 85kpbs, second time (if the speed displayed can be believed) it was kicking it at 4.3mbps. The file size (total) is 3.4gb, whih would normally take a few hours to d/l. Amazing what a little moisture can do to a connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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