Cable download speeds. WTF?

[MetalSign]

I just recently moved and went with Penteledata's 10MB download service. The cable guy couldn't get the modem to work with the cat5 cable, but could with the USB cable (I think he was using a straight cable and needed a xover or vice versa). I tried my speed with dslreports.com's speed tests. I was getting about 5mb down and 800kb up. The up speed is right at the advertised speed.

Should 5mb be correct for a 10mb down line? I know it will never get above 90% of the advertised rate anyway.

Next question, I put my wireless router inline and am using this setup currently (no USB cable - coax into modem, cat5 out into router, cat5 out into NIC). I now get dl speeds between 500k and 1.5mb and uploads of 800k. WTF? The uploads are right on, but the dl's are way off.

Are these tests reliable? Can you check speed with ping times in milliseconds? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long read!

[Death Metal Moe]

I don't know much about Cable but I'd be pissed if I were you. I'm on DSL and I get a little over 1MB download and about 700KB upload. So you're paying more for a faster service and only getting DSL speeds. Call, bitch, complain until you get a reaction.

[Mother Shucker]

Every web site I go to to do speed tests show diferent speeds.

[Sack of Chisels]

Yes those tests are reliable. What is NOT reliable is a usb connection, and a possibly misconfigured wireless router, these could be the root of your speed problems. You could also turn off any firewalls (including xp sp2's default one) and also run some virus and trojan scans to make sure nothing is blocking and/or eating up your bandwidth.

[stevethrower]

Also when u have cable internet... u are sharing your connection to the internet... so if you have a bunch of kids around downloading movies and shit... that could also effect bandwidth... what I would suggest is trying these tests in the middle of the night... when hopefully the little fuckers aren't online...

[MetalSign]

I have XP's firewall off. Is there a site that can tell me how to best configure my wireless router? It's a Netgear WGR614. When I try it on dslreports, I get 1mb download, when I try it on bandwidthplace.com right after dslreports, I get 4.9mb download. Any idea why the discrepancy? Is 4.9mb dl what I should expect for a 10mb dl service?

I didn't want to use the USB, so it's going thru cat5 now.

[NORTONnFRIENDS]

I just recently moved and went with Penteledata's 10MB download service. The cable guy couldn't get the modem to work with the cat5 cable, but could with the USB cable (I think he was using a straight cable and needed a xover or vice versa). I tried my speed with dslreports.com's speed tests. I was getting about 5mb down and 800kb up. The up speed is right at the advertised speed.

Should 5mb be correct for a 10mb down line? I know it will never get above 90% of the advertised rate anyway.

Next question, I put my wireless router inline and am using this setup currently (no USB cable - coax into modem, cat5 out into router, cat5 out into NIC). I now get dl speeds between 500k and 1.5mb and uploads of 800k. WTF? The uploads are right on, but the dl's are way off.

Are these tests reliable? Can you check speed with ping times in milliseconds? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long read!


Sir u should get near your 10 meg on a speed test. Im at 4 meg and i pull about a 4130 on a speed test. The ethernet cord could be bad. The usb line degrades your transfer from modem to computer slightly so look for slower tests when using that. You my friend are paying for 10 meg u make sure your getting 10. The other thing is that you cant have more that 2 2 way splitters between your modem and the outside plant. That includes any passive devices. VCR - rf modulator - etc.. .. The modem has a certain output level and splitters work the same in forward transmission as reverse. (kinda like you have 6 t.v's with out an AMP grainy and snow in picture) Best if you run a line from a single splitter off your drop direct to your modem.

Being broadband and a pipeline system you are right, your not gona get 10 meg all the time. It depends on how many subs are using internet in your NODE with your cable company. BUT, since you have a higher package you get precidence over other subs. PM me if you need. I too work for the cable company.

[kid afrika]

Sir u should get near your 10 meg on a speed test. Im at 4 meg and i pull about a 4130 on a speed test. The ethernet cord could be bad. The usb line degrades your transfer from modem to computer slightly so look for slower tests when using that. You my friend are paying for 10 meg u make sure your getting 10. The other thing is that you cant have more that 2 2 way splitters between your modem and the outside plant. That includes any passive devices. VCR - rf modulator - etc.. .. The modem has a certain output level and splitters work the same in forward transmission as reverse. (kinda like you have 6 t.v's with out an AMP grainy and snow in picture) Best if you run a line from a single splitter off your drop direct to your modem.

Being broadband and a pipeline system you are right, your not gona get 10 meg all the time. It depends on how many subs are using internet in your NODE with your cable company. BUT, since you have a higher package you get precidence over other subs. PM me if you need. I too work for the cable company.

I disagree with your statement about the signal quality. It either connects or it doesn't. Has nothing to do with the speed, it's digital.

As for getting 10Mbps, you'd be lucky to find any site that can support that speed. Speedtests are fickle at best and are really only a rough estimate of your speed.

What gets me is that he's talking about a drop to 1.5Mbps since he hooked up his router. This should NOT happen.

What kind of router is it, though? No matter the brand, I would go to the manufacturer's website and check for a firmware update.

For a true test of speed, download a huge file from a big company's site. Something like a video from Channel9 is a good test: http://channel9.msdn.com/

If you paid extra for the 10Mbps servive you may find that you are not getting what you paid for. Not because it's not capable of the speed, but again because most servers out there just aren't that fast. You'll notice especially on P2P services as most people are limited to 128Kbps upload on cable modem and dsl.

The one place that I see a true reflection of my cable modem's advertised speed is on usenet. But, even then, I'm not using the optonline newsservers, I pay for a connection to a third party newsserver and I get consistent speed of over 1MBps (8Mbps).

[Nothing Sound]

I have the Penteledata 7MB service.
They advertise 7MB down/800k Up

I get the 800 with no problem.
My download speed varies anywhere from 2.5-4.5 depending on the time of day and which
site I use to do the test. When I download files, if I'm downloading from a decent site,
I can download between 500 & 600 KB/s or 2 files at 250-300 each.

When I called them and questioned them about it they said that I was doing rather well
and was well within the average considering all of the people in my area that had cable.

[kid afrika]

I have the Penteledata 7MB service.
They advertise 7MB down/800k Up

I get the 800 with no problem.
My download speed varies anywhere from 2.5-4.5 depending on the time of day and which
site I use to do the test. When I download files, if I'm downloading from a decent site,
I can download between 500 & 600 KB/s or 2 files at 250-300 each.

When I called them and questioned them about it they said that I was doing rather well
and was well within the average considering all of the people in my area that had cable.

Be careful about your terminology here...

1 Mbps = 1024 Kbps
1 MBps = 8 Mbps = 8132 Kbps

The company you are talking about is rating their speed in Mbps, NOT MBps. So, your 600 KB/s is pretty much on point.


Little b = bits
Big B = bytes

8 bits = 1 byte

Big difference.

[LetsDoThisLucas]

this thread got me curious so i tried a test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/


and im happy with my results down=6480 kbps....up=911 kbps

[sshea]

Also when u have cable internet... u are sharing your connection to the internet... so if you have a bunch of kids around downloading movies and shit... that could also effect bandwidth... what I would suggest is trying these tests in the middle of the night... when hopefully the little fuckers aren't online...

I have run the speed tests, during peak and off peak times, and you are correct sir....during peak usage, a cable connection can be cut by as much as 2/3 depending on haw many people in your area have/use that service

[MetalSign]

It's a Netgear WGR614v6. I have the latest firmware installed. K1d, I downloaded a video from the site you recommended and the 94 meg file downloaded in about 1min20sec with dl speeds of 984k-1.5mb. Does that sound about right?

[Death Metal Moe]

I just took that last test linked and got 1497 Kbps down and 373 Kbps up for Verizon DSL here in North Jersey. I don't know what I was thinking about in my earlier post.

I know it's not really fast but I had dial up for like 3 or 4 years before that so this is fucking heaven.

[Nothing Sound]

Be careful about your terminology here...

1 Mbps = 1024 Kbps
1 MBps = 8 Mbps = 8132 Kbps

The company you are talking about is rating their speed in Mbps, NOT MBps. So, your 600 KB/s is pretty much on point.


Little b = bits
Big B = bytes

8 bits = 1 byte

Big difference.


I'm well aware of the terminology and I know it's megabits not megabytes.
I was trying to make it easy for the 'not so bright' here.

Maybe this will make you happy:

1 Gigabyte =

8589934592 bits
1073741824 bytes
1048576 kilobytes
1024 megabytes
0.000977 terabytes

1 Terabyte =

1099511627776 bytes
1073741824 kilobytes
1048576 megabytes
1024 gigabytes
0.0009766 petabytes


Care to continue?

[MetalSign]

this thread got me curious so i tried a test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/


and im happy with my results down=6480 kbps....up=911 kbps

I did that one and got 8384kbps down and 745 up, then I did bandwidthplace.com's and got 1.5 down. Something's wacky with those sites.

Thanks for all the info!

[LetsDoThisLucas]

I'm well aware of the terminology and I know it's megabits not megabytes.
I was trying to make it easy for the 'not so bright' here.

Maybe this will make you happy:

1 Gigabyte =

8589934592 bits
1073741824 bytes
1048576 kilobytes
1024 megabytes
0.000977 terabytes

1 Terabyte =

1099511627776 bytes
1073741824 kilobytes
1048576 megabytes
1024 gigabytes
0.0009766 petabytes


Care to continue?


o0o0o0o0o0o callin ppl out, oh snap them's fightin werds!!!



i think he was trying to help dun get all offended:action-sm

[mascan42]

I'm happy. 10440 down, 1820 up. Gotta love Optimum Online.

[kid afrika]

You wanna see really fast reported speeds? Refresh the results page. (may not work with all sites)

[SlimeyGoatFuckr]

I just recently moved and went with Penteledata's 10MB download service. The cable guy couldn't get the modem to work with the cat5 cable, but could with the USB cable (I think he was using a straight cable and needed a xover or vice versa). I tried my speed with dslreports.com's speed tests. I was getting about 5mb down and 800kb up. The up speed is right at the advertised speed.

Should 5mb be correct for a 10mb down line? I know it will never get above 90% of the advertised rate anyway.

Next question, I put my wireless router inline and am using this setup currently (no USB cable - coax into modem, cat5 out into router, cat5 out into NIC). I now get dl speeds between 500k and 1.5mb and uploads of 800k. WTF? The uploads are right on, but the dl's are way off.

Are these tests reliable? Can you check speed with ping times in milliseconds? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long read!
I went through the same thing here. I had comcast cable, they promised 6MD download and I only got it to test out at about 3MB. I cancelled the cable internet and got DSL. Now my speeds are about right, 5MB download and the upload is 783KBps.

As for the wireless router, I have the same problem only mine is probably because I got the cheap $59 linksys wifi router that don't include an antenna. When I use the wifi with this router, I only get about 1.5MB download and my upload is normal. When I connect with ethernet cables. all speeds are always right as they should be. Hope this gives you some ideas.

[Beeman99]

Also when u have cable internet... u are sharing your connection to the internet... so if you have a bunch of kids around downloading movies and shit... that could also effect bandwidth... what I would suggest is trying these tests in the middle of the night... when hopefully the little fuckers aren't online...

I went from ADSL to Cable, and my speed is now 6.8mbps dl and around 970kbps ul, so I'm happy. I thought the same way as you, that the more people on cable the slower your speeds, but my IP told me that's a bunch of bs. They could just be saying that to get my money, but I've had no slowdowns at any time of the day yet.

[stevethrower]

Oh boy oh boy they just annouced FIOS here... noice... gonna look into it... as I fucking hate rogers (ummm cable internet supplier here)...

[MetalSign]

Oh boy oh boy they just annouced FIOS here... noice... gonna look into it... as I fucking hate rogers (ummm cable internet supplier here)...

No offense Stevethrower, but c'mon Verizon, what about the good ol' USA!!!!11!! What the fuck. Canada gets FIOS before the 3rd largest city in PA. Dude, seriously. WTF.