Download speed not up to scratch?

[Rik]

Hi Raz

Your profile needs to move a step to catch up with your sync speed, but that's minor. The noise fluctuation on the line is possibly causing data to be re-sent, but you need IDNet to test the line to establish that. It's odd, though, that noise went to -1 at 11, normally that would happen at night. Is there any industrial activity around you?

MTU/RWIN is only scary till you try it, then it makes much more sense. Use TCPOptimizer, make a note of the figures before you start, so you can revert to them. Ensure the router is set to 1500 MTU, then let the app determine optimum MTU for you.

[davej99]

Raz, Is it the site you are downloading that is giving low speeds? It is very common to get poor speeds from heavily contended servers, especially outside the UK. There is nothing IDNET can do about that.

If you got speeds of 600kB/s today from the BT site I sent you it is consistent with the BT speedtests results you posted today. I just clocked it at 500. If you continue to get similar results there is not too much wrong with your set up, bar a bit of tweaking per Rik's posts. I did notice yesterday that the BT site I sent you was unusually slow.

If you are getting reasonable BT speed test results, which you are, the problem has to be the sites you are accessing. Always cross check with the TSTools speed tester and ThinkBB.

[Raz]

Rik, ive had a look at TCPOptimiser and its still spooking me. What do i set the connection speed at? I moved it to 8000 and got a load of changes it now wants me to update. I darent hit yes thou. The changes look pretty major to me and theres about 45 of them. Also i dont know what network adaptor to choose so clicked to modify all adaptors.

Im in a quiet residential street with no industrial activity.

Dave, my main downloads are videos from a couple of poker tuition sites. Both are US based but one has a European server. The speeds are always consistant with other downloads ive done though, such as installing AIM recently and other random stuff. Every download i do is around that 150 mark, so seeing speeds up to 600 today was really suprising.

[Sebby]

The connection speed should be the speed you sync at, Raz. Do you connect via wireless of ethernet cable? The adaptors will probably be called Wireless Network Connection and Local Area Connection respectively.

I really don't think MTU or RWIN is your problem to be honest, though it may help very slightly. You'll unfortunately have to sit tight and wait for your exchange to have more capacity added.

[Raz]

Ok ill leave well alone then.

[davej99]

Raz, If you want to send me a link, I will see what speed I get with one of your downloads.

[Raz]

Raz, If you want to send me a link, I will see what speed I get with one of your downloads.

Thanks, but they are monthly subscription and can ban if they see content being downloaded from different IP addresses, so i darent risk it.

[Raz]

Thought id run another speedtest before i went to bed and its a fast one. No disconnects the last couple of days either. Either tweaking the MTU to 1500 or replacing the filters seems to have made a difference. Hopefully things are looking up.

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    IP profile for your line is - 7000 kbps
    DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)  8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6184 kbps

[Rik]

Thanks, but they are monthly subscription and can ban if they see content being downloaded from different IP addresses, so i darent risk it.

What would they do if you had a dynamic IP address?

[Raz]

What would they do if you had a dynamic IP address?

I dont know, i dont really understand this stuff, all i know is they warn you about sharing your account when you sign up and tell you they are able to detect misuse. I assumed it was the IP address that would give it away, but maybe its something else?

[Rik]

I don't think it can be the IP address, Raz as many (if not most) ISPs use dynamic addresses. My guess would be that they place a cookie on your machine, unless you had to install any software, in which case they could do it through that.

[Dopamine]

I'm a content provider/seller for a monthly subscription based site selling pictures and videos. Amongst our numerous security measures is one that does monitor the IP addresses using any specific login, and should a handful of IP addresses use the same login, that login will be cancelled. The view is taken that dynamic IP addresses don't change more than two or three times each day at most. I believe that our security guys allow a little more leeway for an IP address range so as to accommodate dynamic address problems, but even then the number of accesses allowed before the login is killed is still very small.

[Rik]

Interesting. Anyone using a modem with a dynamic address could have problems, I guess.

[Dopamine]

Yes, but it's surprisingly few. The file sizes of the content are pretty large and it seems that nearly all subscribers have pretty solid connections. Unfortunately, piracy is such a huge problem that security has to be quite tight, so this is what our security guys have found to be the best method with the least disruption to paying customers. Those that experience genuine problems due to constant reconnects on a dynamic address account for less than 0.1% of calls to tech support.

[Rik]

Hopefully, most people are now investing in routers.