Question about bandwidth

[Schfifty Five]

Hey guys,

I have a question regarding bandwidth/downloads/surfing speed.

I use time warner cable high speed internet, getting around 6 down/384k up typically.

When my roommate starts downloading stuff, the bandwidth can drop down to say half that, around 2-3m down/120-200k up. During that time, when I try surfing, webpages load pretty slowly. When I used to play WoW, it would lag up. Same with TF2. When he's not d/ling, everything is hunkey dory.

Fast foward to last week. Time Warner offered me a free 30 day trial of their upgrade internet package so that I am now getting 15 down/2 up. Pretty sweet. I figure I shouldn't be seeing anymore bandwidth/slow surfing problems now. I was wrong.

Even with the speed upgrade, when my roommate downloads stuff, the internet will be slow. The funny thing is that when he's downloading, I have checked speedtest.net and speakeasy.net and I was showing around 7-8 down/400k up, which is still significantly HIGHER than my original 6 down/384k up.

So my question is, even with more bandwidth, why is my internet surfing/gaming still slow when my roommate is d/ling stuff? At my original 6/384 speeds and no d/l's, I can surf fine. But at 15/2 with d/l's (dropping b/w to 8/400), why does it lag up still?

 

[JackMDS]

It should Not be a problem if a second computer is doing normal download.

However if the second computer is doing "Piggish" download (Aka Pig2Pig) there is nothing you can do about it, unless you limit the second computer's bandwidth.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
It should Not be a problem if a second computer is doing normal download.

However if the second computer is doing "Piggish" download (Aka Pig2Pig) there is nothing you can do about it, unless you limit the second computer's bandwidth.

My roommate is using bittorrent, so I assume "pig2pig" you mean peer2peer?

Anyway, so to clarify what you said, if my roommate is using a bit torrent client and d/ling stuff, and our bandwidth is tested to be 8m down/400k up DURING his d/l's, i will have slow internet no matter what?

So let's say I have huge bandwidth like 100m down / 10m up. If one computer is d/ling using Bit torrent and the B/W drops to 50m down/8m up, you're saying I will still experience laggy surfing on a 2nd computer that is not d/ling anything?


I guess what I'm confused about is even while my roommate is d/ling and our b/w drops from 15m/2m -> 8m/400k, why would it be laggy/slow? 8m/400k is still way more than my original 6m/384k.

 

[spidey07]

peer to peer protocols are not very network friendly and can cause a SOHO router so slow down significantly.

There are other factors in actual throughput and responsiveness than just bandwidth alone - latency/delay come into the equation as well which would slow down web browsing. The bittorrent stuff is causing added delay which hurts your throughput, especially in web browsing which is many start/stop connections.

 

[ImDonly1]

A lot of routers have a limit on the amount of connections they can handle. If he is using bittorrent, I assume he is putting some stress pm the router. Also I wouldn't worry so much about the download part. I am sure he did not limit the upload that much. Go and limit his upload in the bittorrent client to about 20 KB/s or less than half of your total upload speed and see if that helps.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Cool thanks for all the replies guys. All very good info. I'll see if those suggestions make any difference.

 

[JackMDS]

And if you get more Bandwitdh from the ISP the pig2pig would take it as well.

 

[kevnich2]

As others have said, it's not the bandwidth that's the problem, you could go back to your original 6mb cable. The problem is he's using P2P and it's stressing the router with too many connections. If you have a router with DDWRT, there's a section where you can change the default connections up to a higher number. This solved the problem for me.