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Why are my internet speeds so slow?

spazo

Senior member
Its been like this for a couple months now. I recently gotten an email from comcast and they say that they have upgraded my connection but its still very dismal.


Using the test from dsl reports, I get:
Your download speed : 406713 bps, or 397 kbps.
A 49.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 353636 bps, or 345 kbps

I'm thinking that there may be a problem with my cable modem? Help please....I'm not getting my $50 worth of internet...
 
Originally posted by: deathkoba
If you're using a modem you need to upgrade. People are on DSL and CABLE now.

what the hell?

your upload speed seems fine. however, your download speed is way below the rated speed. i would give comcast a call and they will send a tech over.
 
Have you checked for spyware or run a virus scan, trojans and viruses can eat up your bandwidth like there is no tomorrow.
 
Originally posted by: ohnnyj
Have you checked for spyware or run a virus scan, trojans and viruses can eat up your bandwidth like there is no tomorrow.

but his upload speed is normal. if something is eating up your bandwidth, your upload speed will decrease as well.
 
Your download speeds are way off. The problem with cable is that it is a shared connection. Do you live in a decent neighborhood where there are lots of people with cable internet connections? If so you should know that you are sharing the connection with all of them and that could be the problem. A whole neighborhood of buggers downloading from the internet will slow that sucker down to a crawl. This is one of the lesser trumpeted facts about cable. It's why I ditched my cable connection which was faster at the time for my DSL.

DSL is not significantly slower than cable for the majority of what you use it for. I'd still call Comcast and have them check that problem out. For $50 you should be able to easily get 1.5mbps downstream and 768kbps upstream DSL. I just checked my DSL connection and I'm getting 5-6x the speed you are getting on my downstream and about 30% faster on my upstream. Your upstream is fine, downstream is way way off. Even with a few more yuppies on the net I don't think it should be that slow. If possible I'd check the speed in the morning, afternoon and late night to see if the speeds vary by a lot. If it doesn't, I'm inclined to believe it's a problem with your cable modem or the service they are giving you.
 
Have you tried running a speed test from a differant site? Perhaps it's the DSL reports test that is incorrect..have you downloaded any large files to see what kind of real download speeds you are getting?
 
6144/768 DSL > 3542645673756784673567345635672462452456 Cable

Ok... maybe not quite that bad... but anyway. DSL is better. Cable is a bus topology. So say you had.. a 25Mb/s cable connection. NICE right? Now take the fact that its shared with everyone on that segment/trunk. Say maybe 20 others like you in a neighborhood of 500... what just happened to your speed? Ouch.

If you do questionably or downright illegal things on the net, get an ISP who will force any supoena's to require a john doe case. Comcast and Verizon will hand your life story over no problem.

 
Originally posted by: quakefiend420
i wish i could have pulled in 397K on my dial up...
:roll:

That was actually posible with two unlocked modems and an ISP with unmetered lines. Illegal though.
 
From what I remember DSL is a shared architecture too.....in the UK we run on roughly 50:1 contention ratio...i.e your connection is shared with 50 other people in your street!!
My cable is hell of a lot faster at all times of the day than any other ADSL connections that I have tried!!

For example....even at peak times aroud 16:00-23:00 I get almost my full 2Mbit DL....never seen an adsl connection get anywhere near full capacity at peak times...

EDIT:::::typos
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
6144/768 DSL > 3542645673756784673567345635672462452456 Cable

Ok... maybe not quite that bad... but anyway. DSL is better. Cable is a bus topology. So say you had.. a 25Mb/s cable connection. NICE right? Now take the fact that its shared with everyone on that segment/trunk. Say maybe 20 others like you in a neighborhood of 500... what just happened to your speed? Ouch.

If you do questionably or downright illegal things on the net, get an ISP who will force any supoena's to require a john doe case. Comcast and Verizon will hand your life story over no problem.

dsl is also shared...its not like each dsl connection has a dedicated pipe...at osme point they're all shared...IMHO, there is no end-all better solution...it depends on where you are, how many people are using broadband in that area, how the company handles its isp, and other stuff...

for instance...where i'm at now...i can get a 5mb down/768k up cable connection, or a 1.5mb down/384K up dsl plan..since there arent that many people on cable internet where i'm at i do much better with the cable connection...

on the other hand...the town i lived in before...my options were, again, the 1.5mb down/384K up dsl plan, or a 3mb down/512K up cable plan...trouble was...a lot of college kids lived around me...and lots had cable internet...so i actually got about 800K down and 400K up most of the time, unless it was kthe middle of the night...so i ended up using the dsl plan since it was always stable

so i say there is no "best" solution, you just have to find what works for you
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
Originally posted by: quakefiend420
i wish i could have pulled in 397K on my dial up...
:roll:

That was actually posible with two unlocked modems and an ISP with unmetered lines. Illegal though.

397?

no way...max bandwidth you can get on analog phone lines is 115.2K...and thats theoretical bandwidth...really you're looking at about 60K per line on average, with no line noise and the isp switch being a few blocks away...with two i dont see how you could get over 230K theoretical bandwidth...much less what you can actually use
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
6144/768 DSL > 3542645673756784673567345635672462452456 Cable

Ok... maybe not quite that bad... but anyway. DSL is better. Cable is a bus topology. So say you had.. a 25Mb/s cable connection. NICE right? Now take the fact that its shared with everyone on that segment/trunk. Say maybe 20 others like you in a neighborhood of 500... what just happened to your speed? Ouch.

If you do questionably or downright illegal things on the net, get an ISP who will force any supoena's to require a john doe case. Comcast and Verizon will hand your life story over no problem.

How about a 25Mb/s ADSL2 connection? 🙂
 
DSL is point to point, the lines aren't shared until at the DSLAM, at which point they go to a trunk line, such as ATM over SONET, or an Optical Carrier. If that' gets bottlenecked, then pretty much everyone in the area that shares the same trunklines are going to have slow internet. The potential for slowdowns on Cable occurs much quicker, as its shared by zone/neighborhood, not by CO. However cable can be faster if there is less subscribers. In the end, I can't deny that it really does depend on the area your in.
 
We aren't here to argue weather DSL or Cable is better, we are here to help this guy figure out why he has a slow connection....
 
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