Since dropping my bandwidth from 2G to 1G the drop in download speed has dropped more than I think it should! - At 2G I was downloading video at average 130 kb/s - Since I've dropped to 1G the download for normal program files is now about 16 kb/s and I was getting better than this on my old telephone 56kb connection.
Question - Is there a way I can get my actual bandwidth confirmed before I start WW3 with my provider??

Thank you for posting your question to the Ask Me Help Desk!

Here is just one of many possible links where you can test your bandwidth.

http://www.dcsnetlink.com/bandwidth.asp

Have a blast!

You can also try these sites for a comparison:

http://www.dslreports.com/
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I've discovered that not all speed test sites are created equal and some are actually the cause of bottlenecks and not necessarily your connection. I don't have a problem with my connection at home (Cable Modem) and using the above two sites the report is 6Mbps which is what my connection is supposed to be. Other numerous test sites show my connection often as less than 1Mbps which I know for a fact is not true.

Also in your quest to find a good speed test site pay close attention to sites that ask you a lot of questions relating to your location. They are generally trying to narrow down your speed test to the closest server in their network in order to give you a truer measure of your speed.

Casey

Hi,
There are plenty of sites which you can use to check your bandwidth.
Try the below link to get those sites. You can compare the bandwidth from different sites.
http://home.cfl.rr.com/eaa/Bandwidth.htm

Many thanks gents

Average results were 112 kb down - 93 kb up - does this look reasonable for a 1 mb connection?

Sorry for sounding so dumb but I'm one of those silver-top wrinkly learners :rolleyes:

Life is nothing but one long learning experience :)

So these results don't look very good. UNLESS you meant to say 112kB with a Capital B vs lowercase b. If you meant a Capital B then the results are descent. A Capital B means Byte while a lowercase b means bits. 1 Byte = 8 bits. So if indeed it was Bytes you listed then 112kB=896kb which is close to 1000kb (1Mbps). But what throws me off a bit is your uplink. If if were 93kB then 93*8=744Kbps. I haven't seen DSL or cable with that close of down/up ratio. So this is what lead me to say that these results don't look good. If you have a T1 connection (symmetric) then these results (assuming you meant kB) are good.

So what type of connection do you have?


Casey

Thanks for the info Casey

I'm on cable with a connection of supposedly 1mb.

The kB readings were 14.1 down / 11.3 up.

Worth ringing the provider?

John

Those numbers are still not good even if they were in Bytes. I would recommend that you check against a few more sites first before you call them so that you can have something concrete when you talk to them. Also check your own connections to make sure you're setup correctly. Power down your cablemodem and PC and restart them and do the tests over as well.

If all of that still shows poor download speeds then I'd call them and mention to them what you tried to do (especially about the restarting portion).

Casey

Thanks again Casey

Had a plod around as I've found time.

One place I did think to look was my old test results from pcpitstop where I tend to go when I've had probs to check present reading against old ones... anyway - and these are kb - not kB

March 2006 132 99
July 2005 651 196
May 2005 632 130
March 2005 538 131
Jan 2005 306 131
October 2004 67 127
September '04 68 126

I did a fresh restore just before this so no earlier results - however the downs seem to have altered with circumstance although I find 651 down to 132 on a change of 2mb connection to 1mb a bit drastic and the most telling is the 196 drop to 99 on upload - which could possible be something internal on my PC??

Thanks again for the help and your patience

John

Just for giggles try this link to test and tell me what your results were please..
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

Thanks Tommy - communications came out at 936.2 so it looks like I'm getting my 1mb. My slow downloads must have been from busy sites or something

Thanksagain

Remember the transfer rate/bandwidth varies with time. You speed is up to 1mb. So depending on the time of the day and the amount of people on the same exchange as you, results will differ. I'd try a couple of speed tests at different times in the day and see what the average result is. Checking at 6.30pm on a weekday evening will always present you with the worse speed possible as lots of people will be getting home & logging on.

Also remember that your download speed also depends on the person you are downloading from. If they have a small upload allocation, then you're speed isn't going to be great regardless of your download allocation.

Thanks for all the input folks. It's been really helpful.

I'll sit back and wait for the next problem now ;-)