10 replies to this topic

[Cibarius]

K.. i'm gonna try to get this right.. but I'm newly interested in wtf goes on with my internet connection and I'm having trouble finding answers to questions I don't even know how to ask.

I have a 20mb/s connection via comcast. ~2mb/s up.

using utorrent, I have never seen my GLOBAL download rate (multiple torrents running at once) exceed 1.5mb/s (say, 2mb/s to be generous).. even when toggling the speed guide and port forwarding.

20mb/s is extremely fast.. but I kinda feel like I would be just as happy using a 5mb/s connection.. as it would appear that I'll never be able to actually utilize much more than that..


what am I missing? Do I need to do more in-depth forwarding and tweaking of my router to get these things to fly?

[CA3LE]

Cibarius, on 03 June 2011 - 02:39 PM, said:

what am I missing? Do I need to do more in-depth forwarding and tweaking of my router to get these things to fly?

First off... Welcome to the site!



We don't call people "n00b" around here. I think that's so rude when people do that, you're just trying to learn something and ... "NEWB! STUPID N00B! neeeeeewwwwB!" --- jerks.

Now, to your query. Yes, I see my max speeds every day. Here's a download off usenet (giganews).


First, it depends on who's serving you the file. So you're downloading it off a crappy or overloaded site then you might not see your full speeds. But the benefits of a faster connection extend beyond the transfer speed. Having a faster connection will make your overall experience online snappier and less stressful. Go ahead, downgrade your service... then upgrade it to their best package (most decent providers will let you do this and downgrade back to what you were on without a hassle, cable providers like Comcast are always willing to upgrade and downgrade your account... whenever). You'll see the difference... even if you don't download any files.

Also, I don't see any tests taken under your account or IP address. Take some tests and let us know what your package is (and OS) and we'll try to help you get the most out of it. Depending on your setup there may be a few tricks.

[Cibarius]

sure! it's strange though - speedtest.net give me a result twice that of this site.. I got 10.7 from here and ~20 there.

[CA3LE]

Cibarius, on 03 June 2011 - 06:04 PM, said:

sure! it's strange though - speedtest.net give me a result twice that of this site.. I got 10.7 from here and ~20 there.

Yeah, that's pretty normal for the results to be different.  Two totally different tests.

What operating system are you running?

If you're running windows, particularly if it's older than Windows 7 you may need to tune your TCP stack to see your full speeds.  Windows doesn't always come out of the box optimized for fast connections.  Speedtest.net fails to detect this problem.

To make this change for free I recommend TCP Optimizer from Speedguide.net.  This makes changing those settings very easy and nearly fool proof.  Just open it, slide the bar over to your speed that you're supposed to have, check "modify all adapters" ... apply the settings and reboot.  You should have faster speeds after your re-test if that was the problem.  (this is commonly the issue in situations like this)

[Blako]

Cibarius, on 03 June 2011 - 02:39 PM, said:

I have a 20mb/s connection via comcast. ~2mb/s up.

...using utorrent, I have never seen my GLOBAL download rate (multiple torrents running at once) exceed 1.5mb/s

My theory:
Utorrent reports speeds in Bytes per second while Comcast reports speeds in Bits per second.  ISPs like using bigger numbers while trying to sell you stuff   Since there are 8 bits in a byte utorrent transfering at 1.5Mbyte/sec = 12Mbit/sec.  Your connection is rated at 20Mbit/sec or 2.5Mbyte per second.  So if my theory is correct then utorrent is using 12 of 20 Mbit/sec or 60% of advertised capacity.

If Utorrent maxes out your upload then the requests for data leaving your computer get stuck in "traffic" and as a result your download speeds come crashing down. Have you set your upload limit at 80% of your 2Mbit/sec connection? (1.6Mbit or 200Kbytes)  Also, how many people are you connecting to on utorrent?  You might need 200-500+ people to reach your capacity.

My Suggestions: limit utorrent to 80% of your advertised 20/2 comcast connection.  Set download limit to 2000 Kbyte/sec and upload limit to 200kbyte/sec.
Play with "global max connections" (100-1000) start low and slowly increase until problems develop then step down.
Here is some recommended GeekSpeak on data rate for ya http://testmy.net/to...rsion_table.php

[Cibarius]

Here are my account details:

2.62 megabytes per second (12 megabits/s) downstream.

I see now where I'm getting confused.

I just discovered that i've magically been assigned a 250GB monthly download cap too... yay.

I wasn't made aware of that either. I guess you can't expect much for your dollar any more.. I remember back in the day when only satellite connections had a monthly cap.

Lame.

[Blako]

I got this little program called "NetLimiter 2 Monitor" to check my internet usage in case I ever got put on a monthly limit.  In 2009 I downloaded 55 GBs and in 2010 40 GBs. I average 4 GB a month but that does not include the other computers/users in the house.

[CA3LE]

Blako, on 04 June 2011 - 07:25 AM, said:

My theory:
Utorrent reports speeds in Bytes per second while Comcast reports speeds in Bits per second.  ISPs like using bigger numbers while trying to sell you stuff   Since there are 8 bits in a byte utorrent transfering at 1.5Mbyte/sec = 12Mbit/sec.  Your connection is rated at 20Mbit/sec or 2.5Mbyte per second.  So if my theory is correct then utorrent is using 12 of 20 Mbit/sec or 60% of advertised capacity.

Internet providers show speed in Kbps, Mbps and Gbps because that's the correct scale for line speed.  You use kB/s, MB/s and GB/s to describe the speed of a file transfer.

Cibarius, on 04 June 2011 - 10:25 AM, said:

Here are my account details:

2.62 megabytes per second (12 megabits/s) downstream.

I see now where I'm getting confused.

I just discovered that i've magically been assigned a 250GB monthly download cap too... yay.

I wasn't made aware of that either. I guess you can't expect much for your dollar any more.. I remember back in the day when only satellite connections had a monthly cap.

Lame.

Well, your max speed isn't far off from where you should be.  But you have a few lame results in there.  

Check out the Automatic Speed Test.  Run it for a while and gather some more data.  I wouldn't worry about the cap.  When I worked for the cable company the same policy was in place... but I've been told that it's not strictly enforced.  If you're using your connection normally you'll be fine.  What the cable companies are really looking for is massive outgoing traffic on a connection  ... people abusing the terms of use.  Trust me, Cox has a similar policy...  I draw Terabytes and nobody's shutting me off.  

Also, if you read online, in forums about people saying that they got shut off because of that.  I'd bet you a thousand bucks that every single one of those people was sharing files on a ridiculous scale.  Just don't get stupid, limit your sharing and you'll be fine.

[TriRan]

another thing to remember is when torrenting or using any P2P software not only are you downloading, but uploading aswell. just because comcast says you have a 20Mbit down and 2Mbit up link does not mean you can achieve both max's at the same time, its really one or the other. so if your downloading at 1.5Mb/s and its not going any higher it could also be because your uploading at 150-200Kb/s which would be where the rest of your bandwidth is going so technically your connection is maxing out just not all on the downstream

edit: btw i see my max all the time on torrents like CA3LE said, i usually have to have somewhere in the ballpark of 1500 connections going to achieve that though

[water]

CA3LE, on 03 June 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

First off...  Welcome to the site!



We don't call people "n00b" around here.  I think that's so rude when people do that, you're just trying to learn something and ... "NEWB!  STUPID N00B! neeeeeewwwwB!"  --- jerks.

Now, to your query.  Yes, I see my max speeds every day.  Here's a download off usenet.
Screen shot 2011-06-03 at 2.54.16 PM.png

First, it depends on who's serving you the file.  So you're downloading it off a crappy or overloaded site then you might not see your full speeds.  But the benefits of a faster connection extend beyond the transfer speed.  Having a faster connection will make your overall experience online snappier and less stressful.  Go ahead, downgrade your service... then upgrade it to their best package (most decent providers will let you do this and downgrade back to what you were on without a hassle, cable providers like Comcast are always willing to upgrade and downgrade your account... whenever).  You'll see the difference... even if you don't download any files.

Also, I don't see any tests taken under your account or IP address.  Take some tests and let us know what your package is (and OS) and we'll try to help you get the most out of it.  Depending on your setup there may be a few tricks.

(@CABLE) N00B!

[mudmanc4]

Iv'e been capping out recently , almost constantly able to achieve at or even 5 Mbps above my allocated bandwidth. I suppose I should keep my mouth closed and enjoy this.

For all the years my connections stunk on ice in pink tights, it's one of the small pleasures of my day.