OT - DSL speeds

I'm confused by my DSL. I currently just switched from cable to DSL. the cost was less and the speeds are greater. Cable I was paying for 4mbs down and I would average anywhere from 3 - 1 mbs downloads. Whenever it dropped down to 2 or 1 my streaming netflix movies became unwatchable. So a friend told me about DSL and since it's a subscriber line you don't share the line like cable so I should be a steady feed. With my DSL I am paying for 7.1 mb downloads but average about 4 and down to 1 during peak times. Although if i tie into my modem it tells me it's running at 6.7ish but and internet speed test I do tells me I'm running much slower. Does this make sense to anyone. I don't see how my modem can be running at one speed but my downloads are another speed. I shut down all other computers and items at my house. Tried running straight into computer instead of router but still have the same issues??? Any information will be greatyl appreciated.

imho they never run as fast as advertised, in fact it is known fact that ISPs throttle traffic:
http://torrentfreak.com/all-major-canadian-isps-slow-down-p2p-traffic-090120/

this can explain why their utility may show theoretical speed while practical download speeds don't quite measure up.

Well, one tiny little thing you might consider is that providers advertise their speeds in bits per second and many speed tests and other utilities report their results in bytes per second.

The other thing to consider is that DSL speeds decrease the farther away from the switching office you are.

OG

Operaghost said:

The other thing to consider is that DSL speeds decrease the farther away from the switching office you are.

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This.
And you have to remember, the sites you download from also have speedlimits. During peak hours their bandwidth gets saturated quite easily, thus you end up receiving lower speeds then you want.

Another thing you should be aware of, most, if not all ISP's in the US throttle the speeds of their clients on peak hours.

Call the ISP and complain. I have one friend who did that and got a free upgrade to a "pro" package, just by griping, at no extra cost.

Thanks for all the info guys.

I konw I must be pretty close to the office for them to offer me the 7.1 download. And in the morning I get 5-6 which I am completely happy with. I guess I just had to high of hopes for the service. I just get really bummed when I'm paying for 7.1 and it drops down to 2.0 - .9 Making my netflix movies unwatchable. I guess I'll just have to cancel my netflix and go back to blockbuster

JOLTRON said:

I guess I'll just have to cancel my netflix and go back to blockbuster

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Its a cruel world.

Oh gosh - you may have opened a can of worms. There are many potential bottlenecks and ISP advertised speeds can be shady. Luckily I share a true 100 mb connection! Problem is most such services block traffic to Korea

JOLTRON said:

Thanks for all the info guys.

I konw I must be pretty close to the office for them to offer me the 7.1 download. And in the morning I get 5-6 which I am completely happy with. I guess I just had to high of hopes for the service. I just get really bummed when I'm paying for 7.1 and it drops down to 2.0 - .9 Making my netflix movies unwatchable. I guess I'll just have to cancel my netflix and go back to blockbuster

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hi joltron,
i know exactly how you feel, try living in a country that has a 1 telephone company monopoly, their support is very "push you on to another department to get rid of you" and if you don't like eircoms service there's no alternative!
well not at the moment, the wireless broadband networks over here aren't that big so they don't have coverage for everyone and you share just like with cable.

anyway, if you look at it like that, you're not gonna get anywhere!
what i do is leave my "flix" downloading over nite, and i get a fair few(depending on the quality), and that way i have a few to choose between the next day.
they say variety is the spice of life