Your Interwebz Speed

[young]

[blm14]

^ wow for home connection that's pretty impressive...

Checking again

I wish there was a speedguide host within our local network. It would be like 12000MB/s in both directions

[milosz]

Not thrilled. I'm on the 20Mb/s plan and they sent me an e-mail that said it was a free bump up to 30.

[shufon]

finally I have competition!

wait, do you go to columbia?

What do you suggest using around Columbia? I live in Morningside Heights and and this is the shit I'm getting from TW (even though we pay for faster):

[blm14]

What do you suggest using around Columbia? I live in Morningside Heights and and this is the shit I'm getting from TW (even though we pay for faster):

You are paying the extra $9 or whatever for "wideband" right? I am too and this is what I am getting (although my download speed on torrents is routinely 1.9MB/sec):

In my experience when you aren't get as fast a connection as you are paying for it's because of one of the following:

1) You're using wireless

2) You have a faulty cable modem (these things drop packets like it's hot - literally; most of them are so badly ventilated that they overheat and get damaged, esp in the summer. I replace mine every year!)

3) You are sharing a segment with a lot of people who are bandwidth hogs.

If you REALLY need speed, use a cat5 cable to your router, PLEASE! If that doesn't improve things, disconnect your cable modem, take it and the power cable to the TW office on 96th and broadway, wait in the long line, and then have the following exchange:

You: "Please to take this steaming woad-pile from me, it has angered teh intarwebz gods."

Bitch behind the bulletproof glass: "Here you are, sir. Please humbly accept this new equipment at no cost to you"

I believe that FiOS is up to 50MBit downstream but that's building-by-building which means if you can't get it now you'll have to pester your landlord to allow verizon access to the building and install some equipment. Your mileage on such requests may vary.

Finally, I have to make a note of my hatred for upstream capping amongst US internet providers. WTF ghuys!? You can give me 20MBit down, but only .76MB up!? REALLY?! Believe it or not, being able to upload content is IMPORTANT for some people. I could use my work backup software on my home machines without it taking 16 days to do a single snapshot, for example. Or I could upload video to youtube without waiting 12 minutes for each file. ARGH!

/rant

[orlylow]

[shufon]

@blm14 - thanks for all the info. I'm assuming our slow speed is due to our router and/or cable modem. When I tested the speed last night I was the only person home, so I know it's not that somebody else is hogging bandwidth. I'll go down to the TW office on 96th when I get a chance and return the modem to see if that helps any. Otherwise I'll just be on campus whenever I need to use the internet intensively.

[blm14]

Yeah - try bypassing the router and connecting directly to the cable modem, and try doing wired to the router instead of wireless if you are currently doing wireless. Either could help

[setterman]

I love living out in the country, but you're fucked when it comes to technology. Even cell phone coverage is shit. Hughesnet sucks balls, but cable and dsl aren't even an option. Have to go satellite for internet and tv. It's cloudy and raining right now, so I assume speeds are way down. need to check this thing at different times and see if we're ever getting anywhere near what we're paying for.

[gettoasty]

Just got new internet setup finally after I dunno, 30+ years with AT&T with like 3.3Mb/s

The speed above is wireless, connected to the cable modem directly yields about 24Mb/s when the tech. set it up.

i use to pay like $30 for the at&t, now only $5 more for a 12Mb/s plan. So, wireless output is not entirely bad, but I want to get the most out of the 24Mb/s max.

Going to experiment after getting some new CAT6 cables. With a CAT5/6 cable, my netbook hovered at about 19/20 to the router. In my experience, a lot of connection speed, like some mentioned by blm, also include updating the router. Mine is pretty old =\

Oh, and bought own modem from Fry's instead of renting the damn thing for $7/month. Didn't know the modem should be replaced that often, will consider.

[suicide]

I see institutional connections approaching 100Mb/s, but the rest of the numbers here make me sad. At my house:

[otlyaa]

better than i used to have anyway

[youre sketch]

not too terrible for what I pay and the amount of other options available.

[jebeebus]

I wish they weren't so stingy with upload

[tac0tron]

Shit i have fuckin slow internet.

Upgraded, but fuck a lot of you have crazy speed!

[Magsåvningsreserven]

I see institutional connections approaching 100Mb/s, but the rest of the numbers here make me sad. At my house:

and how much do you pay?

i'm in the uk, i can assure you we're not anywhere near the top - but in the last decade we've gotten our act together due to new laws and competition.

in the us it's the opposite. the tele companies are working together to hike prices up, it isn't any wonder your speeds are better than 99% on the country.

i'm probably wrong, but isn't $40/month normal for like.. 10 meg?

[gettoasty]

10characters...

[suicide]

i'm probably wrong, but isn't $40/month normal for like.. 10 meg?

We pay what I'd venture is very slightly more than average; about $60 per month.

in the us it's the opposite. the tele companies are working together to hike prices up, it isn't any wonder your speeds are better than 99% on the country.

On the contrary, if you go to http://www.netindex.com/value/allcountries/ you'll find that the differences between the US and the UK are actually quite small.

According to speedtest, my paltry 65Mb/s is faster than 97% of connections worldwide. So the apparent speed has nothing to do with being in the United States. I think the reality is that most connections just suck, regardless of location. The quality of this particular one has been a pleasant surprise.

The really sad part is how technology has outpaced infrastructure--connections as fast as mine (and faster) should be available everywhere and to everyone, especially with the advent of HD streaming, etc.

[redX]

i live in a major city in germany and i had to go on tape with my ISP saying i was ok with actually not getting what i'm paying for because the maximum speed i'd pay for simply isn't available. up until the fucking telekom have the grace to upgrade to some fiberoptics.

problem is in germany the telekom own all the landlines so all other ISPs can never compete/offer more than what is set as the limit

the slower option from my isp is more expensive than what i'm paying now for the 'faster' connection

[Magsåvningsreserven]

ah, 60 bucks isn't that bad at all. that site is interesting, but how accurate is it? i know of countries in eastern and northern europe that offer unlimited dsl, 20MB up and down for peanuts (the equivalent of $25 IIRC). I don't know, from what i've read on various sites, the us broadband situation seems pretty bad, but perhaps it's hyperbole.

problem is in germany the telekom own all the landlines so all other ISPs can never compete/offer more than what is set as the limit

over here, BT have had to open up access to their infrastructure to all the other ISPs. There is a lot of competition with many isps offering their own LLU services, ton of bundles with tv and calls thrown in etc. a decade ago the most we were being offered was 1 or 2MB, next year i'm being upgraded to 80MB free of charge...

[redX]

ah lucky you

[suicide]

ah, 60 bucks isn't that bad at all. that site is interesting, but how accurate is it? i know of countries in eastern and northern europe that offer unlimited dsl, 20MB up and down for peanuts (the equivalent of $25 IIRC). I don't know, from what i've read on various sites, the us broadband situation seems pretty bad, but perhaps it's hyperbole.

over here, BT have had to open up access to their infrastructure to all the other ISPs. There is a lot of competition with many isps offering their own LLU services, ton of bundles with tv and calls thrown in etc. a decade ago the most we were being offered was 1 or 2MB, next year i'm being upgraded to 80MB free of charge...

Yeah, it's not bad. They just sent me an offer of $100 for 100Mb/s. Sorta excessive, but price wise it's pretty reasonable.

All I can say is Ookla (speedtest.net and netindex.com) seem to be pretty well regarded and used as the standard when it comes to speed testing.

The thing about the US is that it's a massive, massive country. If you live in the heart of a major city like me, it's easy to get decent service at decent prices; service that is on par with anywhere else globally.

The problems begin when you venture outside of those areas and the population density drops. The countries that we talk about having ubiquitous high-speed access are those where population is relatively dense and cities aren't too far away from each other. Obviously that isn't the case for large parts of the US, so it's still literally cost prohibitive (infrastructure costs that fall on the municipalities and the providers) to have decent broadband there. There are lots of places here where you can get a 100Mb/s connection, and lots of places you'd be lucky to get 1Mb/s. So I don't think averages really tell the true story.

[blm14]

Connection at home still about the same (fuck you time warner and your bullshit upstream capping):

My work still wins. 100MBit up and down, and that's just external. Within our network I have gigabit baby.

Just got an upgrade:

[ranonranonarat]

Edited January 1, 2012 by ranonranonarat

[burgeoise]

^What the fuck

[blm14]

That is a beautiful thing. Singapore may be fucking annoying with their laws, but goddamn do they know infrastructure...

As an aside - if you buy time warner wideband, they give you a DOCSIS 3.0 motorola modem that has an integrated 4-port wired and wireless N radio in a single unit. They set the network name and the password and you cannot configure ANYTHING yourself. Promptly had to go buy a new modem myself so I can keep using the router that I already have. Grrrrr.....

Edited January 2, 2012 by blm14

[Mixture]