How f.aa.ast is Fast?
 

Hi Guys

My friend just got a new net connection, and to say the least its so damn fast. Nah I'm not comparing it to European or American standards of speed but just here. And yes cheaper than this my stupid connection. I'm planning to switch over but got some doubts.

It says 256kbps upto 2mbps(where-ever feasible) at dirt-cheap price. I got 256 too but it totally bs, download never crossing 30kb/s, but his connection gives him a download speed of 230+kb/s, i dunno how but it does. For experimenting, i downloaded an iso of Ubuntu(700mb) through torrent using Azureus and it did it in an hour at 200+kb/s. I couldn't believe my eyes, i used to spend an entire night for this, and now under an hour.

My question is how can a connection of 256 give a download of 200+? What are the speeds of you guys? One good thing that's coming out now is they are trying to standardize 2mbps as the minimum while going upto 8mbps. The future of internet looks very bright indeed.

OFD
Thanks

Well I never understood foreign isps. Yes I do live in the US, and starting out after 56kbps dialup, I have been with cable for the past six years, first 3 years, I started on 1.5mbps down, 128kbs up, 2mbps down, 128kbps, till 6mbps down, 768kbps. Now I am on fiber optic, and although I have lost 1mbp for downstream, I do get 2mbps for uploads, but the main thing is that I am not limited to how much I can use per month, unlike foreign isps. When I first got on cable, and spoke with others, namely in Canada and Europe, they were always given a quota on their broadband, which I never understood, and I know something like that just wouldn't pass here in the states. No isp here that I know of would limit users to how many GB per month they are allowed. The only somewhat limitation that there used to be here, was hourly charged on dialup isps, but this was over 10 years ago, and even that faded away a while back.

As for your question of 256kbps down, 200KB/s seems highly unlikely. I think perhaps a more accurate measurement might be around 70 to 90kb/sec max. My thing to look out for, even though isps in your area will sooner or later offer higher speeds, make sure they do not impose a quota on how much you are allowed per month. Its time that isps in other places in the world would just charge a flat rate and allow unlimited access.

Also some prices just don't seem the way they should be, because dialup is so obsolete now, I can't see the justification that here in the states have that they charge 10$ monthly, it should be 5$ max, but anyways, to reiterate, talk to the companies that are offering these types of speed, and make sure that there is no hidden surprise of how much bandwidth you are limited to per month, that kind of practice needs to stop, and although I haven't encountered it, it still bugs me, because that is really bs with a high speed connection.

[edit]

I almost forgot. Another reason why your friend might be experiencing 200KB/sec, is because of burst speeds. I have seen speeds even on 56kbps dialup that reached maybe 30kbs, but just for a sec, before going down to standard 6-7kb/sec. I have also had speeds up to 4-5MB/sec, but that is something that never lasts only a sec or so, before slowing down.

Yes the speed for download a file is base on the total bandwith you have, but it also effect by others factor like:
1. if you use broadband (example ADSL), the connection backbone is share by area of
people. Even you have 1mbps (maximum you have), and back bone connection is
100mbps share by 1000 people concurrently. Then you have low speed.

2. Depends on destinate server, if the server offer 10k speed per connection, you
have 1mbps is nothing to do(Or you can use some download manager to open another
few connection to total up the speed).

3. Destination is how far from your place, distance play role in speed.

You can use internet speedometer to compare how fast you have and your friend have.

Regards,
Ks

Thanks for the input, it is a unlimited download connection, nonetheless I'll inquire with the company and see what comes off.

Not to brag, but whenever I download distro's, my flies at 600kb/s! Usually download it in 20-30 minutes for a 600-700mb distro!

Doesn't the sending server have limits too? I used to have an connection that allowed me to download about five ISOs simultaneously at 90 to 120 kb/s each, but I could never download a single ISO at a rate higher than 120 kb/s. Whether I downloaded one ISO at a time or 5 seemed to have no effect on the length of time taken to download each individual file. I am assuming this is because none of the servers hosting the Linux distributions were able to send data to me faster. Am I right?

IMHO, such fast internet access it silly. You don't need an SUV to drive you and your briefcase to work. Nor do you need an internet connection speed beyond 128 kb/s. At 128 kb/s, Web pages load faster than you can read them and at 384 kb/s they aren't loading any faster than at the 128 kb/s speed. Having a little patience can save you a lot of money that would be better spent (if you are out of ideas in this matter, just forward your savings to my Pay Pal account). Leaving something to download overnight or while you are at the park or at work consumes almost 0 patience.

ftp.uk.debian.org sends me stuff at ~4000 kb/s. I have yet to see this kind of speed on other servers.

I've had Dialup burst speeds as high as 190KB/sec