I am on broadband, Comcast, and my IN speed is some like 4Mbps while OUT speed is only 1Mbps. Sometimes the speed is at 27 Kbps while downloading a file.
I play chess on line and too many times I loose because of the network speed. I just run out of time no matter how fast I try to play.
So, often I have to refresh a web page because it stalls and does not move, once I refresh it it loads the web page right away!
I know routers are the hogs of speed. Would anyone know what else controls the speed and why Inbound is much faster then Outbound? Is there a way to fix it or … ?
Thanks.

For most home broadband connections inbound is faster than outbound.. that is normal.

and actually according to Comcast your upload speed should be 384kbps not 1 Mbps

Download speed can be affected by a lot of different factors. could be internet congestion, limited bandwidth of the site you are downloading from, a lot of factors that are outside your ISP's control. OR your ISP could even be throttling certain types of traffic such as Peer-to-Peer.
You didn't specify specific types of traffic so it's hard to say.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...021654-93.html
http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-thro...ng-impossible/

I never realized Chess was so fast paced..

It's just this traffic. As long I pick my opponents least delay time I pretty much loose. It limits me whom I can play.
Well, you got only so much time, depends what you set your time to or play others time at http://www.playchess.com. You can try it like a guest.
Thanks.

Are you using wireless, by chance? If so, run a wire to your router, change your settings, and see if that cures your problem.

I am wired. I do not trust too much wireless yet.
Thanks.

It is like that because that is what most (home) customers want. On an ADSL link (other interface standards have similar considerations, but the technical description varies), there is a certain amount of bandwidth allocated to the user and that is split between upload and download. As most of the people most of the time want more in one direction than the other, ISPs allocate the share in a way that favours the more-used one.

Well, there is not a way for you fix that part; essentially your choices are to buy more bandwidth, or a better split of bandwidth for your needs, or learn to live with what you've got.

ISPs usually quote speeds in kilobits/megabits per second and download managers/ftp clients usually quote in kilobytes/megabytes, so are you sure that you've got that right?

You should also note that this issue of data transfer rate will probably not turn out to be your problem; it might, but latency is likely to be a larger worry. (Note that I know nothing about your app, and close knowledge and its operation of the app would be necessary in order to be definitive.)

Well, sometimes I need to download large files when I do some development and it does come down to nearly that “27 Kbps” and not just once. So often I tried at midnight hoping the cable would be less of demand but I just have to wait for another day! But it does not happen often and so I can live with that.
Comcast implemented this SmartZone email, a pathetic application! It has to reload all the buttons and so … whenever I want to read or delete. Actually, I have to close it too often because it stops responding. I do not think that is the right way to implement that. There is not enough bandwidth for that and so it should just deal with raw data that would make it faster and more responsive.
Thanks.