How do people get insane download speeds?

I can't get over 7 mbps on my Cox high speed cable connection.

How do people get over 40 mpbs?

 

Do you mean you get 7 megabytes per second in download speed which is a 56 megabits connection or a 7 megabits connection which is a little under a megabyte per second?

If its the latter, FIOS. I believe Verizon offers 50 mbits down and 20 mbits up in the US.

Also, parts of Europe and in South Korea or Japan, the broadband infrastructure is much more modern and thus, they get much better speeds.

 

Basically, the cable companies don't want you connecting that fast.

 

Its all about where you live and the service offered.

Cable in particular is one of the types of service that is heavily influenced by population density.

If you live in a highly populated area (both homes and businesses alike) they share your bandwidth and will reduce your speed, especially in peak hours.

my 8mb/s connection when i had cable was 6mb/s most of the time and in peak 2 and lower sometimes.

A friend out in the boons had the same brand service and got 10+mb/s almost all the time.

 

You might also try installing Download Them All plugin for Firefox. It really does boost your speed quite significantly.

Cheers...

 

There place being downloaded from is also a factor. Yeah, the dude sitting at his FIOS connection may have immense bandwidth to play with, but if he's trying to download from a site that is capping connections at 200k/sec, guess what.. he's getting 200k/sec.

I don't know many data storage places that will let anyone download at whatever speed they want, at least not without paying for it.

 

I have FIOS and it still doesn't feel nearly as good as the internet my freshman year of college. We had 2 100mb connections in our dorm rooms and were able to max those out communicating with the rest of the dorm area of campus. I was able to download at over 70Mb/s off the internet. This was at the Rochester Institute of Technology. My FIOS lately has been 20/5, but the download speed is probably due to my wireless network.

 

See, they have to justify that $30,000 a year somehow.

 

Haha.......University internet connections are always the fastest since they have all of those computers all connected to it......

 

I get 30/1 down/up speed on my Cox/Cable high speed internet. Though, using wireless G slows my effective bandwidth to around 20-25/1.

Maybe in a few years, i'll upgrade to wireless N to take full advantage of my fast $20 cable internet connection.

 

I love university internet. At University of Toronto, I would max out my 100Mbps connection for any transfers within the network. Outside downloads, could do over half that. Too bad they didn't have gigabit routers installed then, I'd have like to see how fast intranet transfers would have been.

 

First, to Tevah, it's MegaBITS not Megabytes per second. A typical Gigabit (1000base-X) Ethernet connection is only rated at about 116 MBps (Megabytes per second). Virtually all home network speeds are in Mbps, or Megabits per second.

As far as the original question - there are so many things that go into speed that they're too many to list here. But in general, the biggest factors are:

1. Strength of incoming broadband signal
2. Number of devices on the broadband cable system (more devices (e.g., cable boxes) lowers your overall signal voltage)
3. RFI & EMI - Cordless phones, electrical adapters/transformers, microwaves, anything that creates interference on the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands.
4. System Resources - Available System Resources affect CPU tasking and speed, which in turn affects your overall network speed.
5. Encrypted Security/Firewalls - they're great for security, but they can drop your speed by as much as 80%.
6. Router/Adapter Settings - Those who know me here will tell you I preach this regularly. Most people treat their Router like an appliance - plug it in and do nothing and expect top speeds. Doesn't work like that - you need to learn how to setup your Router and Adapter to get the best possible speeds.
7. Wireless Standard - The Wireless standard you're using has upper transmission limits - e.g., G is typically only 54mbps. The upper limits of Wireless N continue to be redefined - hopefully when it gets ratified soon we'll have a clear number.
8. Disk Fragmentation - Disk fragmentation can also slow your network down, as it takes longer for processes to deal with requests.
9. Automatic Processes - Using processes like Windows Update or other programs that regularly access the 'net for updates means that your request for Router access is but one of many others in the queue. Shut down all auto updates except for any Virus definition updates. You should never allow anything to be installed on your system you're not aware of anyway.

You can also move your applications and other processes to the head of the Router queue by using a router feature known as Quality of Service (QoS). QoS allows you to tell the router which systems, devices, applications, etc. have priority access to the Router and the Internet over all others vying for Router access.

10. Range and Signal - If your Router is either too far from the system or the signal is being lowered by building or other types of interference, it will slow the network speed.

As a Network and Computer Consultant, the biggest problems I usually see with clients are Router/Adapter setup problems and Low Signal. If you have a low incoming signal (it can be verified by your cable provider) you can boost the signal with a Line Amplifier, which goes inline on the RG-6 cable at the access point of the home prior to the cable branching out to other rooms. If you have more than 2 cable boxes, it's a good bet your signal is low to begin with. Signal problems are also largely affected by RFI/EMI and building materials, as well as just regular Router use. You should power cycle your Router about once a week to clear any crap building up. Routers aren't immune to incoming glitches, hiccups, power surges and other issues.

If you're wondering, with my own Linksys WRT600N Dual-Band Router, my average speed is 270mbps. That's using either a WUSB600N DBN adapter or an Intel 4965AGN adapter, though the Intel is typically a bit slower, around 240.

Read this HP Article on Throughput - it has some other insight into speed issues. Though primarily an Ethernet based article, much of it applies to Wireless as well.

Understanding Throughput

 

lol, you guys have amazing speed compared to me: According to speedtest I get 1.59 Mb/s.

 

Be glad you have even that speed, my sig shows the speed I get on an average day.

Anyways, to the OP, since cable is shared between everyone in your neighborhood, if you get a few neighbors that are blackbeard the mp3 pirate, then your speeds drop dramatically. If you want to brag about a speedtest, try testing while everyone is asleep.

 

Anything over 33Mb would require Docsis 3.0 for cable, or fiber optic. You are limited by a configuration file that your modem requests from the ISP every time it starts up, which they offer you based on your MAC address.

 

Depends on who else is using the network and also the speed package you have. DOCSIS can limit you, my old modem was 1.0 or 1.1 and I got 12mb/s max but with my new 2.0 modem I get like 14 lol so not everything is based on that.

 

FIOS - its great....

 

Too bad fast connections aren't available everywhere.

Here in Dallas, TX, my neighborhood only has 2 main ISP choices. AT&T U-verse vs TWC Cable. I chose AT&T U-verse because its as fast as the TWC cable, but had a 1.5mbps upload (vs TWC's .5mbps up).

If I had a choice, I'd gladly get Fios. Price is the same and I could have a 25down15up connection.

I browse the forums and I see some ppl in other states w/ speedtest results of over 50down and10+ up. TX needs to step up its broadband services. <2mbps upload is really weak sauce.

 

Again be lucky you have 1.5 up. I get 0.2 up.

 

Docsis 2.0 changes upload speed maximums. You are still limited by the config file that your ISP sends your modem, regardless of Docsis theoretical maximums. You can have a Docsis 3.0 modem, in an area that covers it, and still only get 3Mb/s download speeds.