Running slow!

[buzz74]

Hi all,

Everything seems to be a bit slow recently, my connection speed is at 100.0 mbps, not sure if that is good or bad, what should it be? Start up is really slow also, Is it easy to find out what my computer is running on start up?

[Lord of the Rings]

100 mbps means 100 mega bits per second. That's the official speed plan you are on. But, due to overhead loss such as distance from supplier/ISP, also loss due to equipment used, etc. which means you may lose between 15-25% of purchased speed. LW refers to speed in Bytes per second, not bits per second. Divide the speed by 8 will give you bytes.

Download speeds in LW are dependent on your sources/hosts. You can only download as fast as they will let you. Whilst they may be high speed connections, they may already be sharing their upload capacity with 5, 10 or 50 other people so that speed gets divided. Normally in LW you download from several hosts who give you a portion of their upload bandwidth. Ideally you try to download from as many sources/hosts as possible.

To find out what your upload & download speeds are, do a speed test -> Choose nearest location for a speed test & only have your browser open: Speed Test Internet Speed Test DSL Speed Test Broadband Speed Test Bandwidth Speed Test
But note, many of those speed tests specify speeds in bits per second (bps) & not B/S, so divide the result by 8 to show what capacity speed you have in bytes per second.
eg: 100 mbps - 20% overhead = 80 mbps. _____ 80 mbps divided by 8 = 10 MB/s

[buzz74]

Thanks for your help, will check it out!

[Lord of the Rings]

Some speed tests are not 100% accurate but will give you an approximate idea of your speeds. Best if your own ISP has any speed tests. Since doing tests from elsewhere can be affected by traffic, line losses, test site affected by traffic, etc. eg: some test sites can give different results to others or at different times of day. But it at least gives you an idea of your approximate speed capacities.

[ursula]

er....

I'm fairly sure that the quoted 100.0 mbps is strictly a hardware number...

His ISP is going to be a LOT narrower bandwidth, what ?

Also, mind your pings and queues !

If he really does have 100 mbps down, I wonder if I can rent a room in his house ? (With access to his ISP, natch !!!)

[Lord of the Rings]

Yes my ISP offers 24 Mbps, but I only get just under 2 Mbps I think at the best of times. But my ISP doesn't boast about the 24 Mbps, they say only a few people may be able to get up near to that.