Sometimes it takes long time to get the response, how can I measure the bandwith of my Cable modem

Yes, I did power off my modem and computer too. These are connected to surge protector, I did power off an don on surge protector itself, still some times even get a reply from yahoo or google, takes some time, I am wondering this is cable modem issue.

Friend of mine was suggesting to change to DSL, he says cable had lot of bandwith problems, if everybody in the neighbour hood turn on, it slows down, sometimes it is like dial-up line. I am not sure about this?. Does anybody have any idea?.

You guys suggest me to switch to DSL?. I don't know how reliable it is?. Let me know. I also heard that if the loop length is longer in DSL, again the data rate falls down.

Suggest me, I am looking for some tool which measures the bandwith of my line. Appreciated.

Since the OP posted from XP would that work. :)

I always remove the _search domain_ to speed up dns results.

Have you powered off your modem in the last six weeks? Some of us have had to do that to get the new speeds.

You can use traceroute, to identify where the bottle necks are. Be aware, however, that the bottle necks may change frequenlty.

That would affect how long it takes to download something, but not much on the initial response.

That depends too much on local issues for us to give you anything more than generalities. In my case, I get real bandwidth on my cable modem service that is nearly ten times the best that DSL offers (over 4 Mbs vs. 400Kbs).

Talk with other people in your neighborhood. Find out what their actual service is like. If a local loop is oversubscribed, the bandwidth for individual users will be reduced. There can be similar issues with DSL.

YMMV

Here are some that I picked up from earlier discussions in this news group

I like the U Mich one, but that is close to me. However, if you are going through a number of network hops, then you don't know where the choke point is. Try several differnet tests and see how the resutls cahnge.

Run some of these. Also do the traceroutes that others have suggested. Then come back here with more evidence. Also tell us what service you us and where you are located.

:)

You may have a point. Bandwidth testing is like taking core samples from a patch of land. If you take one or two samples, no one much notices. You take enough samples, and you end up with enough holes that you have to be careful walking the land. But it's not likely that so many core samples will be taken that the land becomes unstable.

The capacity of the bandwidth testing sites effectively puts a cap on the amount of tests that can simultaneously be occurring. Even if you assume that every bandwidth test site is running at full capacity 24/7, the total traffic they all generate would barely be a blip when compared to the whole.

That's not to say that there might not be some people out there who are obsessed with testing their bandwidth. But I'd rather be on the same network segment as a dozen - or even two dozen - of those guys than one avid file sharing participant.