Speed increase means nothing

Gamers benefit much more from miminal latency than maximum bandwidth. Most games are designed to use minimal bandwidth.

I have a SB5100 in So. Calif., and am only seeing ~2100/490. I just tried again. I have seen as high as 510 Kbps up, but never higher than 2200 Kbps down.

What would you suggest?

snip

maybe 2MB/sec. when dl

Umm, no. During the play of a game, speed -- a lack of latency -- is what is needed. It's not the size of the pipe, but the speed of the flow that matters most. That's not bandwidth.

As for what good a bandwidth increase (it's not a "speed" increase) is if the websites can't keep up, well, websites aren't the whole Internet. For many (most?) people, the "Internet" is websites and e-mail, and for those people, bandwidth increases beyond a certain point will not even be noticed.

Things that do benefit from higher bandwidth include large file transfers, and real-time video and audio. For most *cable* users who need, the download bandwidth is fine, but they need an increase in upload bandwidth. That's not to say a download increase doesn't help these people. Only that increases in upload bandwidth are more of a priority.

But for someone who only reads e-mail and browses websites, the lowest level of cable or DSL offered is probably sufficient. The cost for higher tiers outweighs any benefits they may see. This also applies to most gamers, even though gamers tend towards the bigger anything is better concept.

Having escaped, in tact, from the Democratic Convention, "WindsorFox[SS]" inked:

BUT...

If you have 1Mbps available, you can pull ONE site at 1Mbps.

If you have 4Mbps available, you can DL from *4* sites at once, EACH at 1Mbps.

it isnt

I constantly reach my 4.3 cap with comcast. Rarely do i find a server that can't handle that speed.

What test site are you using ?

What do you have for CPU power ?

What ISP and advertised speed ?

What apps (firewalls, spam blockers, virus checkers) are you running ?

What router or gear is between you and the modem ?

Lots of variables.

Yes, the good ole days. My node was oversold but was getting the

3mbps, then attbi bought @home and throttled us at 1.5. Comcast bought us and now I'm throttled at up to 3 with the new DOCSIS Motorola SURFboard sb4220 modem they sent me.

Good news, gave me $5 credit if installed before july. Bad news raised my monthly fee to $57.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm paying $40.50 (CDN) for 5 Mb / 800 Kb.

}Joseph, } }Where are you testing your speeds? How are you judging that your }connection is running slow? } }One good site to test your speed at is

- }please post your results. } }Also, if you give me the MAC address to your modem, I can run some tests }on it and try to handle your speed issue from that angle.

This is 2:35AM. I looking particularly at the Atlantic stats, acceptable IF I had 4Mbps but I have 5Mbps. Looks like the best I am getting is close to 4Mbps so why should I pay extra for something I am not getting

Raw Data: Connection Class : Cable Modem or Higher download start time: 1092378917127 download end time: 1092378928593 download time: 11.466 download size in thousands of bytes: 5001 estimated line speed (K bits per second): 3489 stimated line speed (K bytes per second): 436.2

Raw Data: Connection Class : Cable Modem or Higher download start time: 1092379006706 download end time: 1092379018763 download time: 12.057 download size in thousands of bytes: 5001 estimated line speed (K bits per second): 3318 stimated line speed (K bytes per second): 414.8

Raw Data: Connection Class : Cable Modem or Higher download start time: 1092379097376 download end time: 1092379109474 download time: 12.098 download size in thousands of bytes: 5001 estimated line speed (K bits per second): 3307 stimated line speed (K bytes per second): 413.4

Las Vegas

Raw Data:

Connection Class : Local Frame download start time: 1092379197220 download end time: 1092379201376 download time: 4.156 download size in thousands of bytes: 1500 estimated line speed (K bits per second): 2887 estimated line speed (K bytes data per second): 360.9

Raw Data:

Connection Class : Local Frame download start time: 1092379270926 download end time: 1092379275162 download time: 4.236 download size in thousands of bytes: 1500 estimated line speed (K bits per second): 2833 estimated line speed (K bytes data per second): 354.1

Raw Data:

Connection Class : Local Frame download start time: 1092379290053 download end time: 1092379295922 download time: 5.869 download size in thousands of bytes: 1500 estimated line speed (K bits per second): 2045 estimated line speed (K bytes data per second): 255.6

} }-CoxTech1 }Cox Communications } } }Joseph L wrote: }> TO all, }> What good is a speed increase from the cable companies when websites and such are }> saturated and U can only get a fraction of the bandwidth available anyway. I just went }> with COX's 5MB/768K plan. I havent seen anything faster than say maybe

2MB/sec. when dl }> and such.

I agree, it should be only $19.95. But $40 for 3mbps/256kbps is a pretty fair deal.

Definitely a great deal. Perhpas the US government should find a way to stimulate broadband with some direct support as well.

Perhaps a visit to

would benefit....

Also, check with firewall off (ZoneAlarm 5.0 has some speed problems), and make sure the router isn't slowing things down if you have one.

I'm pretty sure gamers that host thier own games are benefitting from the increase as the up speed has increased. Of course, I wouldn't know as this gamer that hosts games lives in Vegas and we don't get higher speeds....we only get to pay MORE for LESS speed. Aren't you all jealous? (BTW we pay $49.99 for 3MB service, while you're getting

4MB for $39.99)

Silt

The Canadian government encourages broadband by its tax and regulatory policies, which the US doesn't. Worse, the states in the US add additional taxes to many of the communications services provided by the cable companies, which increases their costs, even though they might not have to charge tax on the internet service.

What do you mean by "direct support"? As far as I know, the internet access is not subsidized in Canada. It's provided by a wide variety of companies, so there's a fair amount of competition. Incidentally, Canada has been leading the world in telecommunications for many decades, and generally has lower rates than anywhere else.

Incidentally, normally my internet access would be $45/month, but because I get internet, TV and cell phone from the same company, I get a 10% discount on all of them. I also get other benefits, such as a free movie every month etc.

One thing a lot of people forget, is that the cost to deliver the service is not proportional to bandwidth. There are certain fixed costs, no matter what your speed. Then there's incentives to go to a higher speed, by charging slightly more, for a significant increase in bandwidth. Another example of this, would be cell phones. A plan with a small amount of "free" minutes is not all that less expensive, than one with a large block of minutes.