I was just wondering what sort of Broadband Width other members on this site have. We may need to contact our supplier and it would good to have an idea exactly what I need to ask for

This is from an ignoramous Lotus Flower

What's a broadband width?

Well, as far as I know, the wider the width, the more "bits per second" can be downloaded, pages load faster etc etc.

I am ignorant in these matters though, I just hope someone will know what I am on about

I think the word you're looking for is "bandwidth"

if you are in the uk, talktalk is quite good value for money. depends on how much downloading you do.

Ah thanks Saruman!



No, we already have broadband, but you can upgrade with the same company and we might do that, I need to know roughly what to upgrade to though.

Click the picture below to test your speed. On the right below the test when you get the results you will see a listing of different countries or continents (you can change it) and the best results. This will give you an idea of what is a "good" speed. Mine's respectable, especially considering there are two other people online right now and it's peak hours.

This is what you get with Verizon.



I've always enjoyed speedtest.

not too bad I guess

If only traffic moved that fast in DC.

indeed.. it's no wonder I avoid the place like the plague.. well DC and Baltimore

q.q

heres mine.

What do i win? LOL

The University of Washington has an awesome connection.

Mine:

Everyone must remember that YOUR bandwidth is limited by the sites you visit and the number of other people on your WAN.

I'm on Comcast, which claims a BW (whoops!! I accidentally put BS in there...) of 6-8 Mb with burst of 12. The problem is that when you download, the speed of the server is the limiting factor. So, if I connect to a server with a 256/128 DSL (just about the slowest of DSLs), then it matters not how fast I can go: the download speed is 256 or less.

In my travels about the web, the better sites will load me at somewhere around 1.5-2 meg, but mostly they are less. Even dedicated download places are slower, most often running around 500 meg, sometimes up to 700-800 meg, and occasionally higher. For downloads, I use browsers (yes, plural) that have download managers so while I'm deciding where to put the download, they are in the process so it completes more quickly. Netscape, Seamonkey, Firefox, Opera have managers, and all are good at blocking out adware and malware.

Some browsers also have a speedometer integrated so you can see your download speed. That way, you know how fast a site is feeding. Places like UM are quick enough so I don't bother looking at the thing, but some sites are painfully slow.

I said earlier that your WAN affects you too. Here's the deal. If you get a service that is .net (like comcast.net), then you are on a Wide Area Network. The other computers on your WAN are also using bandwidth, and the main server is limited in bandwidth. What this means is that if 25 other computers in your physical area are on the same WAN and the BW is 8 meg, then each individual computer has less bandwidth. If one of those computers is someone playing an internet game, that limits your bandwidth, since the server must multitask between computers. Usually this is not a problem, since the whole thing is fast enough to deal with it, but sometimes it will have an effect.
For instance, we have a person living in a "mother-in-law" flat here, and he likes games. I provide the internet connection through a wireless Local Area Network, which has three computers including his. Since I am in control of the network, I limit him to 1 meg, and if it slows too far, I'll shut him down rather than have our two computers slow down too much. Besides, I don't approve of internet game playing since it does affect people who use it for other purposes that may be more important. Personal opinion.

So don't take the ISPs word for everything. Most of the time a slower connection will serve just as well. I was quite happy with a 512/256 for a while, but then moved to an area where it wasn't available, so switched to a cellular connection that averaged 120 (actually 118); not very good, but did work for a while. It all depends on what you're doing.

my bandwidth sucks. to get an idea how bad is it.
the fastest maximum speed i can have down here for wireless which is about 1megabits but its the minimum speed you get in other countries. (some of you might be able to guess this country)

my bandwidth pretty sucks bad..


lol..

What can I say...

lol that's quite fast.. no. not quite.. but fast~! hahaha. mine sucks big time.

My meter (in reality) is how well I receive market data, which is real-time streaming. In the past, I've had ISPs that ranged from 119kbps (a cell-type connection 1RTT type) to a cable that was able to easily top 12Mbps. All these were used for market data and all were at least okay. The worst, of course was the 1RTT, but even that was acceptable. For a while I was on DSL, and I was quite happy with that.
I moved around a lot; one time I didn't even bother to unpack most stuff (the place was on the side of a hill, and when the winter came, the road was nearly impassable, even with a fairly competent 4WD truck); that was why the different connections. This Comcast thing is pretty good, except for a couple of times my data supplier got busy returns and I had to gripe at the ISP.

All things being considered, then, all of the speeds were decent, with the exception of the 1RTT Verizon cell connection, where I avoided big downloads like the plague, but it did work. Also, it gave me service where I couldn't get any other service (even satellite was behind a mountain). With the speeds I now have (until I move around again), more often than not, the server limits the speed, and best case I'm around 750-800kbps on downloads. I suppose there are other servers (probably game type stuff) that do better, but I don't bother with that stuff, too much else to do.

So, I think I'd be happy with your connection, Legatus.

I don't really live in D.C. >> But it's close.

My DSL is 2500kbs downstream. Is 2500kbs=2.5Mbs?

Actually my connection has improved no end!!!

Mine obviously changes somewhat throughout the day.


I wonder if the last poster's is real though or if it was affected some by cache.

When you have COX communications cable internet, your bandwidth gets shared with everyone around you.

Not too bad. It's faster than when I had 10mb - I'm on 2mb now.

True but at least locally they seem to do well with increasing the pipline as they get more users. Even with a fraction of that speed though I would have more than I ever need.

Well I wondered that too, I just redid it after a few days:



Weird eh not that I am moaning mind

Mine varies daily, and at what time of day i do it?

Very nice. I wonder how practical that is though. How many servers will you really ever see that speed from?

Well I am on Telewest Broadband, that's my server. Quick it is too

I mean, of the various places you go to on the net and download from which would not be that server, how many would match your capable maximum speed? Mine is quite fast compared to others but the two fastest servers I download from (Microsoft and Symantec) still don't max out that speed, even when taken together. That is why I say it isn't really practical.

Ah sorry, yes I see what you mean now.

Yeah, sorry for not being clear enough before. Supposedly, in the future, faster speeds will be more used when they start really pushing on demand movie rental over the net but then those faster speeds may be more similar to what everyone else has and we'll all want faster.

This is mine with Virgin Media ( which was Telewest)








Edit :



Lol just had to cut my IP out of it

Woohoo

What we all need is the fibre optic thingy. The download speeds on that are supposed to be astronomically, ballistically fast

lol, someone is all excited!

Just replaced mobo... Same processor, different mobo and video. I'll try another location for another test. Just for kicks.













As can be seen, servers vary quite a lot, depending on location. Looks like I'm on one of the better ones. Interesting short test.

I've got you all beat lol, just look at that PING! Also find it funny that it chooses the GA server, when I'm in Iraq...


Weird.

-C