rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | reply to papeluv
Re: How to tell actual charter speeds? Make sure you reboot your cable modem and then download a BIG file (~500MB). After a while (I don't know, 20 or 30 seconds???), PowerBoost will end and you'll drop back to your configured maximum speed. As long as the file is big enough, the initial PowerBoost skew won't affect the average and you should get a reasonable idea of whether or not you are getting your rated speed.
Most browsers tell you the final download speed when the transfer finishes. Do the math. If you achieved 600KB/second throughput, multiply that by 8 and you get 4,800,000 bits/second. or 4.8Mbps. That's a misleading number because TCP/IP has overhead but the browser is only counting the bytes that make up the file. It might be more accurate to multiply it by 9 or even 10 to arrive at the raw throughput. The raw throughput (i.e. including overhead) is what your modem/CMTS considers when throttling your connection.
If this approach doesn't yield the speeds you think you should get, before getting irate with customer service, try a similar sized file from several different sites. The site's geographical proximity makes a big difference in terms of packet loss (which can stall the download until the TCP/IP stack recovers) and latency.
If you have Windows XP, consider increasing the RWIN with the tweak tools available here. I don't know if the same concern holds true for Vista, Win7, OSX or Linux. Check out the many forums here for further information. |
