Why is my DSL so slooooooow?

December 11, 2008

Our house is a bit far from the switch, so the speed’s never been great, but lately it’s really bad:

http://www.dslreports.com/im/62755719/8689.png

] Curiously, Speakeasy.net’s own speed test gives very different results: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

To SF

Download Speed: 1293 kbps (161.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 330 kbps (41.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

To LA

Download Speed: 1087 kbps (135.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 331 kbps (41.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

To DC

Download Speed: 580 kbps (72.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 326 kbps (40.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

A perhaps more reliable (or non-biased) tool: http://netspeed.stanford.edu/

TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.4.12
click START to begin
Connected to: netspeed.stanford.edu – Using IPv4 address
Another client is currently being served, your test will begin within 45 seconds
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 327.0kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 896.72kb/s
Your PC is connected to a Cable/DSL modem
Information: Other network traffic is congesting the link
[S2C]: Packet queuing detected

Running it again gives:

running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 327.0kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 251.51kb/s

…I generally seem to be getting ~800-900kb/s inbound on this test, with repeated attempts.

From http://members.cavtel.net/speed/

Your line speed is: 172.89 kbps

Why is my DSL so slooooooow? - December 11, 2008 - chad r. frost