making the most out of your cable connection
 

ok so I am using Charter Pipeline here in michigan, they advertise lightning fast downloads.... I get a max of 100kbit/s and most of the time 50 kbit/s. I am also connected through a router. is this normal?

no its not. i too am from michigan. when i had charter out by brighton..it was smoking. i could hit upwards of 400-450 from certain download servers. other servers not as fast of course. go to

http://www.broadbandreports.com

hit the tools section up and do a packet loss test and latency test.

[offtopic] I'm from Brighton OutlawSZ. Small world eh? Michiganders own. [/offtopic]

You can also check out pcpitstop.com. They have a bunch o' tests you can run.

I'm in MI also and had charter pipeline at my home until I moved in to college. It depends on what speed you pay for a month. I believe there are three speeds that are incremented by $10 more per month. Even with the slowest, though, you should be downloading around 70-80 kB/sec max. I had the middle speed ($30/month) and I could download FROM FAST SERVERS at 90-100 tops. Keep in mind some Internet servers are slow and you won't be as fast. Your router shouldn't slow you down, assuming it's not wireless.

All this really doesn't have an effect on your ping, though. You should (no matter what speed) be able to ping servers really well with cable.

I'm guessing you don't have any problems and you ran into a slow server that was moving at 50 kb/sec. If you can get up to 100, then you're golden. That is the "lightning speed" they so generously advertise.

I'm in MI also and had charter pipeline at my home until I moved in to college. It depends on what speed you pay for a month. I believe there are three speeds that are incremented by $10 more per month. Even with the slowest, though, you should be downloading around 70-80 kB/sec max. I had the middle speed ($30/month) and I could download FROM FAST SERVERS at 90-100 tops. Keep in mind some Internet servers are slow and you won't be as fast. Your router shouldn't slow you down, assuming it's not wireless.

All this really doesn't have an effect on your ping, though. You should (no matter what speed) be able to ping servers really well with cable.

I'm guessing you don't have any problems and you ran into a slow server that was moving at 50 kb/sec. If you can get up to 100, then you're golden. That is the "lightning speed" they so generously advertise. Hope this helps. biggrin:

well first let me disable some background programs first..

thanks guys it helped a bit

look into a proggie called iSpeed, and try visiting http://www.dslreports.com for some small reg tweaks for your speed.

Also, if you have WinXP, disable Quality of Service (QoS), and Automatic Updating.

Michigan OWNZ J00! I've got Comcast, no complaints here. I'd like to get Wide Open West, but it seems they don't have service where I live oOo:

[quote="Bazooka_Joe":26a56]Also, if you have WinXP, disable Quality of Service (QoS), and Automatic Updating.[/quote:26a56]

where are these setting located?

QoS is in the advanced properties of your Local Area Connection (LAN) and to disable Error Reporting, right mouse click My Computer, choose Properties.

so uninstall QoS packet scheduler?

[quote="Old Reliable":8e30a]so uninstall QoS packet scheduler?[/quote:8e30a]

No no no, just UNCHECK IT. Don't uninstall any default windows protocols.

haha thats what I thought, but i have heard this to be just a myth that it will return 20% speed to your connection, its worth a shot anyways