I finally signed up for cable broadband internet access, and everything works fine. Certainly is faster than dialup, but I’m surprised don’t get better.
Checked with Pitstop for download speed, and it’s been running between 430 and 460 kb/sec. I called Cox and they said 512 would be the maximum. I thought cable would be faster than that.
I should not complain as getting about 10 times faster than dialup, but wonder now if DSL might not be better.
Am using ZoneAlarm and router for hardware firewall, but even without them, about the same. Oh yeah, Win98SE and external modem.
What kinds of speeds do other cable users get? Anything can do to tweak things to make it faster?
I get around 5Mbps (5000kbps) down and 384 kbps up with Time Warner (basic package; their “premium” package is 8Mbps down and 768 kbps month for $25 more a month, which (IMHO) isn’t worth it).
Are we sure that you’re talking about kiloBITs and not kiloBYTEs?
4483 kbps down/462 kbps up just now using the site Mr. Blue Sky linked to. I’m running WinME with Sygate as a firewall. I’ve got the basic Roadrunner package that TimeWarner offers here in Columbus.
It would probably help you most to talk to other local cable and DSL users if you can…
I just checked through PC Pitstop, and it clocked me in at 5400 kbps. So, yeah, 430 seems awfully slow to me, but check what plans your service provider offers.
Notice how the speed is in kilobits per second and file downloads are usually measures in kilobytes per second, therefore your 6000 kbps connection will have a maximum file download rate of 750 KB/s (6000/8) subtracting protocol overhead. To get 4 digit download rate you would have to have an 8000 kbps connection or most likely 10000 kbps.
I’m a little jealous of all the big numbers being bandied around here. I’ve got a 1Mbps cable connection, which is reasonably fast in the UK. Most packages bandied about as “broadband” are just ADSL over a phone wire, with variable contention ratios to look out for. Still, it’s only £10 ($15) a month, which is a quarter of the price of my previous monthly dialup bill.
On the New York server I get 925/87 kbps download/upload. Speed tests on UK servers give me just over 1Mbps download/unspecified upload.
I don’t know what you mean by “variable contention ratios” but ADSL in US is certainly broadband. In my area I can get 6mbps Down/768kbps Up ADSL for about $60 a month.
My cable connection sucks…for cable…1101 kbps down, 378 kbps up…but it only costs me $25/month as part of my electric/water/sewer/trash/cableTV&internet service that is all billed through one utility company.
So am I. My service is advertised as 4 Mbps down, 384 kbps up, and I can achieve 3.5+ Mbps when I’m downloading from Giganews or some other fast server. But still, the US isn’t exactly a world leader in broadband. Even when you control for population density, Canadian and European customers get more speed (and often a lot more upload speed) for less than we’re paying.
Wow, cool graphics at that site!
I get 6154 Kbps / 349 Kbps with my Comcast cable here in Allen, TX.
Also, gotta second the comment by groman to the OP, be careful you’re not confusing bits and bytes. I typically get DL speeds of 400-500 KBps with my 6000 Kbps cable internet.
