Every time I connect to the Internet, my PC shows me the speed of the modem, I assume? Or, connection speed, maybe??? Whatever this speed is, why is it different every time??? Is it dictated more by my modem, or by my Internet Provider?
Please explain what this “speed” is, and why the value always changes… Thanks, - Jinx :confused"
It’s the connection data-transfer rate, which is dependant upn connection conditions, like line noise, and ISP loading, among other factors.
The speed should be the current throughput on the modem. It is a measurement of the bits/sec crossing your line. It is set by a number of different factors.
First, your modem is connecting to another modem over a phone line. These two modems agree on a transmission speed based on how many errors they detect on the line. If you have a very noisy line, the speed will be lower. If I understand the modem protocols correctly, they actually downgrade the speed, so this isn’t just a matter of the useful speed being lowered because many bits have to be resent to correct errors but that the modems continually downgrade their speeds until they get an acceptable error rate.
Second, your ISPs modem is connected to their pipe(s) through hub/switch/router/gateway. Hopefully their system is designed so these are not the bottleneck, but significant traffic on their internal network could degrade your connection through that network. There have been stories of widespread Internet “outages” caused by the Friday afternoon Warcraft tourney at the ISP.
Third, your ISP connects to a backbone or another provider and on up the chain to the major backbones. If your ISP has oversold their capacity, your speed may be lowered because you are sharing their upstream bandwidth with all their users.
Fourth, there is no constant rate on the “Internet”, but your traffic has to get from one place to another and any additional traffic can slow it down. Your ability reach any specific server is just as dependent on that server’s connection to the world through their ISP as it is on your own connection to the world through your ISP.
Fifth, each query to a specific server must be processed by that server, so if the server is not up to the task or traffic is high, the hamsters may not keep up and they may be your ultimate bottleneck.
All of these factors combine to determine the data rate you can get for a particular task. For a modem user, the modem connection to the ISP is typically the governing factor, but not always and your moment-to-moment data rate depends on all of them.