I am a France Telecom (Orange) Fibre subscriber with a 100 Megabit symmetrical (FTTH) connection. I am struggling with an issue across all the machines on my network (all macs) whereby I cannot achieve high speeds on single-file transfers. By this I mean, if I am trying to upload or download a file over http or ftp I max out at around 500-1000 K/sec. If, however, I use a download accelerator to open lots of simultaneous connections, I can get 5000-10000 KB/sec.
The problem is, there are lots of times when it is much more convenient to use a single connection (i.e. trying to stream a .avi movie, or trying to upload a big file via SFTP).
I’ve tried apple’s broadband tuner but with no noticeable difference. Is there anything I can do software-wise that might solve this problem?
#2 This could well be bandwidth limitations on the source. Plenty of websites are running on 25 megabit lines and such, running multiple threads like torrents would bypass the restrictions on a single connection. Also it is perfectly possible that the servers on the other end throttle each user connection to prevent one guy with an uber fast line from excluding/restricting other users via hogging all the bandwidth.
drachillix: All figures above were in kilobytes unless otherwise stated.
The issue is definitely not bandwidth limitations of the source. I know this for a number of reasons, such as my ability to use a download manager to use multiple simultaneous connections to achieve a high overall transfer rate. Also, I’ve tested sources like Google who have no bandwidth limitations.
The problem is dramatic enough that I can’t watch a youtube video without waiting a very long time for it to load (but if I ‘download’ the video with keepvid.com using a download manager I can get a fast speed).
So the question is, could this be something I can fix with software?
As for everything else, the reason given here it pretty accurate. Most websites, to try to manage their bandwidth, only give out so much per connection. The way download accelerators work is to make multiple connections.
However, if you can’t stream normal YouTube. you may be having problems. Talk to your ISP (the company giving you the Fibre-Optic).
Thank you so much BigT!!! The video accelerator makes all my youtube vids load instantly…before it was painful to watch. I can’t thank you enough, the youtube thing has been really annoying, now I can take advantage of bandwidth.