One of the things I could never figure out is why ISPs advertise 6MB download speeds, but on my computer I have never gone beyond 1MB. Anyone know why? I use Comcast BTW.

Edited November 9, 200520 yr by Aegis

first test your internet bandwidth ..this link wil help u to test the internet speed

http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

Not sure if this is actually a Windows XP question.

Isn't Comcast a cable internet company? If so, then it means that you're sharing your internet connection with everyone else using Comcast. If the person nextdoor to you is downloading lots of crap, then your speeds are going to be affected.

If you're paying for the 6MB service (and most times, you have to actually call and request the service - little trick they use to conserve bandwidth), and your head-end is the problem, the cable company will have to come out and either upgrade the equipment or create a new head-end.

Is it possible to tweak the head end ourself?

Unless you understand cable modem equipment and have the key to unlock the actual location of the docsis equipment, I'd say no .

But isn't unlocking the docsis a violation of most ISP's contracts?

yes, but those exploits have long been removed from the cable modem. And the equipment I speak of is not the equipment you get in your house, it's the huge "connection point" for all of the cable conections in an area - it's called a "head end", and it's a feeding point for all of the cable customers in an area. They all feed into the head end, and from there everything is routed to either another head end, or to the cable company's CO.

The 6 mbps stuff that is advertised is in bits most of the times. 1 byte = 8 bits. So to get the actual speed of the download, roughly try dividing 6 mbits by 8 which should result in 750 kb/sec if my math is not incorrect. I thinks thats how it is.

Communication speeds are almost always measured in bits.

yeah im on 10MBIT so my max download speed is 1.2MBYTES/s

Not sure why the advertise it in bits... probs to make the non tech-savvy user think he/she is gettin great internet really cheap

Yeah, I should probably have stated that. Be careful that you convert your advertised speed from bits to bytes - 6Mbit service should give less than 1MByte download speeds.

The strange thing is that if my speeds are measured in bits, then I should have a cap of 750KBs, but my speeds have in the past jump beyond 1MB for a fraction of a second, then settle down. Can anyone explain this?

And also anyone know what's the average bandwidth of a head end from Comcast?

The speeds you see during a file transfer are measured at a differant OSI layer. Often the bits come over the wire in a differant order than they were sent. When enough bits come over the driver puts the bits in order and sends them to the application, this is the speed you see during a file transfer.