Re: Connection Speed

*** DISCLAIMER: I'm not a broadband expert.

On 2/2/2012 9:56 AM, Jerry C. Adams wrote:

I thought I remembered reading or hearing that cable speeds were
variable. That is, the more people on at any one time the slower
your actual speed. I know that when I use my sister's cable
connection the connection seems quite fast - until the kids come
home from school.

All asynchronous broadband services are variable, I think ... the speeds quoted are the MAXIMUM speed you can get, not necessarily the speed you are guaranteed to get.

Cable services do tend to bog down the more users that are on the service in your area. Although (I think) they do tend to ramp back up when the load gets lighter.

ADSL service slows down more based on line conditions ... and, IIRC, it doesn't ramp back up if the line conditions get better. For people using ADSL, I usually recommend they cycle power on their DSL modem periodically.

Many broadband providers offer something called a "Speedburst" feature ... which will give you an initial burst of much higher speed, but that throttles back down after a little while. This let's you get the first part of the content you are downloading fast to aid in buffering. This has the side effect of making speed tests look better than they really are.

When it comes to business class services, I think the speeds offered are more likely to stay consistent.

david