Downloading speeds, Windows 98SE.

Discussion in 'Software' started by bigbazza, Mar 4, 2004.

  1. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Second attempt at this post. Bear with me

    What causes dial-up modem speeds to decrease the longer the
    download progresses? I have an internal dial-up modem in my laptop. My download
    starts at a great speed (eg. 40-80 kbps) and progressively
    decreases until it stops/stabilises at about 3-5 kbps.

    I presume this is normal and nothing you can do about it, with a dial up modem.
    Any hints or tricks I may have missed out on.
     
  2. F18delta

    F18delta Private E-2

    Just like most everything else software related, your PC takes a guess at how fast the information is being processed. If you do like I do, I connect to our network and download things as well as dial in. It's my theory that because I was on the network at work, then switch to a dial up, my PC thinks that just because the information was first processed at a higher rate that it should have continued from there. It soon finds out that the info is only coming in on the Kbps instead of in Mbps side of the house. Maybe one day, we will be able to afford that braodband that we keep hearing about and won't have to worry about that any longer.:D:D

    If I'm wrong, at least I have a theory! LOL
     
  3. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Downloading speed Win 98 SE

    Thanks for the tips. I have a line rated at 50K at the phone line in the house, tested by a Telecom technician on his laptop PC, in front of me. I usually am able to log on at around 50K , although not always.

    I usually log on at around 5am local time, 11am USA Pacific time, the day before, (if my calculations are correct).

    I don't have any updates set on Auto. I run ZAP, AVG, Cleanup, SpyBot S&D, Adaware, PestPatrol. Most cleanup stuff is run after every session, if I can. Index.dat is deleted and re-created after every Cleanup.

    It is a sole Pc, not on a network. It is my downloads I am complaing about, not the general operation while browsing.

    I run AOL UK version 7.0. Do ISP providers throttle back download speed to encourage upgrading to ADSL or Broadband. A nice conspiracy theory anyway.

    I use DrTcp to set up modem parameters and think I have that side of it sussed.

    I would love to upgrade my modem driver but Gateway "in their wisdom" left out 1 vital letter/number in their description of my laptop modem. Documentation says it is fitted with a Mini PCI type 3B (B for Bob) data fax modem by 3Com.

    Model number is shown as 3CXMx56, where the little x is vital according to 3Com, for an upgrade, but cannot be ascertained without opening up the laptop which I am loath to do.

    I have an upgrade to my CPU on the way from USA to move from a P2/400 to a P3/550 so will check the model number then. Gateway USA were no help as the laptop was assembled in Malaysia for sale in Australia and NZ in 1999.

    Gateway has folded in Australia and NZ and is now supported from an agent in Malaysia.

    Driver at present is "comm.drv", 5872 bytes (which sounds small to me), dated 23/4/1999 10.22pm.

    Gateway documentation that came with the PC says "If no 3Com Megahertz 56K modem appear, select either a US Robotics High Speed Sportster or a US Robotics Courier Dual Standard". It has been a while since I went down this route searching for later drivers but will have to try again. Mundocorp in the USA is a great source of bits for Gateways so will try them also.

    Thanks again for the prod to update my driver.

    Baz

    =========================================
     
  4. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Thanks for the quick reply, xflat. Will check out the link. By the way, love that photo. You must be the smartest kid on the block! Love MG as well. Where else in the world is there such a resource of knowledgeable people and who are so willing ans so quick to help. Baz

    =====================
     
  5. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Just because a modem connects at 50k it does not mean that the quality of your telephone line is sufficient to maintain that rate. To verify the what you line is really capable of supporting the technician should have used a BERT (Bit Error Rate Tester) and let it run for an hour or two. This would give a better indication of the quality of your line. Bit errors will cause the modem to keep adjusting downward the rate at which it is sending at until the error rate is more acceptable to the modem. If you have old phone lines in you neighborhood chances are you have high crosstalk (interference with other people's lines). This also impacts long term modem throughput. There are other sources of problems too like 60 cycle hum from power lines.

    Sometimes changing various settings (relating to error correction) on the modem can slightly improve things but the cannot fix bad or old wiring (inside or outside your home).
     
  6. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Downloading speeds Win 98 SE

    Thanks, chaslang and xflat.

    I was surprised to get a Telecom technician to check out my line much less getting one out for a couple of hours to run BERT. As I mentioned in an earlier post I hope to be moving to a larger population town shortly so will check it all out again. Old lines and cross calls may be the cause of the problem.

    Just out of curiosity I have listed my DrTcp settings below.

    FRom top to bottom, left to right as follows.
    144000,yes,no,left blank,yes,no,left blank,64,576

    Anything you see that is odd? or should be altered.

    My main query is: Does anyone else on a dailup have their speed decrease down to around 3-5 kbps as the download progresses or do they maintain a higher rate throughout the download. I realise that a bush connection in OZ may be/probably is completely different from the major suburbs/cities in OZ, USA or UK.

    I have tried various download accelerators and cannot see any difference in download speeds. Baz

     
  7. Maxwell

    Maxwell Folgers

    I think that you are experiencing the effects of averaging. When a download starts the download speeds are high due to too few points to average over the time taken during those points. As more points or datum values become available then the download speeds adjust. I've seen some incredible download times when the download starts which then average out as the download progresses. This is also coupled with the fact the line noise and other things ensure that the download is not at a constant speed but variable.
     
  8. jujet84

    jujet84 Master Sergeant

  9. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    In the modem world a byte is not 8 bits. In order to transfer 1 byte there is overhead involved (the start and stop bits). A byte is really requires 10 bits to get transferred on a modem interface. Thus, you should be dividing by 10 not 8.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2004
  10. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Downloading speed Win 98 SE

    Thanks, jujet84 and all the others. That link provides a hell of a lot of info. I will have to digest it slowly. Looks like 3-5kbps (or is it 3-5KBPS) is all I can expect on a dial-up. Baz

    ==========================
     
  11. Aurelius

    Aurelius Private First Class

    Here you can download a very practical freeware which shows you the speed (both receive and send, with graph and numbers) - Dial-up Networking Monitor, at http://jongrieve.net/
    You can resize it and customize it in many ways. I have been using it for years.
     
  12. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    Hi DV8, Let me add to what you have said and maybe clarify some more. Whenever you perform any kind of download there is always a protocol involved. Could be an FTP, TCP/IP, UDP etc. The protocol can add significant overhead (i.e., it eats up your bandwidth slowing down the actual data you are transferring) to your download process. This overhead is also directly proportional to the size of the packets (also called frames) that are being sent. Some applications may allow you to change the packet sizes others will not. At any rate the actual throughput whether measured in kilobits per second (kbps) or kilobytes per second (KBps) is impacted by the overhead. Also as you indicated the protocol also requires responses (handshaking) which means your system must transmit also. The handshaking takes time too also slowing down throughput. In addition there are
    error retransmissions, network delays...etc etc. That's why throughput constantly changes.

    Note MaXimus does not have an analog modem. So the bandwidth monitor Aurelius mentioned would be of no use. MaXimus said a cable modem is what is being used. Not sure why 384 KBps is the number being used for the cable modem though. Cable companys do not usually specify a line rate. You get a best effort type service. Mine varies anywhere from 1 Mbps to as high as 5 Mbps. Typically more like 3 Mbps. But again these are only the physical bit rates. They are not what would be called payload rate (the rate of user information flow without any overhead).
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2004
  13. chaslang

    chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member

    MaXimus, when I referred to 10 bits per byte I was talking about lines using analog modems on serial ports (seems like ages since I used one of those things :) ). For a cable line you should refer more to my message below in response to DV8. There is a lot that goes on there but if you are truly getting 46 to 47 KBps that just means you are averaging 368,000 to 376,000 bits per second for your payload. Assuming the tool you are using to tell you the throughput is only considering payload.

    When bigbazza started this thread there was mention of speeds like 40-80 kbps. On an analog modem 80 kbps is physically impossible to achieve since a POTS (Plain Old Telepone Service) line is a DS0 (that's a zero) which is a 64,000 bps channel (1/24 of a T1 line). So even using a digital channel with no signaling (called clear channel) the best you could get would be 64000 bps. But with an analog modem the best connect rate does not typically exceed 53333 bps and may never get even to that rate due to line noise. But high connect rates normally drift down to a lower rate over time due to the line errors that are always present. But again due to protocol overheads of the applications being used the payload throughput will not simply be 53333/10=5333.3 KBps. It will be significantly lower dependant on the application and frame sizes etc. As stated in my previous message below. One additional item I forgot to mention. Packets cannot be sent at a continuous back to back fixed rate. There must be down time. This is called interpacket gap and there are requirements on this too.
     
    Last edited: Mar 9, 2004

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds