Isp Short-changing Me On Bandwidth?

I suspect my ISP is short-changing me on bandwidth in any attempt to squeeze more money out of me for more bandwidth (and yes, they even call me up to offer me same). It sounds kinda farfetched, but only until you consider that such corporate chicanery is probably closer to the rule than the exception. Is there any program I can run on my computer to check how much bandwidth I'm actually getting?

 

Check your upload and download speeds at http://www.speedtest.net/

 

Wow, that was quick - thanks! It turns out that upload speed is a little quicker than advertised, and download speed is a lot quicker than advertised. Odd, since I'm now running only one online computer. I've seen some anomalies in Windows lately, maybe it's due to that.

 

I smell a rat.

For my Basic plan, my ISP says both upload and download speed are 15 Mbps.

Speedtest is showing a download speed of 24.32 Mbps, and an upload speed of 16.56 Mbps.

But I don't believe it for a second. I think my ISP is throttling back my bandwidth in order to extort a higher payment out of me for a Premium plan.

Is it possible that my ISP is somehow fudging Speedtest's results, kind of like Volkswagen fudging emissions tests?

 

Open Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings, and double-click your connection. You'll see the maximum speed the modem is capable of.

I doubt it.

 

My Marvell Yukon 88E8057-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller has a speed of 1.0 Gbps.

 

Not your Ethernet Controller, your modem.

Also, why do you believe your ISP is throttling your bandwidth when you're getting higher speeds than you should?

 

Check your throughput in Task Manager during any large download/upload.

 

There's no modem shown in Open Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings. There's nothing there but the Ethernet Controller.

I looked at my modem. It's is an Actiontec Generation 3 MX960 integrated modem / router. I couldn't find its bandwidth specs online.

But my ISP offers accounts of up to at least 100 Mbps, so the modem must be able to handle that bandwidth.

Because my computer doesn't seem slow at all, even with a lot of applications open, except sometimes it's very slow at surfing the net, even when there are no other applications open, and I only have one tab open in the browser, and I'm trying to access webpages that seemingly have low overhead, and when I look in Task Manager and WinPatrol, I can't see anything that I think should be slowing me down.

OK, will do when I get a little time.

 

Download the free NetWorx.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/networx.html

Right-click the icon in the Notification Area > Tools > Trace Route...
Paste any URL and click Start.

This should give you an idea why opening a webpage sometimes seem to take forever.

 

It had to go through

 

What...?! It had to go through TEN other IP addresses, not counting the 4 that didn't respond, just to get to the router...?! What IS all this...?!

 

Only 10?