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Cable Speed Question
I subscribe to CableOne for my broadband. I have the "Up to 50mps" package. The fastest download speed I have ever gotten is 2.8mbs, never more than this. Their basic package gives "up to 4mbs".
How do they come to this 50mbs number? I can "speedtest" and get better results (nowhere near 50mbs - 13mbs, 10mbs, and 12mbs), but in ACTUAL use, never more than 2.8mbs.
This has bugged me for a couple of years. I feel like I am paying waaaaaay to much for so little service. I could get 100kbs and still be in their advertised "up to 50mbs" speeds.
I live in a city of about 80,000 people, not on a farm or cabin in the middle of nowhere. Why not just say, "Up to 1000mbs?" It just as accurate.
How do they get their numbers? Anyone know? Or am I just another gullible consumer? lol
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Comments
Call them and ask for the next package down. I don't know what your internet needs are, but I have a 35/5 down/up on my Comcast and I don't come anywhere near that. This is with a family of 5 bouncing between:
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Comcast from Portland, OR.
$50 a month 50mb down (bundled it with basic cable, it's actually $10 cheaper). I get much more than I paid for with a family of four; eight devices utilizing the network daily including three PCs, three Roku 3s, and various cell phones + tablets.
Call them, ask about it. If you aren't getting what you paid for, a lot of companies (Comcast) included can do a few things to try and bump the speed up. If not, just downgrade or find a new ISP.
As far as your SpeedTest results vs. actual use. Trust me, I'm not downloading a file from a single web server at 65.57mb/s. You're limited by the other server's upload, as well. So while your connection might be absolutely wonderful, if the server you're communicating with has a shoddy upload speed, or high traffic taking the bandwith, well, you won't get incredible speeds. If I torrent and connect to multiple peers on a really good seed'd torrent, I can get up to 6+ mb/s download, but we're talking p2p.
Yup.
50mbps (your advertised rate) is roughly 6.25MB/sec - which is probably what your speed tests are measuring in. Take into account some overhead on your router and line noise and other random variables, and getting a real 4.something MB/sec isn't all that bad actually.
In the US, most ISPs are within 95% of their advertised speeds now, it used to be a lot worse, but you can't factor in your router or anything else, it has to be straight through to the wall/modem/whatever.
Thanks, all. I just got done browsing their site and no mention of what exactly Mbs stands for. Figures
I know a lot of factors go into a connection between any 2 computers, so it is tough to measure. Any 1 computer along that connection that bogs down will have an effect on the speed. The speeds I get seem fairly consistent, though.
As far as downgrading, when I had the "basic package" (up to 5mbs) I was getting about 1mbs download speeds. I guess comparing the 2 performances makes the cost difference OK, but I still feel cheated paying for something I don't feel I am getting.
The only thing using the internet in my home is my desktop PC (always on). I do have a notebook, another PC, a Blu-Ray player, Wii, and my X-Box 360, but these are always turned off until I need to use them.
I remember when cable came to town back in the late 70's, early 80's. I was in an "Explorer" group (exploring different businesses for possible future careers) sponsored by the cable company at the time. At the time, the question of "monopoly" came up. The deal was when 100% (maybe a touch less) of households were connected up, then other companies could come in to help carry the load. 30 years later and still only 1 cable company monopolizes the city.
I tried the phone company's internet a few years ago and I sit in a bad location for that. I am more than 3 miles from the nearest station (which was the Central Office downtown). My speed was turtle like to say the least. I'd much rather go with them, but alas...
Again, thanks for all the info and suggestions
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
There is also a Megatron. All hail Megatron!
OP, if it has a lowercase 'b', that means "bits" and if it has an uppercase 'B', that means "bytes". There are 8 bits in a byte. So if your speed is advertised at 50 Mbps, you will get around 6.25 MB/s. ISPs like to show the bit number because it is bigger and most people are not educated enough to know the difference. Browsers and other downloading programs tend to show the MB because files on your drive are measure in terms of MB or GB.
I suggest plugging your computer directly into the cable modem, unplug the modem, wait a few seconds, the plug it back in. After it comes back up, run a few speed tests on speedtest.net and that will give your results in bits per second. Post here when you have the results. As long as you don't have any other programs downloading in the background, the result will be a good indicator of if you're getting what you are paying for. If you suspect background programs are downloading, check the network activity in Task Manager or use a different computer. The network activity should be almost zero most of the time.
If it turns out you really aren't getting anything near 50 Mbps, call your ISP and complain. It may take a while for them to fix it, but you should be able to negotiate a discount based on your speeds.
or move to South Korea, I hear their infrastructure for internet is supposed to be one of the best in the world.
It might be an old or defective cable modem.
I had a technician in to replace mine (Comcast commercial) after a series of failures. Speed jumped way up. I now get 33.5 (down) 31.5 (up).
I think the hardware has improved a lot.
It would need to be pretty old for it to be the modem. Most likely its a Bits to Bytes conversion. It makes sense to use Bits when measuring transfer speeds. Things are received by the modem in bits, not bytes. The byte is the final outcome of the transfer.
The modem would have to be a DOCSIS 1 standard for it to be too old. That would be before 2004.