Post your latest connection speed...

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

What the hell? Verizon dsl is lame tonight.

Your speed is a function of a chain that includes your computer, computer's ethernet or WiFi interface, router, other 'neighborhood' users, DSL/cable signal strength, DSLAM, etc. With numbers that low, then I would looking at each chain link; suspect some serious hardware failures exist.

Those numbers mean little to nothing without first knowing a maximum theoretical speed numbers. A DSL rated to download 768,000 bits per second and measuring 70,000 bytes per second is far superior to cable rated at 4,000,000 bps and only operating at 130,000 bytes.

One important number found in the modem (interface between your network and the fiber, coax, DSL wire) is its signal to noise ratio. For DSL, this should be somewhere around 20 dB. Cable companies do not let you see this critical number. What could explain those low download and upload numbers? Signal strength or S/N ratios at 10 or lower.

Same also applies to WiFi signal strength. If approaching -80 dB, then that WiFi signal (not the ISP hardware) is reason for low data transfer numbers.

When the upload speed is higher than a download speed and upload speeds are close to a theoretical maximum, then another good suspect is multiple users downloading large files or broadcasts.

These numbers are often a first symptom of a hardware problem even when the numbers don't always stay that low.