great download speeds, browsing sucks?

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mlungu1

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Hi there,

Can anyone explain this: I download a 10 meg file at great speeds. However, all the browsing, whether local or international is no better than a normal isdn connection. What could cause this?

Tks
 
Two words: Wireless Latency. The time taken to make the request is longer, but the data transfer itself is faster.

Also using a multithreaded browser like Firefox would help.

If I call up a load of pages simultaneously, Iburst beats the pants off anything. But calling up a single (low graphics) page, you aren't going to see much difference.
 
Tks for the reply. I wouldn't dream of using anything but Firefox. Have been using it for a long time already. So, this wireless latency thing: does this effectively mean that I may as well go back to ISDN? I am not that worried about downloads, hardly ever do that. I want my browsing to be fast?
 
If you are only interesting in browsing.... then ISDN is great.

I had ISDN64 before Iburst. I would never go back. Firstly the monthly running costs of Iburst is less, once you figure the ISDN line rental, ISP and Call charges. Secondly, Iburst is 24/7 always available. Thirdly, its up to 16 times faster. And I do appreciate the speeds, because I'm not a patient person.
 
Hi,
I agree, the main reason for switching is "always on" and the cost. However, compared to ADSL the browsing speed is nowhere close. I also wasn't happy at all with the browsing speed of ISDN and would like to at least see some improvement over that. Question remains: Does the I-burst technology mean that browsing will not be faster then ISDN, even though downloads are? Or is it something that still needs to be sorted out?
 
Search the forum for Firefox tweaks. There is an option to set your simultaneous requests to a larger number - which makes a huge difference on broadband.
 
I can download a file at 75KB/s and my browser opens a page at 25KB/s. Like Gatecrasher said, it depends on how much content the page contains. I view the vwvortex forums almost every day and some of the pages contain 20MB of pictures. Those pages load in a matter of seconds!
 
Well in my experience, browsing is much faster than with ISDN, especially on graphics intensive pages. One thing that produced a major inprovement in browsing speed were the various tweaks I did to the Mozilla/Firefox browser configuration in respect of concurrent connections. There was a thread on this forum with the details. I will try to find it and post the link. Also MTU and RWin settings can also affect browsing speed.
 
Last edited:
Hi again,

Lots of quick replies here! great!
It is not the page content that is the problem. ALL pages load slowly even the ones without any graphics. I did tweak firefox already. It still remains a mystery to why downloading is so fast and browsing is not. I use ADSL at another premises and don't get the download speeds I get from Iburst, but when I go to a website it is instant. Almost literally instant........
 
mlungu1 said:
Almost literally instant........
Click to expand...

So we come full circle. Wireless Latency. Ping times are longer with wireless. But essentially there is no difference between downloads and browsing. It's http either way. With Iburst there will certainly be a longer delay in requests than with ASDL, but the data will transfer faster.

This situation won't change much in the future, either. It's just how the technology works.
 
Hi Gatecrasher.

I hear what you are saying but that would mean that it initially takes a bit longer to "get to the site" and then it would fly onto your screen. It doesn't. I can literally see the page being built up on my screen. Even on pages with no graphics...
 
mlungu1, I don't know what is your definition of slow browsing speed, but I don't think iBurst is the problem in your case!

I found browsing speed to be much faster than my capability of actually seeing what is on the page, so if I can read 5 web pages in 10 seconds, then maybe it would be slow, but as I can't I found the browsing more than acceptable! It is usually the downloads that are pissing me off!

So, I am not sure what are you doing exactly, but for me downloading pages with lots of graphics is a way faster than with a modem/ISDN, for text pages it still makes a difference, but not that noticeable.

So I don't know what the problem is, but if you have a great connection otherwise, I would guess is that the servers that hosts the sites you are browsing are slow, so try some fast sites and see how it goes ...
 
Hi Swordfish.

It's ALL websites. Not only particular ones. My definition? If I open the following site on adsl www.nu.nl it's loaded on my screen in 3 seconds most of the time. Iburst: 15 seconds.

I'm going on about this, I know, but it's critical for me in terms of deciding long term what service to go with. The support staff at Iburst are fairly useless in terms of technical knowledge so I don't even bother asking them if this is simply how it is, or if it is something that is not right.
 
mlungu1 said:
It doesn't. I can literally see the page being built up on my screen. Even on pages with no graphics...
Click to expand...

That's not normal. There's must be some bottleneck slowing you down there. If you are getting fast downloads/slow browsing simultaneously and consistently then I'm just as puzzled as you are!
 
tks Gatecrasher,

I'll give it a few days, have only been on for a week now. If it's still the same I'll see if I can get hold of a techie at Iburst.

All other repliers: Tks a lot for the input
 
mlungu1 let me test this site tonight at home (as I am at work now) and will let you know how is it ...

please everybody, can you please test the site above on iBurst and let mlungu1 know how long it takes to open ...

I have some serios doubts about such a slow browsing on iBurst provided it is not a connection problem ...

The latency can be bad, but like 1 max 2 seconds extra (rarely), can't be 15 seconds on an otherwise fast connection, no way!
 
swordfish1 said:
mlungu1 let me test this site tonight at home (as I am at work now) and will let you know how is it ...

please everybody, can you please test the site above on iBurst and let mlungu1 know how long it takes to open ...
Click to expand...

Now this is what a thread should look like ... Well done SF1 :cool: I'll also have a look tonight, and let you know m1
 
Just got iBurst's page about the cache shutting down (probably restarted), then browsing improved.
Unfortunately didn't take too much notice of the page so don't have any details...
 
mlungu1, as I promissed earlier I just did some tests.

the nl site that you posted earlier as an example seems to open for about 10-11 seconds. I am capped at present but I doubt that this makes much of a difference in that case.

My theory is that there are references (images) to about 2 external sites on that site, so you are accessing in fact 3 servers minimum in order to access single site. For each server there is a DNS lookup, so with significant latency you get few seconds to resolve the names and then load the content. I tried few other sites (microsoft and intel some of them) and I found that the average load speed for most sites is about 5 to 7 seconds.

I also found that subsequent page loads, from already visited site, are slightly faster (1-2 seconds less), which I guess is due to caching the name resolutions done moments earlier.

From my perspective that load speed is reasonable, but I am coming here from a dial-up connection so maybe my opinion does not count. I am pretty sure that this is due to some latency in the wireless connection, and I think you may be able to fix it with better antenna or better positioning your modem inside your house. If you are still not satisfied, I think wireless connection will not be able to meet your requirements, so consider some wired connectivity option, I guess that would be ADSL or ISDN.

Hope this helps
 
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