Downstream speeds fluctuate wildly

[Hiro ZA]

hi all

i was just wondering, is it normal for my downstream speeds (as checked on router status) to fluctuate so wildly ? i am on a 4meg line, and yet my speeds seem swing betweeen 960 and 300 but more often than not hover around 1800 and 2300

so two questions i guess :
1) is it normal to have the downstream speed changing all the time, sometimes every couple hours, sometimes multiple changes in an hour ?
2) should i really be getting such terrible speeds on a 4 meg line ?

 

[Rouxenator]

I thought ADSL was supposed to be the be all and end all of stable connections? I have a 2mbps Amobia wireless connection and I always download at 250kb/s.

I would say that is normal for ADSL since it is a technology plagued with problems such as high contention and unstable connections. As a general rule of thumb, if you want a good and solid connection stay away from iBurst and Telkom.

 

[Hiro ZA]

i would LOVE to head over to neotel, but alas, the wireless conenction is not suitable for online gaming :-(

 

[Rouxenator]

Ja, for gaming I guess it has to be ADSL.
But then throughput is not such a big issue for you ~300kbps+ is more than enough for games.

 

[techead]

Ja, for gaming I guess it has to be ADSL.
But then throughput is not such a big issue for you ~300kbps+ is more than enough for games.

300kbps means nothing when it comes to games... its about latency.

an entry level telkom line has enough bandwidth, its all about the latency... You can have a 4mb line with a 1000ms ping in World of Warcraft which is gonna SUCK or you could easily have a 384K line with a ping of 400ms

 

[magneto]

multi thread your downloads..
use download manager.