Attaching files with broadband...still slow!

O'Prez

I recently installed Clicksilver broadband which works grand but attaching files to email is still a slow process. I thought with broadband this would be a speedy process. I just attached a 3.5mb one which took 40 minutes to get done. Is this normal? I use Yahoo Mail as my default email application and IE6 as my browser (but only when attaching files...as Mozilla Firefox won't let me see the attachment status bar in Yahoo Mail...is there a way around that?)
Anyway, am I missing out on something? Or is attaching files to email still supposed to be at a snail's pace with broadband!?!

Gosh

Broadband speed can be affected by many factors. The first being your upload speed - this is probably 128Kbps. Secondly, your contention ratio - probably 48:1. Thirdly, your ISP may give priority to answering browsing responses - because that's where the biggest benfit of broadband is.

If you do the maths 128Kbps = approx 16000 bytes per second - 3.5MB would take 218 seconds (about 3.5 minutes) - BUT only if you were the only one connected to UTVInternet at the time you sent your mail. Even then it would take a little longer because of extra data being sent with each packet of data.

Everything on the internet is queued so you have to wait you turn for your data to be sent to the ISP, the ISP to turn around a response, queue again for the response to be sent to you. Now imagine 48 people doing the same thing as you - that's where the contention ratio comes in. Next the biggest factor is how many other people are connected to your ISP at the same time as you and are they able to handle the demand at peak times.

40 minutes does sound a bit high - have you tried the same thing at different times - I suspect you'll get a better speed at non-peak times.

Moriarty

40 minutes is far too high, it shouldn't take more than 3 or 4 minutes. Contention doesn't effect people half as much as gosh implies. There's something wrong with either your setup or the dsl connection.

Moving this over to Nets/Comms.

Gosh

My point wasn't only about contention - but contention can be a problem - it's about sharing a bandwidth and the more people sharing means you get a smaller piece of the pie. The 128Kbps for upload is shared amongst 48 people on a 48:1 ratio - which means if all 48 people were sending large emails at the same time you'd only get 2.6Kbps. But that was my point if the bandwidth was being used at the time this is caused by contention and not a lot else ...

Do the same maths with an assumption of 10 people sending large files at the same time as you ... you'd get a 10th of the bandwidth - approx 12.8Kbps ... or 1600 bytes/second ... 3.5MB would take 2187 seconds or 36 minutes ...

I know contention shouldn't be a problem :rolleyes: but it can be and at certain times there will be a noticeable decrease in speed. My point was that you can't expect the 128Kbps upload speed all of the time, it's a shared connection and that's what contention ratios are all about.

Other factors that can further exacerbate upload and download speeds include how far you are from the exchange, the limit for effective broadband is about 18,000 feet (5.5kms) - the further out you are the less effective the signal becomes and the chances of receiving your fair share of the bandwidth are decreased.

These are all points to take into consideration about speed - and to simply say there must be something wrong with your DSL setup or connection isn't helpful.

O'Prez

I'm about a mile away from the exchange. I've tried sending em during the day, the evening and in the early hours of the morning....4am the other night! And it still attaches files at dial up speeds

Gosh

How long was it taking before you installed broadband?

Gosh

Try using this service to establish your broadband speeds

http://www.visualware.com/business/products/myspeed/index.html

Click on the Live Demo button - you will be asked to supply an email address to be able to use the service but at least you'll get an indication of your upload and download speeds

O'Prez

Gosh wrote:

How long was it taking before you installed broadband?

..the usual lacklustre dial up length. I rang Clicksilver support...waited 15 minutes for an answer and they said they'd ring me back...that was 2 hours ago...

Gosh

At the time of moving to broadband did you install any software, e.g. firewall, anti-virus?

O'Prez

Gosh wrote:

At the time of moving to broadband did you install any software, e.g. firewall, anti-virus?

No. I have Norton Anti Virus and Norton Internet Security on me computer for ages...and the connection is firewalled by the Windows one too. Still no callback from UTV either. How surprising!

Gosh

You don't need the Windows firewall with a NIS firewall - are you running SP2? - if so turn off the Windows firewall and let NIS do what it should do. What are your internet browsing speeds like - is the problem ONLY with large email attachments?

O'Prez

Gosh wrote:

You don't need the Windows firewall with a NIS firewall - are you running SP2? - if so turn off the Windows firewall and let NIS do what it should do. What are your internet browsing speeds like - is the problem ONLY with large email attachments?

I'm not running SP2...I've heard fierce bad reports about it so I decided against installing it. I'll turn off the firewall anyway though. Speedwise, it's always connected at a constant 512.0kbps. It's only attaching files that are giving me a pain in the sphincter!

Superman

O'Prez wrote:

it's always connected at a constant 512.0kbps.

well your router may say 512kbps but you won't really know what it is exactly till you clock it , altho I seroiusly doubt it is a speed issue if web brosing is fast.
I suggest you clock the speed of your line ,this site is good, If its grand try and send the file using a different email, It could just be that the email server is extremely slow, out of curiousity what email domain is it ?

Gosh

Did you run the speed test at

http://www.visualware.com/business/...peed/index.html

Always connected at 512Kbps doesn't mean that's your speed - run the test above and see what your upload speed is ...

Superman

Gosh wrote:

Did you run the speed test at

http://www.visualware.com/business/...peed/index.html

Always connected at 512Kbps doesn't mean that's your speed - run the test above and see what your upload speed is ...

Repeating my sentences really cast a big shadow of doubt over "intelligent life in Offaly"

Gosh

Superman wrote:

Repeating my sentences really cast a big shadow of doubt over "intelligent life in Offaly"

Look at the times of the posts - your post wasn't there when I was preparing mine - you got in first with the same thoughts - let's try and help the guy not trade insults !!

Superman

ah I know, no offense intended! I was only playin!
I'd go as far as to say "great minds think alike" !

Gosh

What modem/router are you using?

O'Prez

LADS! I'm the happiest boy in Oirland It was IE6 that was the problem. I uploaded the attachment to Yahoo again using Firefox and Netscape browsers instead and both did it in under 4 minutes! 1 tenth of the time it took with IE! I'll never use that browser again. Thanx a lot for all ye're help and suggestions

Gosh

Glad you got it fixed ... Good Luck

O'Prez

Gosh wrote:

Glad you got it fixed ... Good Luck

Thanx I'm yer next door neighbour by the way! North Tipperary! Bet ya hate me now

davmigil

Me again, the rude one. Now reformed! I see you are using yahoo mail, a webmail system. I am pretty certain this will be using http for mail transfers and relying on yahoo server speeds.

Have you tried using Outlook Express (or if you want to use an alternative I like Thunderbird: www.mozilla.org ) with your utvinternet/clicksilver account and sending it that way? I would hazard a guess that you will find this provides more consistenly fast sending.

Make sure you are behind some kind of firewall though on broadband, always!

All the best,

David

ps 40minutes to send 3.5Mb is ridiculous! Download a large file like those mentioned in the thread. You hopefully should see a download speed of 40+ KB/sec. If this avlue is v.low (like 10), your connection speed might the problem

ps I would recommend SP2. Backup anything you can't afford to lose just in case. I have it on the PC I use for video-editing (and everything else) and it really hasn't caused any real problems. If you aren't going to install, still make sure your PC is fully up to date otherwise from Windows Update.

Gosh

O'Prez wrote:

Thanx I'm yer next door neighbour by the way! North Tipperary! Bet ya hate me now

Despite what you might have heard about SP2 you really should install it - I've done it on 4 PCs and a laptop - not a single problem. There are already updates to SP2 so the longer you leave it the further behind you'll fall

O'Prez

Dave! Me again...the sensitive one I have Thunderbird too. But, it was IE6 that was causing the problem. The upload speed for that attachment was just under 4 mins with Firefox! Downloadwise, the speed averages out at about 50kbps so no problems there thankfully!

Gosh...I'm waiting til next month to put SP2 on or I might fork out for a new XP altogether with that included cos the one I'm using can be problematic at times.