Re: I should know the answer to this myself?

johnplayerblue · 29-09-2005 7:42pm #1

But i do not!
Thing is im on a 16000 Kbit/s satellite internet connection 1 way! and lets say depending on time of day and 1 or 2 other variables i can download a 500mb file via Http in about 30/35mins or so,but heres the thing i can't get my head fully around,
im running a wlan with no routher and just a straight forward set up .ie wlan cards, AP with just the drivers needed to run the cards, i rarely use the wlan as i transfer large files quiet a lot but last night and again today and as i speak i was playing around with my psp and surfing around and what have you and decided to try downloading for the fun of it to see what my speeds were like and to my amusement i downloaded a 785mb mpeg in 27mins from www.archive.org i know this to be a good server so i've been to servers i know to be slow and yet again to speeds are just as good? how can my psp be faster than a brand new pz with a decent satellite connection? what gives? how can this be? i should know the answer but i don't

azezil · 29-09-2005 7:52pm

Your pc is running a hell of a lot more applications, what with auto updates and the like, bandwidth is being used up. Plus depends how many people are active on the site you're downloading from, contention etc. etc.

johnplayerblue · 29-09-2005 8:12pm

Theres only one taskbar app that uses bandwith and thats my antivirus, autoupdates are turned on as needed apart from that netwotk utilization is nil.
Perhaps im reading to much into it but if the speeds continue like this i guess ill be using me psp even more!
Has anybody else noticed a difference in speed via wireless on there psp

cgarvey · 29-09-2005 8:22pm

I'd guess, you being on satellite, that they proxy HTTP and compress the hell out of it before you get it. So make sure you're comparing like with like when it comes to the files you're downloading. (I.e. maybe the MPEG file is a lot more compresable, if there's such a word, than the ISO you're downloading, etc.). Also take into account that they (your satellite ISP) will most likely cache content... so downloading the file a 2nd time might appear much faster.

johnplayerblue · 29-09-2005 8:35pm

yea i,ve tried various formats mp3,mp4.mpeg,avi.rar.exe etc etc and all with great results, i don't use the cache option that comes with the isp software so im not cached a second time so to speak, as with europeonline and other sat providers..........

Fawkes · 29-09-2005 8:51pm

Wellcome to Windows!!! Thanks Microsoft for that.

What are you using for downloading the files on windows. I mean is well know that IE is not the best browser and even more when it comes to downloading large files. Have you tried any other download manager or browser like Firefox or Getright.

Also it could be that the network window size is too small so when it comes to large downloads the PSP soft might take more advantages of TCP/IP

bushy... · 29-09-2005 10:38pm

Hi, XP reserves 20% of available bandwidth for itself, you probably wouldnt notice this on a slower connection...http://www.dslreports.com/faq/3688 ,it also calls 'home' quiet a lot,eg evertime you click START>Search, it sends a few packets off to sa.windows.com ,install ethereal or something like it to get an idea whats going on.

cgarvey · 29-09-2005 11:27pm

Bushy, any source for the 20% claim? The link you give specifically says it doesn't affect Internet speeds.

JPB, you're still likely to be cached at the ISP level, which is what I meant. It would be unusual for a sat provider not to do this, given the expense of the bandwidth. Apart from that, try Fawkes idea of a download manger (e.g. http://www.freedownloadmanager.org, or one that reports current speeds accurately, unlike IE or FF).

.cg

Re: I should know the answer to this myself?

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