Does your internet give you same speeds everywhere?

[MacBH928]

I noticed that I get varying speeds using different internet services. So its either my ISP is throttling the connections or the services providers limit their download speeds.

For example on:

Apple Trailers app, IMDB, Persicope: I get stuttering video on 2min trailers and video

on PSN, iTunes, and Youtube: I get decent speeds just not amazing. 2GB will take about 30min to 50min I guess

on Torrent: I can download 3GB files in 10min !!!

AFAIK people with fast internet speeds get fast connections everywhere, but with me its a different speed depending on which service I use Do you face a similar experience?

 

[satcomer]

It all depends on the distance, shared services from an ISP or bad DNS servers. Plus sometimes some ISPs degrade video services and in cable networking (especially in occupied buildings) sharing a single pipe.

On your Mac tells us the speed of ISP connection and what router and his you connect to it.

If it's is wireless then option key+click the airport Finder menu icon to see your connection speed.

 

[tjwilliams25]

It could be multiple issues, the biggest two being: your ISP is throttling the video services, or (more likely) they aren't using a very good DNS and it's matching you up with servers that are slower and farther away.

You can try changing your DNS settings and see if that helps your problem. Google provides a free DNS service that you can use. A quick search can find some good instructions on how to do this.

 

[MacBH928]

It could be multiple issues, the biggest two being: your ISP is throttling the video services, or (more likely) they aren't using a very good DNS and it's matching you up with servers that are slower and farther away.

You can try changing your DNS settings and see if that helps your problem. Google provides a free DNS service that you can use. A quick search can find some good instructions on how to do this.

Will Google monitor my internet activity if I use their DNS servers? I am kind of paranoid

 

[tjwilliams25]

I think most ISPs do. Given their track record, I wouldn't be surprised. If it worries you I would suggest trying another DNS provider like OpenDNS. I didn't suggest it because I didn't have the best experience with them, however that could be because I live in a tech deadzone with only one reliable ISP.

 

[satcomer]

Will Google monitor my internet activity if I use their DNS servers? I am kind of paranoid

There is also OpenDNS or according to the article Free Public DNS servers.

 

[MacBH928]

but is it proven that using DNS makes your download faster? I thought it just resolves URLs faster

 

[Alrescha]

but is it proven that using DNS makes your download faster? I thought it just resolves URLs faster

Using a faster DNS does what you say, it resolves URLs faster. In the great scheme of things this is usually not very important since everything is cached locally. Using a *different* DNS might get you different answers - as mentioned before you might get the IP address of a server closer to you which gives you better performance.

I think such instances are rare, but there was a time when it made a big difference to Netflix users.

For real-world tests of my Internet speed I usually download something from Apple - a copy of iTunes perhaps.

A.

 

[tjwilliams25]

It can make your connections faster with CDNs (where download files are held for services like Netflix and iTunes) because it can match you with closer servers. Basically, some ISPs use less-updated DNSs that can match you up with a server that is way too far away hence slower speeds. I notice this more often because I'm in rural America where we barely have any to-the-home fiber yet and most CDNs are a couple of states away. @Alrescha is right, for most people it won't make a difference, but I can tell you from my own personal experience that it can make a world of difference. With my ISP DNS, iTunes downloads would take forever, but when I would change the DNS to Google's it would jump my speeds back up to normal. Your mileage my vary.

 

[MacBH928]

is there any app that can test out different DNSs to see which is fastest for me?
I tried NameBench and it took like 2 hours and the test was still not done I just shut it down

 

[tjwilliams25]

I'm not sure of an app, but I switch them on my Time Capsule pretty quickly and test them that way. Which router do you have?

 

[winston1236]

You also have to take into account the servers for the sites you are visiting, with torrents you are pulling from many sources, a trailer is coming from a single server which may or may not be any good, could also be hit by high traffic, etc. As previously recommended I think you should try new DNS entries and also check to see that everything else is configured correctly.

Speed test give you a good idea of your connection but also pay attention to the ping time, the lower the better.

 

[2984839]

Lots of stuff could cause it. The servers could be slow, the traffic to them could be high, the DNS could be sending you off on a long journey, etc.
[doublepost=1456198590][/doublepost]

but is it proven that using DNS makes your download faster? I thought it just resolves URLs faster

Typically, the slowest part of visiting a site is the DNS lookup, but your router and browser are probably both caching DNS records, so it's not always going to have to contact your DNS server.

 

[MacBH928]

I'm not sure of an app, but I switch them on my Time Capsule pretty quickly and test them that way. Which router do you have?

Netgear r7000. I tested out different routers, same results.

You also have to take into account the servers for the sites you are visiting, with torrents you are pulling from many sources, a trailer is coming from a single server which may or may not be any good, could also be hit by high traffic, etc.

I doubt these are the reasons. Sometimes it could take me 30min to download a 300mb app from iTunes, but on Torrent I can get a 4Gb file in 10min.

I can only explain this by ISP throttling, but if anything my ISP should be throttling the torrent connections not iTunes or Playstation Network which is confusing me.

OR

iTunes and PSN are limiting their download speeds purposely.

Do you guys get high-speed downloads using iTunes and AppStores (5-7 megaBYTES/s)?
I only see those numbers on torrents.

 

[tjwilliams25]

Netgear r7000. I tested out different routers, same results.



I doubt these are the reasons. Sometimes it could take me 30min to download a 300mb app from iTunes, but on Torrent I can get a 4Gb file in 10min.

I can only explain this by ISP throttling, but if anything my ISP should be throttling the torrent connections not iTunes or Playstation Network which is confusing me.

OR

iTunes and PSN are limiting their download speeds purposely.

Do you guys get high-speed downloads using iTunes and AppStores (5-7 megaBYTES/s)?
I only see those numbers on torrents.

It isn't your ISP throttling you, I can almost guarantee it. Everything you are describing are the same issues I was having and changing the DNS fixed it for me. If you know how to get into the router settings, you should try changing the universal DNS for your network and see if it fixes the problem. I think your model works with Netgear's Genie app, so that might make it easier for you if you've never changed the settings before.

 

[MacBH928]

It isn't your ISP throttling you, I can almost guarantee it. Everything you are describing are the same issues I was having and changing the DNS fixed it for me. If you know how to get into the router settings, you should try changing the universal DNS for your network and see if it fixes the problem. I think your model works with Netgear's Genie app, so that might make it easier for you if you've never changed the settings before.

Thank you,

DNS settings are confusing me. There is a DNS setting on my OS X, on my iphone, on my router, and one in my ISP's device(which is a wireless LTE reciever). Which one should I change to take effect, or shall I change them all?

I get internet using a device like this :

 

[tjwilliams25]

Thank you,

DNS settings are confusing me. There is a DNS setting on my OS X, on my iphone, on my router, and one in my ISP's device(which is a wireless LTE reciever). Which one should I change to take effect, or shall I change them all?

I get internet using a device like this :

It can definitely be confusing, especially as you noted that every device can have its own DNS settings. The one you want to focus on is the one on the router. Every device on the network gets its DNS settings from there.

 

[AcesHigh87]

I doubt these are the reasons. Sometimes it could take me 30min to download a 300mb app from iTunes, but on Torrent I can get a 4Gb file in 10min.

As he explained though, torrents vs. server downloads don't work the same way. You're comparing two things that aren't as easily compared as you make them out to be. Don't get me wrong, something does sound off, but it's not as unusual as you might think.

With that torrent you are seeing a single 4GB download. However, your computer is seeing a bunch of smaller pieces coming from different sources in order to get you that 1 file. If you tried to download a torrent with only 1 seeder it would be a better comparison to the iTunes download: 1 source - 1 receiver. With average torrents you're more likely to get 1000 sources - 1 receiver which results in faster download times.

Getting a certain speed via 1 service doesn't mean you'll automatically get it from every other service, things simply don't work that way in the real world. A different that large does seem like it has some kind of underlying issue but you can't simply nail it down to your ISP or the services messing with your speeds.

It should be noted, however, that the PSN servers are known to be iffy and get bogged down very easily. Sadly the only thing I've found to improve download times on my PS4 is to put it in rest mode during the download. That gives it a massive boost in speed; probably because the network card isn't being bogged down by anything else running.

Do you guys get high-speed downloads using iTunes and AppStores (5-7 megaBYTES/s)?
I only see those numbers on torrents.

iTunes doesn't actually say the numbers so I can't say for sure on the speeds but I can say that I downloaded 2 movies last night via iTunes (roughly 2.5GB a piece I believe) and they took about 5 minutes each.

 

[MacBH928]

iTunes doesn't actually say the numbers so I can't say for sure on the speeds but I can say that I downloaded 2 movies last night via iTunes (roughly 2.5GB a piece I believe) and they took about 5 minutes each.

Thanks for your reply...
This is exactly my question, why can't I get speeds like that on iTunes?
I guess I will never find the answer

 

[AcesHigh87]

Thanks for your reply...
This is exactly my question, why can't I get speeds like that on iTunes?
I guess I will never find the answer

What kind of speeds are you expecting to get? Like what does your ISP say the speeds are? Also, what results do you get running a speed test? Just curious.

 

[MacBH928]

What kind of speeds are you expecting to get? Like what does your ISP say the speeds are? Also, what results do you get running a speed test? Just curious.

its all vey different. Sometimes I get 10mbps on speed test, downloading a file I will get 20mbps, there doesn't seem to be any rules, but generally its always around 20ish mbps.

The only exception is torrent which seems to have no limit reaching up to 70.

My ISP doesn't not give give a specific speed, it will just tell you that you will be getting "4G LTE" speeds. At first I thought big services purposely lower speeds so downloads won't crash their servers until I saw pics on the internet people posting incredible speeds from iTunes and YouTube.

 

[AcesHigh87]

its all vey different. Sometimes I get 10mbps on speed test, downloading a file I will get 20mbps, there doesn't seem to be any rules, but generally its always around 20ish mbps.

The only exception is torrent which seems to have no limit reaching up to 70.

My ISP doesn't not give give a specific speed, it will just tell you that you will be getting "4G LTE" speeds. At first I thought big services purposely lower speeds so downloads won't crash their servers until I saw pics on the internet people posting incredible speeds from iTunes and YouTube.

Torrents will generally go faster as we discussed because you are getting things from multiple sources so there are no bottlenecks.

Honestly, if your speeds are 20Mb/s the. The iTunes time you have described seems possible, not necessary likely but possible. I know mine was a lot faster but my internet is around 150 down so you do the math.

I'm also curious in this 4G LTE thing. I've never heard that used to describe home internet, just mobile data which is slower and prone to being throttled when a lot of people are using it. Is your modem perhaps giving you a network off of cell towers as a mobile data plan would? IMO that would likely cause pretty terrible speeds, especially if you're using a lot.

 

[MacBH928]

Torrents will generally go faster as we discussed because you are getting things from multiple sources so there are no bottlenecks.

Honestly, if your speeds are 20Mb/s the. The iTunes time you have described seems possible, not necessary likely but possible. I know mine was a lot faster but my internet is around 150 down so you do the math.

I'm also curious in this 4G LTE thing. I've never heard that used to describe home internet, just mobile data which is slower and prone to being throttled when a lot of people are using it. Is your modem perhaps giving you a network off of cell towers as a mobile data plan would? IMO that would likely cause pretty terrible speeds, especially if you're using a lot.

Yes, that is what I was thinking, are there bottlenecks on services or not? Seems only with me.

As for the LTE modems, you are correct. I am not in the US, LTE "modems" are pretty common here and it works much better than you think. In fact, I get more speed and bandwidth on the LTE than the fibre optic deals here.

Its like a router that has a chip in it, just like the one you insert in the iphone, and it gives you high speed internet. You can take it to wherever with electricity, no need to be stuck to phone jack or cable line.