I find that when i start a dl it reaches a max speed of about 100kbps at the beginning then drops to about 30-50kbps, i was wondering is there anyway of maintaning the max dl speed throughout the whole dl? whether with add ons or hardware?
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Is it possible to maintain high dl speed?
- Thread starter fash
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opusthe2nd
macrumors 6502
fash said:
Does this happen with every site you go to? What is your bandwidth limit? Mine is 1.5mbps but when I start a download its at 3mbps and drops rapidly to my limit.
homerjward
macrumors 68030
mine's exactly the same way! it'd sure be nice if i could sustain the fast speed!opusthe2nd said:
I've seen that "initial burst" on just about every connection I've ever used and on every OS. I'm pretty sure it's not "real", but rather some sort of artifact of the way downloads are started. You can more or less confirm this by working out the math on your connection speed--frequently the "initial spike" is twice the theoretical maximum of your connection, so it can't be real.
I'm sure someone has a better explanation, but it's probably something like the counter doesn't start at the right time so the first chunk of data appears to come in very fast, then as it gets averaged in with the real speed it appears to fall slowly. Or maybe the initial header is compressed leading it to appear much faster than it really is. Or some sort of buffering. Whatever.
You'll note that on small files where the initial burst is large enough to download the whole thing in a second or two, it'll "pause" for several seconds longer while actually downloading at a rate that averages out to the correct speed, further indicating that it's not real.
I'm sure someone has a better explanation, but it's probably something like the counter doesn't start at the right time so the first chunk of data appears to come in very fast, then as it gets averaged in with the real speed it appears to fall slowly. Or maybe the initial header is compressed leading it to appear much faster than it really is. Or some sort of buffering. Whatever.
You'll note that on small files where the initial burst is large enough to download the whole thing in a second or two, it'll "pause" for several seconds longer while actually downloading at a rate that averages out to the correct speed, further indicating that it's not real.
Basically, while the browser and file system are preparing to download the file, it starts transferring in advance. Then when the progress meter appears, it "zooms forward" a little bit, representing the part that's been downloaded in the background.
30-50 kb/s isn't very fast though, what's your connection rated at?
Nitpick: "p" means "pico", so "kbps" would be "kilobit(s) pico second(s)". For "kilobits per second" you want "kb/s" (heaps of people make this mistake so I thought I'd better point it out) 🙂
30-50 kb/s isn't very fast though, what's your connection rated at?
Nitpick: "p" means "pico", so "kbps" would be "kilobit(s) pico second(s)". For "kilobits per second" you want "kb/s" (heaps of people make this mistake so I thought I'd better point it out) 🙂
Nermal said:
😕 huh? wots a pico second then?
yeh i used to have a 2mb line but i'm not sure if its been upgraded to a 3/4mb line so it should be a lot faster than i'm getting. I assume if i'm running some torrents the traffic would affect the dl on safari right?
topgunn
macrumors 68000
Nermal said:
From my experience, it is typical to use "p" for "per" when using English units. Miles per hour is mph and feet per second is fps. When dealing with metric units, a "/" is used for "per". Kilometers per hour is km/h and meters per second is m/s.
Now, are kilo/mega/giga/tera-bits/bytes English or Metric? Not really either. Therefore, its just what the standard convention is in your area that determines who it is expressed. In the States, it is much more common to see Kbps or Mbps that Kb/s, although both are used.
What bothers me is when people use KB and Kb interchangably. "Wow, with my 1.5 MBps DSL connection, I can download this 843MB pirated copy of 'The Sound of Music' in 9 minutes and 22 seconds!"