Is Software Update a network bandwidth hog?

[greg555]

I was trying to surf the net while downloading the 10.5.3 OS X update (the 420 MB one). Macrumors and DPreview were both very slow with pages timing out.

I started up Activity Monitor and it showed a pretty steady 625kB/s download rate but couldn't tell which program was getting the bandwidth. When the download finished Safari was back to normal speed.

Thanks - Greg

 

[admanimal]

I was trying to surf the net while downloading the 10.5.3 OS X update (the 420 MB one). Macrumors and DPreview were both very slow with pages timing out.

I started up Activity Monitor and it showed a pretty steady 625kB/s download rate but couldn't tell which program was getting the bandwidth. When the download finished Safari was back to normal speed.

Thanks - Greg

Downloading something from software update is like downloading any other file from a fast server- it will probably use most of your bandwidth until it finishes.

 

[vandozza]

Downloading something from software update is like downloading any other file from a fast server- it will probably use most of your bandwidth until it finishes.

it's also my experience that any large download/torrent will choke your web browsing.

you havn't noticed this before? 🙂

 

[greg555]

it's also my experience that any large download/torrent will choke your web browsing.

you havn't noticed this before? 🙂

No. I don't do torrents and today was probably the first time downloading a 400MB file.

I guess I thought, with a Unix core, OS X would have some sort of balancing between programs sharing a resource (i.e. the network BW). Like the "nice" setting to make programs share the CPU nicely.

So, it's not a frequent problem for me, but I was curious.

Thanks - Greg

 

[vandozza]

you only notice this (as admanimal stated) when the server you are downloading from, can supply you with enough information to choke your connection. (ie. if the server can only send a file at 400kb/s and you can max download at >600kb/s, you probably won't notice. if the server can send you a file faster than your max download speed, then your connection will max out.)

with torrents and ftp download managers, you can throttle the downloads to a speed where your web browsing experience will not be degraded.

though I'm not sure how you would do this to Software Update or http:// downloads. (You can do it if you know about the OSX ipfw firewall i think, but we would need someone cleverer than I to show us how.)

 

[greg555]

you only notice this (as admanimal stated) when the server you are downloading from, can supply you with enough information to choke your connection. (ie. if the server can only send a file at 400kb/s and you can max download at >600kb/s, you probably won't notice. if the server can send you a file faster than your max download speed, then your connection will max out.)

with torrents and ftp download managers, you can throttle the downloads to a speed where your web browsing experience will not be degraded.

though I'm not sure how you would do this to Software Update or http:// downloads. (You can do it if you know about the OSX ipfw firewall i think, but we would need someone cleverer than I to show us how.)

I guess it's a rare situation when the download site is faster than my cable internet (for a big download). I don't think I'd fool with the firewall settings without step by step instructions.

Thanks for the info everyone - Greg