Should downloads from places such as iTunes use all available bandwidth?

[arko02]

Hi, I was just wondering if I could ask a general networking question to the forum... I've been trying to troubleshoot our DSL modem and router setup, and was wondering, are downloads such as iTunes movie/TV downloads, or downloads from other large sites such as Microsoft's, meant to go at the maximum speed your bandwidth can deliver? The reason I ask is, we have a 2Mbit connection, with a maximum speed of about 277kbs/sec, but I've noticed lately that often downloads from some of the above sites will go at a fraction of that. Just wondering if it's realistic to expect these kinds of downloads to go at the maximum bandwidth your connection is capable of, to know if there's something wrong with my modem, or if it's behaving the way it should. Thanks!

 

[skorpien]

Go to speedtest.net and check your connection speed. If it's what you're supposed to be getting with your ISP, your modem is ok (and make sure to test it using a wired connection for best results). My guess is that those sites' servers are busy and that's why you're not seeing the speeds you're expecting.

 

[arko02]

Hi, thanks for this... this is pretty much what I thought too (that in general the modem seemed to be getting good speeds, and that maybe the problem was at the end of the server)... I guess the only thing I don't understand is why downloads from, say, Apple (either Software Update downloads or iTunes downloads) sometimes use all of my available 2 Mbps bandwidth, and sometimes don't... I would have thought that a company as big as Apple would have servers that always send data to users at the maximum speed of their connection?

 

[skorpien]

Yes, but companies as big as Apple also get considerably more traffic than a smaller company might. It may also be the type of connection that you have. I used to be with a cable ISP where, depending on the amount of people with the same ISP actively using their connections, I would suffer slowdowns at certain times of the day.

 

[takeshi74]

Traffic varies. It's not constant.

 

[arko02]

Thanks skorpien and takeshi74 for your replies... skorpien, both your explanations about why downloads from Apple for instance might have different speeds at different times make sense... I'm on an ADSL connection, and I'm not sure if ADSL generally has those same issues as with cable which you were talking about, but you're right, it could well be to do with the ISP... by experimenting with a couple of different brands of modem and router, I think I'm slowly managing to be able to troubleshoot our internet connection...

 

[skorpien]

Glad to help being inquisitive and experimenting is pretty much how I learned everything I know about computers.

Due to the nature of the Internet in general, you'll unfortunately never see consistent speeds. I just tend to leave long downloads running overnight anyway.

 

[arko02]

Thanks for this reply, and sorry for the delay in responding, today (for other reasons) I had been doing a reinstall of the system! Thank you for your observation that one can probably never get consistent speeds on the net, it does give me some idea of what to expect from my downloads and web page loading speeds etc... I too often leave long downloads to happen overnight, and must say on the whole am quite happy with the level/quality of our internet connection... thanks again for your help!