diagnosing network speed bottlenecks

[Jim Kuzdrall]

Greetings,

    I can't help you with the speed test, but...

> When I called them to inquire why my speeds don't seem to stack up to
> the service - they offered three explanations...
> a) that sites that I'm using will and do control how fast they will
> allow me to download from them and

    I am on a 56K modem (quit laughing, there are reasons), and there 
are big lapses in download activity (KPPP "statistics" graph) on most 
sites I download.  Perhaps they fall asleep while waiting for my modem 
to download the last 1000 bytes they cached, but I think it is a real 
traffic delay either at the site or somewhere along the way.

> b) that my router could be the culprit because they generally wear
> out after two years, and I should buy a new 'draft-N' router.

    Now that is comical.  A statement like that would be enough to make 
me want to change companies (or go back to my 56K modem).  It sounds 
like they put routers in the same class as automobile tires!

> a) while sites do limit bandwidth allocated to a single user, I don't
> think this will be the case all the time.  Anyone know of a site that
> doesn't throttle which would allow me to eliminate a)

    Perhaps you could download the gnhlug archive file from this server 
at 4AM some morning.  MV (the host) will probably tell you what their 
outgoing trunk will do.  Others on this list would know what you can 
expect.

    One other thing.  If you are using a firewall watchdog or 
encryption, your internal processing may slow things down.  When I 
visit the Vanguard (investment company) web site, my Dell C400 (800MHz 
CPU) can't keep up with the 56K modem when 168 or 128 bit security is 
activated.  (Much of that may be the response time at the Vanguard 
site, which always seems overwhelmed with traffic.)

Jim Kuzdrall