Internet connection speed

[Maciamo]

I have been using Yahoo BB for a bit more than a year now. The ad says the connection is either 8Mbps or 12Mbps. I am not sure how much it was when I registered. They might have upgraded to higher connections, but I pay the same price as for the these connections (8 and 12 are almost the same price, about 2500yen/month).

I have tested my connection on PC Pitstop and it says my connection speed is about 300Kbs for downloading and 350Kbs for uploading. Does that mean that Yahoo is cheating me, giving me 0,65Mbs instead of 8Mbs ?

I also don't know what's the difference between DSL, ADSL and Cable. PCPitstop says the average DSL speed is 200kBytes, while a T1 or cable is 500kBytes. There is no ADSL or BroadBand on the list. Is Mbps the same as Mbytes/sec?

Another test on CNET confirmed a 362Kbs connection, which is between DSL and ISDN.

What do you think ?

[thomas]

Hm, I'm not sure about Yahoo, but practically all ISPs throttle their bandwidth, not only during peak hours. Saves them a lot of money. I usually receive only 30-50% of the bandwidth (Kb/s) that should be technically allocated to each customer, but I can't complain.

Right now my download speed is 565 Kb/s (tested with 1000 KB text block size).

[Maciamo]

I think I have understood where the problem was ; KBs (Kbytes/sec) isn't the same as Kbs (Kbits/sec) ! So, 350KBytes/sec is actually 2,8Mbits/sec. But still, where are the 5,2Mbps left ? It should be quicker. Could it be the modem ? My Yahoo modem isn't the same as the one shown on the ad on Internet. Could the modem speed up 3times the connection ? Shall I ask to change it ?

Now, another test on a Japanese site (Nifty) gives me completely different results depending on whcih data size I choose. My connection speed ranges from 2,7 Mbps to 5,8Mbps.

The Yahoo BB (Japan) site itself gives me only 3,4 Mbps. I'll try another time to see if it's due to the peak hours or not.

[hyogojoe]

Hello:

Your questions are almost a year old, but no one ever gave an explanation, so I will now in case you or others are still wondering.

DSL is a system that puts a digital signal over a telephone wire that also carries an analog telephone signal. The two signals can use the wire at the same time without interference. How? Beats me. Magic, I guess.

ADSL is Asynchronous DSL meaning the upload speed is slower than the download speed. This works for most users because typically they upload a web site address (small) and download a web page (bigger). But if you want to serve your own web site (i.e., put your web site on your own computer and leave it on 24/7 so people can access it), then it may not work so well.

The reason you get less than the advertised speed on your Yahoo BB connection is that DSL speeds decline as you get further from the telephone exchange where the DSL server is located. This is true of all DSL service which is why Yahoo and all other ADSL providers advertise their speeds as "Best Effort" speeds. That means the signal leaves the server at that speed but whatever you get will be the best it can be.

"Cable" refers to internet connection being providied by cable TV (CATV) companies. Cable connections do not suffer by distance, but they are degraded by the number and activity of other users in your neighborhood. Also, the users are grouped in what amounts to a LAN, so there are cases where your neighbor can access your computer through the cable.

Both Yahoo BB and cable companies provide telephone service, but Yahoo's is much more economical with just one price for all calls nationwide (7.5 yen/3 minutes). Cable is cheaper than NTT, but like NTT the prices go up over distance.

There is a foreigner who handles applications and gives support in English for Yahoo BB. His web site is called BBapply.com

Hope this helps.

hyogojoe