Factors Affecting Connection Speed

A slow Internet connection can be the result of a number of different reasons:

If many applications on your computer or network are all accessing the Internet at the same time then they will all need to share a finite resource. If you run a Line Speed Meter test during this time you will notice that the speed of your connection will return a lower result than usual. To determine the true speed of your connection be sure to stop email programs, file sharing applications and do not browse the web while running a speed test.

If there is a problem with the Internet connection and packets are being lost, then your computer will need to re-request the lost information thus slowing the line speed test. A small packet loss will result in a dramatic decrease in your connection speed. A ping test will readily reveal the amount of packet loss. To do this go to a command prompt and type 'ping www.tcpiq.com'. Given that everything is working correctly then it should result in a 0% packet loss.

Cable users share their Internet connection with everyone else on their cable. This single cable may snake around the entire suburb. If the cable is over utilized then everyone on that cable will be affected. This is the reason why we request your zip/post code when running the Line Speed test.

ADSL users can have a similar problem. Although they enjoy a dedicated connection to the local telephone exchange, the connection from the exchange to the rest of the Internet is shared amongst all users of that exchange. Generally this exchange connection is much greater then any user's individual speed but if there are many hundreds of ADSL users all using the connection at the same time then there will be an overall decrease in the speed of user's connection. It is for this reason that it is recommended that you run 6 or more scheduled tests each day. This will help build a picture of your Internet speed profile. You may find that in the weekday afternoons and on Sunday evenings the Internet will run at its slowest.

Satellite users have an array of problems that may conspire against receiving a good connection speed. These include being on the edge of the satellite footprint, wind, rain, cloud cover, solar flares, misaligned satellite dish, poorly configured bandwidth throttle algorithms. You can then include all of the problems that can afflict ADSL and Cable users.

Another source of problems is your ISP. They may have too many modems in and not enough bandwidth out. To determine whether this is the case we can recommend running a "trace route" test or for those unfamiliar with the command line then we can recommend "Ping Plotter" from www.pingplotter.com. We have also received a handful of stories from users whose ISP had been billing them for one plan but providing data speeds at another.

Finally your operating system may not be configured as efficiently as it could be. There are numerous settings in the registry that can change the behaviour of your tcp/ip stack to make it more suited to your Internet connection type. Modifying these settings is called tweaking and is somewhat of a black art. The best place to look for tweaks is at SpeedGuide.net