need tools to max. my download speed

C

cwoody222

Registered
I recently moved. Not far but I had to disconnect and reconnect my DSL (Verizon, both times). I'm closer to the CO now so I was able to increase to 3mbps download. I'm not getting anywhere near that.

My speeds fluctuate greatly. Sometimes around 200k and sometims 2000k!

I've eliminated causes such as bad cables, phone jacks, hardware (router, modem), etc.

I'd like to see if there's any way my OS (10.3.9) could be to blame. I'm looking for ways to tweak it to make sure it's not bottlenecking my speed. Or even tweak my browers (Safari 99% of the time) for better performance.

I'd install fresh but I lost my 10.3 disk and I don't want to go back to 10.2. And I don't really want to spend the $$$ on 10.4.

Any suggestions?


FYI: I don't want download app type of tools... I need stuff to speed up regular all the time browsing, not just to help me resume big file downloads and stuff like that.
 
There are a lot of things that can effect your download speed besides the connection itself or your OS X network configuration. They include internet traffic load, server traffic, the site you are accessing itself, etc. If you are judging the speed by downloading files any or all of those factors could be in play and you have no control over any of them. With download rates varying as widely as you are experiencing, I suspect network conditions outside of your control are the culprit.

As far as fine tuning the network configuration you might take a look at the shareware TinkerTool System, not its freeware sibling TinkerTool. I offers the best range of network tuning tools I have run across.
 
um. please remember. 3mbps is 3MegaBits per second. so. 3 x1000 (for kilobits..) is 3000.
divide by 8 (to get bytes) gives 375. That means your theoretical max speed is 375KiloBytes per second.
 
Pengu said:
um. please remember. 3mbps is 3MegaBits per second. so. 3 x1000 (for kilobits..) is 3000.
divide by 8 (to get bytes) gives 375. That means your theoretical max speed is 375KiloBytes per second.
Click to expand...

Really?

Then when I'm getting downloads at 150kb/sec it's not so bad then?
 
Thats about half of what you should be. Try doing dslreports speed test at www.dslreports.com on the menu on the left there is an option tools and tests, select that and then find the speed test under that. This is usually a good way to see how fast your line is, other server you may not always hit your max download speed.
 
yes. speed download will attempt to make multiple connections for a single file, which usually speeds up the total transfer rate. if you give it a "site link" it will scan the page at the url provided and download all linked files, of whichever types you choose.

and as for the speed. ADSL is not a guaranteed service. you don't have a CIR (committed information rate). you get a Peak or Burst speed. we have a 4Mbit connection at work, which works out to 500 kbytes p/s.
we never get that speed. even at night when there is no other traffic. it's the theoretical peak. even on a LAN, you will never get 100% of the theoretical speed, it just doesn't work that way. if it's only you on the connection, you may get a significant boost with SD. don't forget the faster you go, the more chance you have of going to a website that seems slow, because IT's connection isn't fast enough.
 
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