My Downloading Speed Is Very Slow

[vipin]

I have a internet connection through LAN 40 kbps. When I surf the net, I get fairly good speed but my downloading speed is restricted to 3.50 KB/s. Please tell me what's the problem? I am using Pentium 4 PC with XP Service Pack 2!
Thanx

[troop18546]

Youre not alone. I suffer from LAG internet too. Help us! :cry:

[BeefontheBone]

Is it that slow all the time, or does it vary between servers? Are you using any kind of download manager (if not, why not?) - is your firewall or anything similar getting in the way? Have you got windows open doing other things like refreshing web pages or browsing big sites with flash etc? Have you checked for spyware/adware recently?

[Shrek]

Just one question: is that speed (40 kbps) correct?

because if it is, your maximum download speed should be about 5 KB/s which means you are not wasting that much of your bandwidth

i have a 512 kbps conection and i can download at 30 KB/s without any problem.

[Eagle of Fire]

40 kbps afaik is really slow by itself... :whistle:

[lethe]

Yap... I remember my 56 kbps phone connection. It sucked, and between packages sent to the ISP, and packages outside to websites , loss and server lag, 3.5kb/s was actually a good downloading speed.

Edit: typos

[vipin]

Sorry, it was not 40 kbps but 40 KBPS. And whether I use download manager or not, my speed never exceeds 3.5 KB/s. My speed is always this slow. My Firewall, I don't think is creating any trouble( if yes, pls tell how). I am sure there is no spyware or adware in my PC since I have installed Windows right now jst one day ago and opened very reliable websites. I have not opened any windows with flash content. I just open the downloading window and close all other applications.
Pls help!

[Shrek]

I don' t know if what i' m going to say can help you or not, but here it goes:

You say your connection is throgh LAN; how many users has that network? for example, if there are 50 users "surfing" the net, the bandwidth will be divided by all the users.

if there are only a couple of users, there might be a limitation somewhere, perhaps at the LAN administrator or at the router, in order to keep some bandwidth free.

[vipin]

But I don't understand why only my downloading speed suffers! If problem was with the number of people with the LAN, then my net surfing speed would have also been slow! Moreover, in the past I surfed the net using my 56 K modem (Dial-up) and again my speed was same although I surfed the net with the modem connection very slow!

[rallier]

40 Kbits per second... divide it by 8 you get 5kb/s at optimum levels! (that means in perfect utopian conditions most probably it will be 4kb/s or less depending on the line quality etc) when you are surfing many of the sites you go are already in your computer's memory so they may load pretty fast, however when downloading things are different..... especially when the server requires uploading and lot (confirmation of packets etc etc etc although small but many) it may choke your connection hence a slower download speed.
Furthermore if u have a firewall IT WILL i repeat IT WILL hamper ur speed no matter what the settings are...... you would say yes but just a little....well in modern era that almost everyone uses ADSL 1kb/s down is meaningless but for a 40kbit modem is no less than 20% of performance down.

What i imply is that most probably there is nothing unnaturally wrong with your pc or the connection, and as internet security increases modems will eventually be unable to surf at all. what i suggest to you my friend is to get an ADSL connection, it's fairly cheap and it may even prove cheaper than normal modem connection since it is not using the telephonic line as a telephone line (works at higher frequencies so the line is not busy).
what i am writing now is not by a run of the mill user you may encounter since i am working at an ADSL line provider along with the ISP and i've got a Bsc in Comp. Science, nothing to brag about it but just to give you clear indications that these are not speculations but facts.

Personally i rendered the modem usage obsolete and have one in commision just in case of an extreme emergency.

[rallier]

sorry u meant 40Kbytes/s i am really sorry..... well if there are no ppl in the lan and still your downloading sucks in any server or website you are trying to download from? check the port configuration in your firewall and check for any trojans that may affect it....
furthermore 50 ppl in the lan seems to me as a bysiness, most probably the administrator of the lan closed all the downloading ports. it must be something to do with ports either configuration or trojans. and yes there is a way to allow surfing being normally fast but downloading virtually zero, it's all a matter of ports opened or closed, usually done by firewalls and trojans.
The last thing is the ISP filters but it's very unlikely the ISP done so much of filtering, they do it but not to such an extend. they may restrict for example p2p downloading (like my employers) or restric both browsing and p2p in a balanced way to make sure there is enough bandwidth for everybody, but never to such an extend.

[vipin]

Thanx for ur suggestions! I think I will have to live with that speed only! I am not using modem for doing internet but using a LAN card!

[Danny252]

7.4kbps is what I live with. 8 if Im lucky..

[Rav3n]

Are you using any P2P software for these downloads...or are they through an internet site...

[vipin]

:D ofcourse, thorugh internet sites! I don't even know what are P2P clients! :angel: