56k downloads

[Shahiro]

I'm curious, this may seem like a dumb question... but anyways.
I have 56k because no forms of DSL are available on my block... well, when I download things, the download can start really fast, sometimes at 12kb/sec, or even 20kb/sec, but then it nudges its way down to 3-5kb/sec. Why exactly does it slow down like that? 5kb/sec seems to be my average download speed, but the fact that a download is actually capable of starting off faster than that has me curious why it ends up so slow.

[smurfy]

Hi there - this is normal.
There can be a couple of reasons depending on the software you are using to download but the most common cause is that when you click the download link, the download has started into the browser cache and as you are selecting your desired download location etc in the dialogues that follow, it is saving some of the file. By the time it's ready to show you the progress/speed dialogue, it needs to catch up until it shows you the current stage and the way it does this is to display an extremely high rate (often higher than your connection is even capable of) until it settles to the real rate. 5kb/s is reasonable for a 56k modem connection.

[Shahiro]

Hmm, it doesn't seem like that. I don't select a desired location, with things like winzip it just starts the download immediately, and it's not like a sudden drop in speed. It'll maybe start at 15kb/sec and go down to 14, then 13, then soon it'll be down to 5, so I never thought of it as just showing a high speed as it caught up. And I don't use any software to download, except what's used in Firefox.

The first picture is when I first started (though it started at 36kb/sec) the second is after 15 seconds of downloading:
http://n.1asphost.com/dustyporviva/downloads.PNG

[Nick Grana]

If you disagree with the opinion made, let me reinforce it by saying you will not surpass 5kb/s and you are lucky if you do actually get 5kb/s.
Run an online modem speed test (http://homepage.eircom.net/~leslie/testpage.htm)and you'll come closer to seeing what your speed is more likely to be.:cool:

[Manc]

If you disagree with the opinion made, let me reinforce it by saying you will not surpass 5kb/s and you are lucky if you do actually get 5kb/s.


Spot on. I'm not sure if it's because Windows just doesn't show the correct transfer speed initially or whether it's because there is a burst of data right at the start.

Either way, Nick is correct, you won't get more than 5kb/s.

[com_person]

Why do companies that make modems say 56k, if you are lucky to get 5k?

[Nick Grana]

The 56KB/s (limited to 53KB/s by FCC) is 56,000 bits per second.
The 5 KB/s is 5,000 bytes per second. 1 byte is 8 bits so 5KB is 40,000bps.
The phone lines, distance, etc, are factors that limit the total speed which hardly ever reach full capacity.:cool:

[oracle128]

More specifically, your modem is 56kb/s (k for kilo, lower case b for bits), whereas Windows reports your downloads in kB (capital B for Bytes). So, a 56 kilobits per second modem can only download a theoretical maximum of just under 7 kilobytes per second (remembering a kilobyte is 1024 bytes). After that, as Nick said other factors come into play .

[nowshining]

no I have downloaded programes before like LARGE ones over about a sec. once on download.com. and my cache was clear.. :) no corruption either...I also believe downloads can go quicker...

[nowshining]

by the way I use a 56k modem to.