Browser filesave speed vs connect speed

Browser info.

Am I correct in thinking the rate shown in the browser's filesaving window is about 10% of what the line connection speed is?

I always see with my good old 56k modem that download speeds are 5k/s. Those ADSL connected PC's I've seen, for those on lowly 512k the speed shows about 60k/s and for higher say 8Mb the rate can show about 760k/s.

I imagine these have been good times and/or lucky connects to whatever dynamic of the ISP.
Also, I've noticed that for an initial 5-10 seconds there will be an excess speed, even as high as 1500-1900k/s for the 8Mb lines and then it settles to an even 700k/s ,or when a bad time about 300k.

As an extra point, I was at a friend's yesterday and he started a big iso download which started out well with a constant 550k/s but after about 15mins it kept dropping till about 60k/s and stayed there a few mins then down to 30k/s for about 5mins where he cancelled.

Is that a time of day/site issue? It was one of the Linux mirror sites in the afternoon.

They are displaying different units

Modem will be showing Kilo bits per second (Kbps), but Windows shows Kilo Bytes per second.

8 bits make up a Byte in this case, then add some technical stuff like 12% overheads due to IP traffic being carried over an ATM network to the exchange and you get roughly the sum you arrived at a different way.

Excess speed is because the browser is downloading to a temporary location while you decide where to save the file.

Following on from what Andrew (MrSaffron) said, the speed should not drop dramatically after 15 minutes. It is unlikely to be the mirror site having a problem, after all it's what they are designed to do.

The most likely in my opinion is the ISP concerned applying traffic management (throttling) to the high-volume download. Who is your friends ISP? A less likely possibility is congestion at the exchange - see what it says about the exchange here.

Browser info

thnx. about the:- "ISP concerned applying traffic management (throttling) to the high-volume download."

is that to the actual user doing that related to any contract limits or is it something else?
ISP is Virgin

In reply to:

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is that to the actual user doing that related to any contract limits or is it something else?

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Not an expert on Virgin, but they certainly use Traffic Management, though I believe the Virgin Media ADSL (phone) and the Virgin Media Cable are totally different.

See the appropriate forum on this site, and also look throught the News Archive on the Main Site.

Edit:- Also see ISP unhappiness and search for Virgin

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 30-Oct-07 22:35:50)