Internet speeds and Covid-19
Mar 23, 2020 14:37:41 #
aphelps wrote:
I have noticed my internet download speeds are significantly reduced during the hours from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. I am guessing that this is due to the increase in traffic as a result of lots of people staying home and using the net. Has anybody else experienced this? I thought that ISPs could compensate for heavy traffic and open up more bandwidth but that does not appear to be happening.
Yes, mine is down substantially. I just checked it at 2:45PM on Monday 3/23 and it was just over 13Mb/s. At 6:30 yesterday morning it was 145Mb/s through a vpn.
D
Mar 23, 2020 14:42:48 #
Comcast/Xfinity is cable TV internet and it is physically like a party line. You are sharing the same cable as your neighbors. Almost certainly, you and your neighbors are maxing out the shared connection. This is likely the weak link in your chain to the internet.
Occasionally the internet providers perform shaping. This allows them to throttle different kinds of protocols and traffic from unaffiliated internet users, e.g. video from Hulu, to reserve capacity for critical types of internet traffic or traffic from preferred companies. This is what network neutrality is all about. Certainly not shocking that Xfinity doesn't care if Netflix buffers.
DSL and other advance wired internet services get you to either a concentrator or directly to the local switching office, but the farther you are away from it you are the slower it can go. From there you have a very high capacity connection to the internet.
If you are not working with a major internet provider, e.g. AT&T, they will have a high capacity connection to the Internet from the telephone company infrastructure to the internet. This is called a back haul and this like cable is a shared connection that can become congested.
Finally, the really big players, e.g. Facebook are facing unprecedented loads to their systems and may experience periodic slowness. Expect them to adjust quickly.
Occasionally the internet providers perform shaping. This allows them to throttle different kinds of protocols and traffic from unaffiliated internet users, e.g. video from Hulu, to reserve capacity for critical types of internet traffic or traffic from preferred companies. This is what network neutrality is all about. Certainly not shocking that Xfinity doesn't care if Netflix buffers.
DSL and other advance wired internet services get you to either a concentrator or directly to the local switching office, but the farther you are away from it you are the slower it can go. From there you have a very high capacity connection to the internet.
If you are not working with a major internet provider, e.g. AT&T, they will have a high capacity connection to the Internet from the telephone company infrastructure to the internet. This is called a back haul and this like cable is a shared connection that can become congested.
Finally, the really big players, e.g. Facebook are facing unprecedented loads to their systems and may experience periodic slowness. Expect them to adjust quickly.
Mar 23, 2020 15:34:36 #
controversy
Loc: Wuhan, China
aphelps wrote:
I have noticed my internet download speeds are significantly reduced during the hours from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. I am guessing that this is due to the increase in traffic as a result of lots of people staying home and using the net. Has anybody else experienced this? I thought that ISPs could compensate for heavy traffic and open up more bandwidth but that does not appear to be happening.
Among the recent increasing adds to Internet traffic are all of the distributed computing models that utilize free CPU time on all of the participant's computers and some of their Internet capacity to support Covid-19 research. The idea is to create a massively parallel computing architecture where hundreds of thousands (millions?) of computers have been engaged to create a multi-petaflop virtual computer, with each CPU working on it's on tiny piece of the "science." This isn't a new concept and has been implemented many times for both noble and not-so-noble causes (see malicious BitCoin Mining bots).
Lots of personal, business, and academic folks have downloaded the required supporting apps and are participating. It's certainly possible that one of the results of all this is a greater utilization of the Internet and a general slowdown for everyone. Just a thought...
Check out www.foldingathome.org and http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/ to see some examples.
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Mar 23, 2020 17:21:57 #
Mine is Spectrum. I just checked it at 1700 EDT and it is as faster as it ever was....both download and upload speeds are above the stated plan that I have.
Mar 23, 2020 18:43:15 #
aphelps wrote:
I have noticed my internet download speeds are significantly reduced during the hours from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. I am guessing that this is due to the increase in traffic as a result of lots of people staying home and using the net. Has anybody else experienced this? I thought that ISPs could compensate for heavy traffic and open up more bandwidth but that does not appear to be happening.
I have noted a marked slowdown the last few days but it appears to be more when the site I am going to is trying to load. It leads me to suspect that at least some of the slowdown is heavy traffic at the target web site servers. My download/upload speeds have never been stellar anyway. I am in a very remote college town of 34,000 souls where my best option is a Verizon Jetpac and is not profitable for Verizon to upgrade their system here.
Mar 23, 2020 20:54:22 #
aphelps wrote:
I have noticed my internet download speeds are significantly reduced during the hours from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. I am guessing that this is due to the increase in traffic as a result of lots of people staying home and using the net. Has anybody else experienced this? I thought that ISPs could compensate for heavy traffic and open up more bandwidth but that does not appear to be happening.
Yes, I noticed a reduction in speed since everyone is staying home. Normally have 282 Mbps. Right now I have 210. Not a huge drop, but earlier during the day it was 150 Mbps. Really noticed it. Boy, am I spoiled!
I also have Comcast in Illinois. Pay extra for the Blast package.
Mar 24, 2020 05:15:07 #
M from NF
Loc: Niagara Falls, NY
Yes, unless you have a dedicated line,like a T-1, you are generally sharing bandwidth and in my opinion, can be a pain in the butt. I have Spectrum in Niagara Falls and there are peaks in usage.
Michael
Michael
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Mar 24, 2020 07:46:10 #
M from NF wrote:
Yes, unless you have a dedicated line,like a T-1, you are generally sharing bandwidth and in my opinion, can be a pain in the butt. I have Spectrum in Niagara Falls and there are peaks in usage.
Michael
Michael
Being in Niagara Falls, I suspect you get a lot of "drop offs" aaahhhh...haha ha ha, yuck yuck
By the way, is it pronounced "Ni-ag-ra" or "Ni-ag-a-ra"? I've always heard "Ni-ag-ra" and never realized there is an extra "a" in the spelling until now.
Mar 24, 2020 09:01:38 #
Measured the speed one or twice, forgot the numbers.
It's quite fast enough. Occasionally there are delays.
I don't do gaming and am not a fast typist.
It's quite fast enough. Occasionally there are delays.
I don't do gaming and am not a fast typist.
Mar 25, 2020 04:14:34 #
domcomm
Loc: Denver, CO
It's not just people who are bored and watching movies. There are also a lot of people working from home now.
Mar 30, 2020 23:53:23 #
M from NF
Loc: Niagara Falls, NY
tomcat wrote:
Being in Niagara Falls, I suspect you get a lot of "drop offs" aaahhhh...haha ha ha, yuck yuck
By the way, is it pronounced "Ni-ag-ra" or "Ni-ag-a-ra"? I've always heard "Ni-ag-ra" and never realized there is an extra "a" in the spelling until now.
By the way, is it pronounced "Ni-ag-ra" or "Ni-ag-a-ra"? I've always heard "Ni-ag-ra" and never realized there is an extra "a" in the spelling until now.
Sorry about not responding sooner, but for some reason your response dis to not go directly to my inbox. It is Niagara with all of the A's. Such as " slowly I step, inch by inch" (Three Stooges). I don't understand why the response didn't go to vthe inbox. Just another glitch.
Michael
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