aphelps Loc: Central Ohio

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.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

No.Who is your internet provider? Mine is Xfinity (Comcast)IL

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Off and on, not a lot (Comcast Southeast PA).

BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

Also off and on, not a lot. Comcast, Michigan

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

I’ve noticed slower speeds as well. I read somewhere that Netflix or another streaming service was suspending HD streaming to reduce bandwidth requirements to accommodate increased traffic demands due to COVID-19’s impact on people’s mobility.

Stan

jpwa Loc: Inland NorthWest

Check out this link.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/wonder-why-your-comcast-xfinity-internet-slow-your-rented-router-wi-fi-hotspot-121216

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

That's very interesting.
That could explain why Xfinity WIFI is all over the area.

Luckily, I own my router and modem.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

This has been on the news and some companies, so far in Europe, are even throttling speeds so more people can be online at once. One thing they are doing this to is streaming movies/TV shows where they are dropping from HD to standard definition. One tech guru recommended doing a download and then watching the movie/TV show.

No matter what their sales people say there is no such thing as "unlimited". They can have a huge server farm and you can be in an area with high end fiber optic lines but there is still a limit. Especially with so many people home and on line to avoid boredom. Some study found that a majority of people when given a choice between doing nothing and giving themselves mild electric shocks chose the shocks after about 20 minutes.

I am lucky in that I am a reader and have hundreds of books & paper magazines in the house and over 2000 e-books and e-magazines on various memory devices. My wife likes the old TV shows on cable, and we have hundreds of movies on DVD. Our oldest son is here now but wondering if his Army Reserve unit will be calling, our daughter is home for a week from Med school and has on-line classes so the slow down if it happens here will affect her and our middle son (special needs) has his gaming machine and computer train simulator programs on his computer. So as long as we have electricity we are OK. If that were to go, well the lanterns and camper stoves in the Garage and BBQ have at least a week of gas canisters and we have a shelf full of old board games.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

It's called time slice multiplexing.
For simplicity sake, each user gets a "slice" of time to communicate with the server. One user, then another, then another, until it gets back to the first user.
Since the data transmission time is basically a constant, increasing the number of users requires either (or both) each user getting a smaller time slice or a longer time in between slices.

Throttling I guess is selecting who gets what time slice when. The controlling of the time slices.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I did notice that 16 large images from Flicker in one post today seemed to take forever.....

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Me, too.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Yes, I have the Xfinity business and it seems slower on heavy files. emails and photos are just fine but get into real files of any size they do seem to respond slower.

Bill_de Loc: US

My Comcast has been dropping out periodically for a minute or so. When it reconnects, instead of connecting to their server in Baltimore, Md. it connects to the Philadelphia School District. Go figure.

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Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Interesting.

elee950021 Loc: New York, NY

Hi all!

To check your Internet download and upload speeds, go to < www.speedtest.net >. As I watch a lot of YouTubes, I've experienced more buffering and have to view the videos at a lower resolution despite having a sixth-generation, i7 processor with plenty of RAM. Be well! Ed