I need help from someone who knows computers .

[blackhole123]

I have DSL and my internet is really slow. When I try to download something I get a transfer rate of about 20KB/sec. My computer is new so thats not the problem. Does anyone know what is happening that is causing such bad performance?

[ecoli]

try reseting your modem. Sometimes that clears things up for my DSL connection.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

What's the advertised speed (what you're supposed to get)?

[GutZ]

Isnt that the 512K - 256K IDSN? I should of calculated it out before I got mine, but I got the same at home. 20kb/s max....so slow.

[Ndi]

He has DSL, not ISDN. Typically, DSL can take more punishment (theoretical 8mbps limit), but nothing is quite close to the 20KB/s he gets.

 

DSL is, however, quite sensitive to distance because of medium limitations so you should look for the maximum download rate and the minimum guaranteed transfer rate.

 

E.g., a 256 kbps link means (depending on notations, but roughly) 256.000 bits can go through. That is, 8 bits in a byte, 32000 bytes a sec, which is some 31 KB. Substract overhead of TCP/IP and you are left with some 28 K/s. Also, remember that for some types of connections and subscriptions, a "transfer rate" is advertised which is upload + download. Not typical for DSL though.

 

Over long distances, things like lag, loss, noise, etc can further lower your maximum speed. Even weather. If you have a 256kbps line, you might have a noisy line - for example. Or you might benchmark against a far away server. Try something close to you and match that. The ISP's outside connection might be shady. Try a download from the ISP's site itself, simplest method (not full-proof).

 

As a rule of thumb, ask for the speed you should be getting, divide by 8 and then substract some 10-15% for overheads. A megabit line gets roughly 96-104 KB/s actual transfer. Expect more losses if connected via unshielded long distance lines like DSL.

 

If you want the relaxed opinion of some person, my bet is you have a 200-256 kbps download line +/- some line noise.

 

Oh and a 386-486 can handle gigabit links so computing power is not the issue, stop your worries. I also doubt there is a computer configuration issue, either.

[FreeThinker]

Depends on what your doing. If you are downloading torrent for example, you might want to open certain ports on your router firewall.

[Y-S]

call your ISP.