Speed with USB

[trixee]

Hi everyone,

I have connected my modem to a USB port, and it's working fine, no errors etc, but I didn't notice any appreciable difference in my surfing speed, so I decided to do a test with http://www.dslreports.com/

and got the following results:
Your download speed : 160000 bps, or 160 kbps.
A 19.5 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 53612 bps, or 53 kbps.

I'm on a 256K connection, and was wondering how these compare with others, if it's slow or average, and if connecting via USB is supposed to be slower than using an ethernet adapter.

Thanks!

[forumadmin]

"how these compare with others, if it's slow or average"

It is slower than you would expect.

You should be getting a download speed in excess of 25kBps on a 256kbps connection to an uncongested site.

[trixee]

Thanks for that. Any ideas on why it's slow and what I can do to improve it, then?

[Alex Foot]

USB I've found actually faster than ethernet and, when it starts lagging, I suggest rechoosing the TCP/IQ NB1300 USB etc in your Network settings - not sure what it did but it always works, and works instantly.

[trixee]

Thanks for that. Any ideas on why it's slow and what I can do to improve it, then?

[Alex Foot]

Ok firstly establish more accurately what speed you're getting so don't take dslreports.com seriously - I've had some substandard results there but subsequent tests here,

http://www.tcpiq.com/tcpiq/Linespeed/Default.asp have been much closer to the mark.

If that yields unsatisfactory results, try using your best download program on an affiliate to, say, nasa.gov like the dryden flight research labs (the solar-powered plane is pretty cool) and download a large vidclip using the prog to see whether speeds correspond roughly with the speedtest results.

If you're still not satisfied, you're now at my level - I've wanted to know which settings to optimise but, as I don't really know what I'm doing re modem and comp settings, I've asked Swift about comp/modem settings in other threads. They're well within their rights not to recommend anything in particular because tweaking is dangerous with a heap of variables. As such, I suggest talking to friends with ADSL who've braved downloads.com, windows, internet, dial-up and connectivity - there's a few progs there. I'm happy enough with my connection not to risk an extra 2/3% improvement for the same if not more probable loss in reliability/other risks. Hope you can be too - good luck.