Question: I barely get 220 Kbps when I do bandwidth tests on either of my computers. Your site says 384 to 768 Kbps. I was wondering why I can’t seem to hit over 220? When watching Movie trailers on Apple’s site I have to wait several minutes for a 2 minute trailer. Is there anything we can do? My two machines are both running windows XP. One is a brand new Dell Laptop D610, my desktop is an HP. My laptop races when I go to work, friends house or anywhere with high speed. At one they both perform the same.

- Ted, June 1, 2007 (name changed for privacy)

Hi Ted, before I direct you to the High Speed Internet speed test page, let me say a few things. Residential DSL and Cable internet systems work in a shared environment. Residential customers share internet lines with others between your home and the system hub. Businesses will often purchase leased lines, a fraction of a T1 line for example, which greatly reduces the number of shared users. In essence businesses pay more, while sharing keeps the cost way down for home users.

Going to work or another person’s house is not comparable, unless that other person’s house is subscribed to the same Att Yahoo high speed internet service with a rating of up to 768 kbps. What you can do is measure the “Overhead” percentage at a friend’s house and compare it to yours. For example, if your friend is rated at 1,500 kbps (1.5 mbps) and they are speed testing at 1,200 kbps, that’s an Overhead of 20% or (1,500 - 1,200) / 1,500. Comparing it to your service would be 768 x (1 - 20%) or 614 kbps. Comparing to work is not a good idea unless they are using the same residential Att Yahoo High Speed Internet service.

As you will read on the Att Yahoo High Speed Internet website link I’ve provided below, DSL has distance issues. Distance and sharing could be your issue assuming that your equipment is set up correctly.

Often times Att Yahoo High Speed Internet users expectations are too high when purchasing the lower bandwidth services such as 768 kbps. While 768 kbps (or 220 kbps) is a big leap over dial up’s range of 28 to 56 kbps, it’s not that great for watching videos online. Generally your computer will downloading the video file first - your 2 minute wait time - then buffer and replay the video from your hard drive. Upgrading your DSL service from 768 kbps to 1,500 kbps would in essence cut that wait time in half. Upgrading further to Att Yahoo High Speed Internet Pro for $24.99/mo is what I’d recommend to those who like to watch videos or download music frequently. Att Yahoo High Speed Internet Pro features a download speed up to 3.0 mbps (3,000 kbps).

Att Yahoo High Speed Internet price of $14.99 per month for 768 kbps is similar to that of dial up, which makes the service very attractive. If you wish to spend more time on the internet and downloading music or videos is what you like to do, you should consider upgrading to 1,500 kbps or more. If it helps to rationalize the expense, going to the movies once a month costs $15 per ticket plus gas and popcorn. Buying a CD in the store costs $15 once a month as well. Downloading the free 100 video clips costs only the monthly Att yahoo DSL fee. I’m not trying to sell you anything, just trying to help people understand that there is an “entertainment” value associated with both DSL and Cable internet services.

Here’s that link to the official At&t Yahoo speed test web site. I copied and pasted the first bit of info for your convenience.

“What is throughput? Throughput is the amount of data moved successfully from one place (e.g., your computer) to another (e.g., any given website on the Internet) in a given time period.”

“What does this test measure? This test measures the throughput of the connection from your computer to our network location. The throughput of your High Speed Internet service is based on a number of factors, including the distance between your home/office and our network location, the number of “hops” from our network location to your computer, the performance of network servers and routers, the condition of any lines between these two points, environmental factors, and your computer performance. Because many factors affect throughput, your actual experience may vary. The results of this test could be affected by a number of factors inside your home or business, and in the network.”

“This test checks throughput between your computer and our network to the Internet. This test does not check sync rate (the speed or capacity of the High Speed Internet connection from the Network Interface Device at your home to the High Speed Internet Access Multiplexing or Remote Gateway equipment in our network). Only a trained technician using special equipment can test the sync rate. Throughput is not necessarily an indication of sync rate.”

- John

After thoughts: Sometimes slow internet speed is a technical issue that can be improved. Sometimes its a distance or overhead issue and cannot be improved without upgrading. While comparing your high speed internet options remember that you are buying “speed.” A closer look at Att Yahoo DSL pricing helps to understand this, setting special offers and extras aside.

Att Yahoo Basic DSL $14.99/mo, 768 kbps
Att Yahoo Express DSL $19.99/mo, 1.5 mbps (1,500 kbps)
Att Yahoo Pro DSL $24.99/mo, 3.0 mbps
Att Yahoo Elite DSL $34.99/mo, 6.0 mbps

Now compare Att Yahoo DSL to Comcast Cable Internet at $42.95/mo for 6.0 mbps. The Comcast special offer for June 2007 is $19.99/mo for the 1st 6 Months plus a $125 Amazon Gift Card.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 8:28 am and is filed under High Speed Internet, Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.