multiple connections faster than single connection

[advancedgeek]

why is is that when you have multiple connection to download a file it is faster than single connection? often download accelerators will do this but why wouldn't it reach the max speed with single connection? this will give a disadvantage to sending files over im or uploading stuff

 

[Snake91839]

its because if you download from multiple sites, your download speed is limited to the both of them added together. This is how most download accelerators work.

 

[advancedgeek]

wait... this doesn't make sense because if you say that its added together why not use the full bandwidth available in single connection for example if you had 10mbps upload speed on server and if you can download at 10mbps or faster why can't you download at 10mbps? is there a configuration to change it because i want to run a web server but when i tried my friend to connect to it he can only download at 30kb/s but faster with acceleration.

 

[KSoD]

Because server throttle the downloads. If everyone downloaded at full speed the servers would not be able to feed the downlaod to every single person who downloaded the file. So the hosting service has to limit the download per numer of people downloading.

Take XP SP3 for example. You have a 10mb line. I have a 4mb line. There are several hundreds more on various lines. Now the server has to feed teh file to everyone at the same time while trying to give the best possible speed to everyone.

So it throttles the downlaod to a indiviual connection such as yours at 10mb to allow peole like me on a 4mb line to be able to get a faster download.

Even if you were the only person to access the server at the time and downlaod the file it still would not allow you to downlaod at your full 10mb. From what i have seen you will never get a full speed when using http downlaods.

 

[advancedgeek]

well i host a web server on my own computer and the problem is that people don't reach a high speed and they only reach around 30kb/s but when i access it from my school i get like 500kb/s why is this?

 

[KSoD]

That could be due to the fact that the school uses a faster Internet. It could be that they are far from a hub and they don't get as much bandwidth as possible. Could be that they are on at peak time and getting throttled.

There are so many possibilities.

 

[advancedgeek]

well can someone try to download this file and see how fast it is? the link is:
http://web26.hopto.org:443/dap86.exe
might not work if my computer is off and the file can be deleted if you want and is NOT a virus.
and also does anyone know a php or java based speedtest that i can put on my website? i really want to make full use of my internet speed

EDIT: Also try to report with both tries; without download accelerator and with download accelerator if possible. if the link does not work try again at some other time during the day. it will usually be on around 4am to 8pm GMT on saturdays and sundays and 8am to 8pm GMT on weekdays.

 

[peterhuang913]

200-290KB/s took 30 seconds

 

[advancedgeek]

thanks... was it single connection or multiple? i need to know which because some people use download accelerators

 

[KSoD]

I am only getting 20-30kbps on a single connection.