[SOLVED] Download speed tale of woe

[ebvt]

I just cashed in some frequent flyer miles towards a brand new Sony VAIO. Since I wanted to install the latest version of PCLOS KDE I tried to download  2011.09 and was totally surprised that my download time would be 3 hrs 45 mins. Until recently downloading a 600+ MB iso took no more than 45 mins. Download manager tells me I am getting about 50 kB/sec. Speed test d/l speed is 20.6 Mb/sec, TWC speed test says 19.13 Mb/sec. When I talked to TWC (in India or somewhere) they told me first that "Linux might be the problem", another agent blamed my linksys router and told me to bypass it. I did, but it did not change the situation. The fact that 2 months ago my download times were much better did not seem to impress anybody.

Today I was trying to use the chat facility of RR, but I flunked the test: Minimum Requirements not met  (no Window$ or Mac). I will install Linux anyways, from the 2011.6 CD and surprise them with a chat request from my "hanging on for life" Window$ on the Sony. Does anybody have any valid ways to proceed with TWC?

Thanks,
ebvt

[Rudge]

Is this Time Warner Cable that you are talking about?

If so, I have been using them for years with no complaints.  NC resident.

Linux only, no winders here.

[ebvt]

Is this Time Warner Cable that you are talking about?

If so, I have been using them for years with no complaints.  NC resident.

Linux only, no winders here.

Yes it is, Rudge, and until a few months ago I would have agreed with you. That's why I am perplexed as to what is happening now.

ebvt

[Rudge]

Is this Time Warner Cable that you are talking about?

If so, I have been using them for years with no complaints.  NC resident.

Linux only, no winders here.

Yes it is, Rudge, and until a few months ago I would have agreed with you. That's why I am perplexed as to what is happening now.

ebvt

Go to this website and do the test "www.speakeasy.net/speedtest"

It's the one that TWC uses.

If that test shows slower than what is expected, the problem is on THEIR end.

Linux, your router nor any other thing should affect their download speeds.

[ebvt]

Ok, that leaves me with 2746 KB/sec according to speakeasy and about 60KB/sec as per the download manager.!!  Just had a chat session on that one winders machine and they could not help me, ie they repeated yesterday's  type of trouble shooting and finally deferred to a regional office which I will call tomorrow. In the meantime the VAIO sits there updating like crazy. I might have to take the battery out   Tomorrow, it will be gone one way or the other.

Thanks,
ebvt

[Rudge]

27 Mbps ain't bad.

[pags]

Well, that's actually more like 2.7 Mbit/s, but still pretty good...
 

[Neal ManBear]

Does your provider do choking? i.e. slow down your speed during peak times?     

Try rebooting your modem. - Unplug it. Let it sit for 10 to 30 minutes. Plug it up.     

[CaptainSarcastic]

Where were you downloading from?  I'd try downloading the ISO from a different location and see if the speed is better.  If you really want to check further then run a traceroute from yourself to the download location and see what the times look like.  Network topography and server bandwidth are the most likely reasons for slow downloading.

[djohnston]

Where were you downloading from?  I'd try downloading the ISO from a different location and see if the speed is better.  If you really want to check further then run a traceroute from yourself to the download location and see what the times look like.  Network topography and server bandwidth are the most likely reasons for slow downloading.

+1. You'll need to install traceroute from Synaptic. After doing so, open a terminal, as normal user, do:

/usr/sbin/traceroute google.com

Google is just an example. If your download source was ibiblio, for example, it would be:

/usr/sbin/traceroute ibiblio.org

[menotu]

Just a thought - the 2011.06 update "download" will be quite hefty and could be close to the size of the ISO thus you may want to consider doing the 2011.09 download anyway

[sammy2fish]

Well, that's actually more like 2.7 Mbit/s, but still pretty good...
 

Guess I'm spoiled.  My max is 1.2 meg(s)-bytes per second.

Though not all servers will give me that speed...

[ebvt]

Thanks for all the suggestions  -  I just got up. Will try to organize my answers. Be back in a couple hours

ebvt

[menotu]

Thanks for all the suggestions  -  I just got up. Will try to organize my answers. Be back in a couple hours

ebvt

Just loaded a 2011.06 LiveCD in VBox and Synaptic showed the update would be 449MB - could possibly be more once installed

[YouCanToo]

Where were you downloading from?  I'd try downloading the ISO from a different location and see if the speed is better.  If you really want to check further then run a traceroute from yourself to the download location and see what the times look like.  Network topography and server bandwidth are the most likely reasons for slow downloading.

+1. You'll need to install traceroute from Synaptic. After doing so, open a terminal, as normal user, do:

/usr/sbin/traceroute google.com

Google is just an example. If your download source was ibiblio, for example, it would be:

/usr/sbin/traceroute ibiblio.org

No need to type the whole path
/usr/sbin/traceroute ibiblio.org

it works just fine this way
traceroute ibiblio.org

[dwmoar@laptop ~]$ traceroute ibiblio.org
traceroute to ibiblio.org (152.19.134.40), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.10.1 (192.168.10.1)  2.052 ms  3.011 ms  3.804 ms
 2  192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)  11.344 ms  11.959 ms  12.293 ms
 3  * * 66-112-77-217.stat.centurytel.net (66.112.77.217)  14.151 ms
 4  rb2-bras.aur.centurytel.net (69.29.185.51)  16.904 ms  18.358 ms  19.846 ms
 5  aurrorcoro2.aurrorcoro1.centurytel.net (209.206.179.130)  21.671 ms  22.754 ms  24.165 ms
 6  host.lightcore.net (208.110.249.218)  30.318 ms  15.888 ms  52.469 ms
 7  bb-sttlwawb-jx4-02-ae0.core.lightcore.net (206.51.69.142)  16.191 ms  17.315 ms  18.462 ms
 8  sea-edge-12.inet.qwest.net (67.132.130.213)  20.647 ms  23.179 ms  25.175 ms
 9  chr-edge-03.inet.qwest.net (67.14.35.46)  99.074 ms  108.046 ms  108.322 ms