A la Joe Pesci from Goodfellas...

"I don't know, maybe i'm a little fucked up here."

That's what I feel like asking this question, but i've just gotten a 20mbps deal from my ISP Virgin, albeit for +£2.00 a month. I go to download.com and start downloading something big, like CorelDraw. It goes no faster than 50kBps (0.4mbps).

If I download something from gamefiles.virginmedia.com, it goes about 300kBps (2.4mbps).

No, no its all correct, 20 mouse bites per summer

haha...you might be capped by the server's ability to provide the data to you, rather than the size of your pipe. Have you tried any speed tests?

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

There are other ones. Try some as close to your geographical location as possible.

Assuming that everything works fine, it's the medium between you and server/sender. The story is similar to a mine who product 100T coal a day, and a Factory who can process the same amount. They have everything they need to work great together, except one thing. The distance between them is 10km and the only transporter is Bob the small with his son, Bob Jr the small. They can transport 200kg a day.

Just when I thought I couldn't get any more confused, Gfree saves that day

Anyways, my connection is connecting at about 16mbs up, 1.2mbs down and 50ish ping.

I think you mean 16mbs down, 1,2mbs up. Coz the other way around would be ridiculous, but fun if you want to host a server or something.

lol, yea. You'd need to start running a multiplayer server of some sort. That'd be pretty sweet.

according to the flash speed test to a server very near to me, I get 15mbps down and 1.7mbps up with an 11ms latency. For other servers further away the results vary significantly.

When i play on MP servers i usually get 100 ping. Some games show lower pings but i know that those lie, especially the newer games. Even in cod4 when i refresh the server list i get the same ping +-10 on the server list but once i join the server, the ping is actually 25+ higher.

Im on a 12mbs connection with an average around 9mbs.

Newer games lie? Why would they do that? Showing off that their technology is better than the others'?

After spending about 40 minutes over 5 phone calls to different support people based in India (each having their own final opinion on what was happening with my internet) it was concluded that a technician should come round my house and have a look. I was at work at the time, but the technician concluded that according to one benchmark, I was getting the correct speed, yet at the same time, he admitted that there are problems within the ISP infrastructure, and that people are not getting the right speeds.

According to http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h. ... dtest.html I am getting approx 14mbps of the 20mbps which I am paying for, which is fine. But... My download.com file is downloading at 40kBps (0.3mbps) which is more or less what I was getting on my 2mbps connection. Now...

I don't expect internet connection speeds to operate at maximum. But at 1.5% !? Come on, that is seriously taking the piss.

The technician apparently said that it could take weeks or months to rectify the speed problems, but frankly this isn't acceptable. Why the fuck do you offer a 20mbps service to countless people if it only goes at 1.5% ?

Do you have alternatives? Sounds like the cable internet service I used to have. They had regular issues... speed, connectivity, outages. Never fixed it. When an alternative came up I grabbed it and I've been happy since. No outages, no speed problems. The cable companies can go screw themselves.

That looks like the only real option other than degrade back to 2mbps.

well, if that's all you're getting anyway.

yes, sorry, switch my down and up.