The fastest speed that works over normal phone lines is 33.6 Kbps.  So
when the bandwidth meter shows 33.4, that's about as good as can be expected
for dial-up.

  When a "56K" modem reports connecting at a higher speed than that, it
means that the ISP has a special kind of connection to the phone system.  I
forget the specific term, but *you* don't have that kind of connection; the
reported higher speed applies only to traffic from the ISP to you; traffic
from you to the ISP (and on to the Internet) is still limited to 33.6.
  How high that higher speed can be depends on how close/good your
connection to local phone company facilities is, and in any case it will
never be more than 53 Kbps.  I usually get somewhere between 40 and 46
reported by my modem.

  Most of the time, odds are that the connection from me to my ISP is the
slowest part of the path between me and any site I want to reach.  But it's
also only carrying my traffic(*) -- the faster links are shared with other
ISP customers and/or site visitors.  At busy times of day, I might not get
all of the traffic my modem can handle.

* - The link is shared between all of the applications on my machine that
want to use it.  Surfing while my email is downloading will be slowed, or
while Windows Update or Norton LiveUpdate are doing their work in the
background....

Dave Gillett


On 7 Apr 2004 at 5:12, David Grossman wrote:

> Dear Sven, Steve, and Sue,
>
> Your comments were very interesting.
>
> Sven, I have a standard dialup, not a high-speed one - although I understand
> from your message that a high-speed dialup would not make a significant
> difference.
>
> Steve and Sue, I took your suggestion. I tried the Bandwidth meter that you
> suggested below. Although my modem
> reports a connection of 44.0 KBps, the Bandwidth meter reported only 33.4! I
> therefore understand that the computer hardware or the modem reports a
> certain speed, but the real speed can only be checked by a diagnostics
> program.
>
> I would like to thank you for helping to clarify this issue. I'd also like
> to thank PC-Build for hosting this dialogue. This forum is fantastic!
>
> David Grossman
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sue Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 9:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Modem speed
>
>
> > Here are a couple you can try. Or you can google for more.
> >
> > http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Bandwidth_meter/7004-7254_16-
> > 0.html
> > http://speedcheck2.optonline.net/speedcheck/speedcheck.html
> >
> > Sue Clark
> > Bristol. ME
> > On 6 Apr 2004 at 0:04, David Grossman wrote:
> >
> > > Can you tell me about some sites that measure *real* connection speed?
> > > David Grossman
>
>                   Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>                articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>                           http://freepctech.com

              The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech
                     support at our newest website:
                          http://freepctech.com