Why do I need multiple connections

[janipewter]

After further investigation of why my Internet has been playing up, I have today found that upon opening multiple connections to the webserver I can actually receive close to my maximum speed.

See:

downloading C&C3 demo with IE (single connection):


downloading the same file with IDM (6 connections):

(I know the speed is accurate because I was watching DUMeter at the same time).

Before you ask, it's not the webservers fault, I know for a fact that the webserver doesn't cap connections at a certain rate, and it IS on 100Mb link. I used to be able to get ~1MB/s with a single connection from the same server.

So what I'm confused about is what is the problem now? Why do I need to open multiple connections to places to get a good download rate?

Some speedtests:

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:25:40 GMT

1st 512K took 7375 ms = 69.4 KB/sec, approx 572 Kbps, 0.56 Mbps
2nd 512K took 5750 ms = 89 KB/sec, approx 733 Kbps, 0.72 Mbps
3rd 512K took 5750 ms = 89 KB/sec, approx 733 Kbps, 0.72 Mbps
4th 512K took 7281 ms = 70.3 KB/sec, approx 579 Kbps, 0.57 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 654 Kbps, 0.64 Mbps

Download Speed: 1041 kbps (130.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 351 kbps (43.9 KB/sec transfer rate)







And a ping to the BBC:

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.131] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.224.131: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=118
Reply from 212.58.224.131: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=118
Reply from 212.58.224.131: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=118
Reply from 212.58.224.131: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=118

Ping statistics for 212.58.224.131:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 18ms, Average = 16ms

One of my results from speedtest.net before the new year. Oh how I'd love to see this again:

[JonathanLH]

That's what we call contention at the UBR looking at all that.
By using more connections, you are getting a greater share of the UBRs bandwidth.

[dannyoneill]

I use firefox with it tweaked using Fasterfox. this means it puts a serious strain on the web servers by using multiple connections of everything but gives me blisteringly fast speeds

Download TweakXP from www.totalidea.com, one of the tweaks is to increase the number of connections IE can do at once. Or use Firefox

[Cougarxiii]

I may be sounding dumb to you guys, but what does pinging mean and how do use multiple connections?

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Cougarxiii

I may be sounding dumb to you guys, but what does pinging mean and how do use multiple connections?

A ping is simply a test to see if you have a connection to a remote computer, and a test of how quick that connection might be for sending a single small packet of information. Rather like seeing how long it takes for someone to shout hello, back at you when you walk down a street.

Multiple connections is a lot more tricky. You are trying to trick various bits of kit on the internet. and the remote server you are connecting to that instead of you only having one network card on your computer, you in fact have multiple personalities. That's where software such as the toys above come in. You only want to start messing with that sort of thing if you are really convinced that your single connection is the problem. You also want to be sure that the remote server is going to be fooled into giving you more bandwidth splitting the information across the internet.

[Cougarxiii]

Thanks for that I understand a bit more now.

[janipewter]

Originally Posted by dannyoneill

I use firefox with it tweaked using Fasterfox. this means it puts a serious strain on the web servers by using multiple connections of everything but gives me blisteringly fast speeds

Download TweakXP from www.totalidea.com, one of the tweaks is to increase the number of connections IE can do at once. Or use Firefox

I'm already using Firefox with the Fasterfox plugin on Turbo Charged setting. The reason I did the screenshot in IE is because I find that it doesn't take as long as FF to average out the download speed. I also prefer the look of the download window in IE.

Anyway, is this definitely a contention issue? How do I go about getting it resolved?

[David F]

its most likely a speed limit in place at whatever server you connect to. Multiple connections drag off separate parts of a file and then rebuild the file locally. If the server you are connecting to allows multiple connections you will get the limit for each connection multiplied by how many connections your making simultainiously. My reget is set to hit a site upto 50 times and pull off smaller parts. Remember also files over 255 meg could be broken by transparent proxies and are better downloaded by a download manager anyway

[Stuart C]

I personally use Getright to manage all my downloads. Even for small downloads, it's easier as it means I can manage them all with one interface.

[janipewter]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

its most likely a speed limit in place at whatever server you connect to. Multiple connections drag off separate parts of a file and then rebuild the file locally. If the server you are connecting to allows multiple connections you will get the limit for each connection multiplied by how many connections your making simultainiously. My reget is set to hit a site upto 50 times and pull off smaller parts. Remember also files over 255 meg could be broken by transparent proxies and are better downloaded by a download manager anyway

Trust me, I know for a FACT that there are no speed restrictions on the server, because it was me that set the webserver up. I get around the same speed from EVERYWHERE in the UK, regardless of which server it's from. Also, look at the speedtest results. It would be pretty stupid if the webserver which the speetests were hosted on were enforcing speed limits per connection, wouldn't it?

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by janipewter

Trust me, I know for a FACT that there are no speed restrictions on the server, because it was me that set the webserver up.

Could there be bandwidth restrictions on the server's datacenter's internet connection?
How much bandwidth is allocated to the server? What's it's burst level set to?

[janipewter]

The server is capped at 2TB transfer per month but it currently hits nowhere close to that. It's on a private gigabit LAN with 100Mbit (up & down) link to the outside world.

On a good morning I can happily pull down from it at ~2MB/s at college.

As stated before, I know it's not a problem with my webserver. Remember, I get similar speeds from all servers I try to download from (in the UK at least).

Look: