# Download Speeds



## stewp97 (Mar 29, 2006)

I was just wondering how long it was currently taking people to download movies. My wife downloaded a Starz movie twice. Both times it took about 10 hours. I just checked the speed at the receiver (plugged the patch cable into my laptop):



This is using Qwest DSL.

Thanks!

peter


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## JeffTex42 (Sep 14, 2007)

10 hours seems excessive. At 4580 kb/s, you download at about half the required bandwidth for live video, so it should take roughly twice the running time to download it. Of course, this is really rough math, so perhaps one of our more IT saavy lurkers can post some better numbers.

For comparison, here's my speed test. We've got a 6 Mbps fiber connection. I haven't timed any of the downloads, but they've seemed to be reasonable, so I didn't feel the need to test it.


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## bkwest918 (Jul 11, 2007)

JeffTex42 said:


> 10 hours seems excessive. At 4580 kb/s, you download at about half the required bandwidth for live video, so it should take roughly twice the running time to download it. Of course, this is really rough math, so perhaps one of our more IT saavy lurkers can post some better numbers.
> 
> For comparison, here's my speed test. We've got a 6 Mbps fiber connection. I haven't timed any of the downloads, but they've seemed to be reasonable, so I didn't feel the need to test it.


I have 6mbit and I can watch everything in realtime as it downloads.. I have to give it about 60 seconds or so but from then on its faster than realtime.

/b


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

stewp97 said:


> I was just wondering how long it was currently taking people to download movies. My wife downloaded a Starz movie twice. Both times it took about 10 hours. I just checked the speed at the receiver (plugged the patch cable into my laptop):
> This is using Qwest DSL.
> Thanks!
> peter


There is "something up" with your connection.
Here is a lot of info: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=109019


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## stewp97 (Mar 29, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> There is "something up" with your connection.
> Here is a lot of info: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=109019


Thank you for the link. I read through it and now I really don't know what to think. Your problem was with Cable and DSL fixed it. I already have DSL. It is nice to know that it is working for most people though. I wish I had more time and knowledge to really diagnose the problem.

peter


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

stewp97 said:


> Thank you for the link. I read through it and now I really don't know what to think. Your problem was with Cable and DSL fixed it. I already have DSL. It is nice to know that it is working for most people though. I wish I had more time and knowledge to really diagnose the problem.
> peter


If your service was working at the reported speed 100% of the time, you'd have better than 1:1 download for SD. This would let you start watching VOD with just a few min in the buffer.
Since it's taking 10 hours, you're at less than 10% over time [like with my cable].
This could be due to your modem where a call to tech support and having it "re-provisioned" could help. This has worked with my cable modem.
It also could be due to your ISP having bandwidth limitations in their backbone connection, or that they were just having problems during that download time.
I tried to give some "real numbers" in the other thread, so given "what you should have" [Your 4.5 Mb/s is very close to my 5 Mb/s] I'd call your ISP tech support and see what they can do for you.
Clearly some ISPs have figured out how to have speed test sites report "full" speed, when in fact you don't get it "all of the time".


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## stewp97 (Mar 29, 2006)

Thank you, that really does help. Your other thread did too. I'll be calling Qwest in the next couple of days!

peter


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

I finally got around to checking my DoD speed and have one sample to report.
Downloaded _Apocalypto_ in letterbox from STARZ which is listed at 2:13, and it took 1:24. 
My Cox cable is advertised at 12-15 Mbs, attached a speed test image.
From what I've read around here I guess I should be happy.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

I have 6.0 DSL and I usually end up at a little better than 2:1 download; 2 hour movie in about 45 minutes. It does vary at times I'm sure for many different reasons. VOS summarized it all very well as usual.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

dettxw said:


> I finally got around to checking my DoD speed and have one sample to report.
> Downloaded _Apocalypto_ in letterbox from STARZ which is listed at 2:13, and it took 1:24.
> My Cox cable is advertised at 12-15 Mbs, attached a speed test image.
> From what I've read around here I guess I should be happy.


If you download at better than 1:1, which you are, does it matter how much faster?
As "I see it", if you can watch a show "live", it doesn't matter whether the show downloads in 15 min or 5 min before you come to the end of the show while you're watching.


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## apexmi (Jul 8, 2006)

davring said:


> I have 6.0 DSL and I usually end up at a little better than 2:1 download; 2 hour movie in about 45 minutes. It does vary at times I'm sure for many different reasons. VOS summarized it all very well as usual.


My comcast 6mbs is usually a bit faster than advertised.

Mine is about the same, 2:1+ most of the time


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## badmonkey (Nov 18, 2005)

The few movies I've downloaded have all come down in less than 1 hour. Though my Internet provider is pretty good in my area.


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## donjuan2007 (Mar 7, 2007)

[


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Makes me seem sort of pokey, and this line's used for close to 100 people...


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

badmonkey said:


> The few movies I've downloaded have all come down in less than 1 hour. Though my Internet provider is pretty good in my area.


At those speeds you should be able to download SD movies quicker than an hour. I'm pretty confident DirecTV is throttling bandwidth at there side.


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## apexmi (Jul 8, 2006)

Radio Enginerd said:


> At those speeds you should be able to download SD movies quicker than an hour. I'm pretty confident DirecTV is throttling bandwidth at there side.


I think someone said once the host end was throttled to about 6Mb/s


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

apexmi said:


> I think someone said once the host end was throttled to about 6Mb/s


Depending on the compression algorithm used for SD (MPEG 2 or 4 and to what level, we should be able to take a guess at what the file size is and then determine how long it would take to DL. My "guess" is they've already figured that number out and that's what they're throttled to. They probably figure that as long as you can get the content before the content is complete, they are good to go.


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## kevinturcotte (Dec 19, 2006)

Where should we be testing to though? California? My download differed by about 2 Mbps between Portland, ME and California.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

kturcotte said:


> Where should we be testing to though? California? My download differed by about 2 Mbps between Portland, ME and California.


I've asked this question before. I'd like to think they're using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) like Akamai, Limelight, etc, etc but the question has gone unanswered. If they're using a CDN, it won't matter where you test to as the content will most likely be delivered from a POP (point of presence) close to your geographical region.


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## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> If you download at better than 1:1, which you are, does it matter how much faster?
> As "I see it", if you can watch a show "live", it doesn't matter whether the show downloads in 15 min or 5 min before you come to the end of the show while you're watching.


Not so much for movies, but other stuff it does if you want to FF through the openings, etc.


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## jamieh1 (May 1, 2003)

My speed is 8 mbps with Suddenlink, formerly COX.


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## bscolvin (Aug 19, 2007)




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## awalt (Jul 30, 2007)




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## vollmey (Mar 23, 2007)

awalt said:


>


Wow, I need to get on Cox and see why I can't pay for those type of download speeds. Max we can get here is 10 down and 1 up.


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## Wisegoat (Aug 17, 2006)

Gotta love having a DS3 circuit!


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

Wisegoat said:


> Gotta love having a DS3 circuit!


You have a DS3 to your home?

Or is your DirecTV equipment in a workplace?


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## TedBarrett (Oct 10, 2007)

This is very dependent on the server and its location.

When I test against the Phoenix server from here in Phoenix using speednet I get a reported 20meg a sec
against NY,NY 10 meg/sec
Amsterdam 3.3meg

the uploads were all with 10% at 555k per sec


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## Wisegoat (Aug 17, 2006)

Radio Enginerd said:


> You have a DS3 to your home?
> 
> Or is your DirecTV equipment in a workplace?


Temporarily, I have a DS3 to the house, as a test by my company. Only have it till sometime next month. We are testing some switching equipment and were able to redirect a PRI to my house. Only had to add a CSU/DSU and router. Unfortunately, I also have to deal with calls at all hours of the night, since we are testing a Call Center scenario.

I also have 12 meg service from TimeWarner. To be honest, I don't see much of a difference in speeds. I guess at that level, there isn't much of a difference when we are talking about voice or even multi gigabyte file sizes.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

Wisegoat said:


> Temporarily, I have a DS3 to the house, as a test by my company. Only have it till sometime next month. We are testing some switching equipment and were able to redirect a PRI to my house. Only had to add a CSU/DSU and router. Unfortunately, I also have to deal with calls at all hours of the night, since we are testing a Call Center scenario.
> 
> I also have 12 meg service from TimeWarner. To be honest, I don't see much of a difference in speeds. I guess at that level, there isn't much of a difference when we are talking about voice or even multi gigabyte file sizes.


That is AWESOME! Everything but the redirection of the PRI.


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## Wisegoat (Aug 17, 2006)

Radio Enginerd said:


> That is AWESOME! Everything but the redirection of the PRI.


Actually the PRI part is nice because I am running Cisco Call Manager off it. Right now I have 48 lines ringing at my house. Well, they are not actually ringing. That would be divorce territory. They ring in to the router and then get directed to voice mail hell. All just tests anyway. Another computer is mass calling those lines to get an idea of load balancing, metrics, etc.

But back to the topic, If you have a 50 meg pipe to your house, wouldn't you use it as many ways as you can? I know I would! And am!


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## JFHughes08088 (Mar 24, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> If you download at better than 1:1, which you are, does it matter how much faster?
> As "I see it", if you can watch a show "live", it doesn't matter whether the show downloads in 15 min or 5 min before you come to the end of the show while you're watching.


It matters if you plan to FF past the commercials


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

JFHughes08088 said:


> It matters if you plan to FF past the commercials


As Ken S pointed out earlier.
So far I just download movies.


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## funhouse69 (Mar 26, 2007)

I've posted several different speed tests here and it still seems that D* is limiting the amount of bandwidth that a single connection / Receiver can take. That magic number is 7Mb/Sec. I have 2 HR20's and I can download DoD Content on both of them and the speed will double to 14Mb/Sec.

As mentioned in my signature I have FIOS (I know I am one of the lucky ones), originally I signed up for their 20/5Mbs / Package but recently upgraded to their 20/20 package. I can't even tell you how freaking cool it is.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

funhouse69 said:


> I've posted several different speed tests here and it still seems that D* is limiting the amount of bandwidth that a single connection / Receiver can take. That magic number is 7Mb/Sec. I have 2 HR20's and I can download DoD Content on both of them and the speed will double to 14Mb/Sec.
> 
> As mentioned in my signature I have FIOS (I know I am one of the lucky ones), originally I signed up for their 20/5Mbs / Package but recently upgraded to their 20/20 package. I can't even tell you how freaking cool it is.


SHOW OFF :lol:


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## Drewg5 (Dec 15, 2006)

I guess it could be worce for 6 meg DSL. Than again the server was 250 miles away..


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## funhouse69 (Mar 26, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> SHOW OFF :lol:


I know sorry... I went from some of the worst internet service on the planet to the best I've ever had.

The sick this is that I actually work in a Data Center and my house connection is far faster than connections behind or in front of our firewall. I guess we save that for all of our customers one of which is using about 4Gbs now that is SPEED!!!


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## mx6bfast (Nov 8, 2006)

I have a 6 mbs Comcast connection. I thought I've noticed a slow down in recent weeks. I ran the speedtest a few times last night and this morning both on my wired and wireless computers. The highest speed was barely over 3 mbs. :eek2: 

I guess that explains why it took from 9:30 pm to 7 am to vod 4 45 minute and 2 23 minute shows. 

Looks like I'll have to take a day off from work to have them come take a look at it.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

mx6bfast said:


> I have a 6 mbs Comcast connection. I thought I've noticed a slow down in recent weeks. I ran the speedtest a few times last night and this morning both on my wired and wireless computers. The highest speed was barely over 3 mbs. :eek2:
> 
> I guess that explains why it took from 9:30 pm to 7 am to vod 4 45 minute and 2 23 minute shows.
> 
> Looks like I'll have to take a day off from work to have them come take a look at it.


Cable speeds will vary depending on the customer load on your trunk line. Cable internet is like an old party line where DSL is dedicated to the user, the speed usually remains constant regardless of what your neighbors are doing.


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## dettxw (Nov 21, 2007)

TedBarrett said:


> This is very dependent on the server and its location.
> 
> When I test against the Phoenix server from here in Phoenix using speednet I get a reported 20meg a sec
> against NY,NY 10 meg/sec
> ...


Ain't it the truth.
Wish I got these speeds all the time:


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## mx6bfast (Nov 8, 2006)

davring said:


> Cable speeds will vary depending on the customer load on your trunk line. Cable internet is like an old party line where DSL is dedicated to the user, the speed usually remains constant regardless of what your neighbors are doing.


I understand that, but to have as slowdown as we have had is strange. I used to see speeds over 5 mbs. I guess that might explain why I have such a hard time connecting to my work pc from home.

My parents just changed to DSL after a rate increase of like $10 for those that didn't use Comcast TV. I was able to get a $25 credit for 12 months. That is over in 5 months and at that time I will go to DSL. They have the 6 mbs DSL line and usually get a little more than 6.


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## heisman (Feb 11, 2007)

I see that the internet marketing magicians are obviously having their way. To the poor OP with the 200+ ms ping times, something is wrong with your service. Speed (latency) has nothing to do with pipeline (MBPS). In other words, do you see the guys touting their 30 megs of bandwidth with those horribly slow 50+ ms ping times? I'd suggest keeping it in their pants if I was them.


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## tooloud10 (Sep 23, 2007)

heisman said:


> I see that the internet marketing magicians are obviously having their way. To the poor OP with the 200+ ms ping times, something is wrong with your service. Speed (latency) has nothing to do with pipeline (MBPS). In other words, do you see the guys touting their 30 megs of bandwidth with those horribly slow 50+ ms ping times? I'd suggest keeping it in their pants if I was them.


What are you, some kind of connection snob? Show me where to sign up for 30 meg service for a reasonable price and I won't care about 50 ms pings.


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)




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## krisztoforo (Feb 8, 2007)

This might be a good question for the FAQ 
What would be the minimum required download speeds (for SD and separately for HD) to be able to watch the movies 1:1?


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## funhouse69 (Mar 26, 2007)

krisztoforo said:


> This might be a good question for the FAQ
> What would be the minimum required download speeds (for SD and separately for HD) to be able to watch the movies 1:1?


This could be a moving target depending on several things. Most things that we watch on DVD are encoded in several different bit-rates. With that in mind we don't know what D* is using for a bit-rate or if it is set or varies when they offer up contend for download. Assuming they do use a standard one, I think that we would be looking at about a 4Mb/Sec download to be able to watch while downloading.


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## krisztoforo (Feb 8, 2007)

funhouse69 said:


> This could be a moving target depending on several things. Most things that we watch on DVD are encoded in several different bit-rates. With that in mind we don't know what D* is using for a bit-rate or if it is set or varies when they offer up contend for download. Assuming they do use a standard one, I think that we would be looking at about a 4Mb/Sec download to be able to watch while downloading.


Would that be for SD or HD downloads?

The reason I'm asking is that I want to switch to D* (from TWC) but our DSL line is maxed out at 2.5Mbps. The one thing that keeps us with TWC is their On Demand service, which does offer instantaneous SD and HD movie streaming (when it actually works .


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## funhouse69 (Mar 26, 2007)

Sorry that was for SD... HD will probably be 3 to 4 times that. Keep in mind that you only would need these speeds to watch in real time. You can still download the movie beforehand on to your DVR. 

At this point there is very little HD Content for download but I'm sure that will change over time. For this reason I haven't done many tests on HD as of yet.


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## Blackz06 (Mar 6, 2007)

I wonder how fast I could download at work.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

I'll have at it...










Gotta love fiber to the home.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

Blackz06 said:


> I wonder how fast I could download at work.


That's excellent performance at 300 miles for a DS3.


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## DesertFlyer (Aug 28, 2007)

It's 4pm on a weekday, so "Powerboost" isn't active right now. At times I can hit download speeds like some other guys on here, but this is what my speeds normally top out at. It's pretty noticeable that DoD speeds are being capped rather low since I should probably be able to download HD DoD much fast than it is currently going.


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## funhouse69 (Mar 26, 2007)

Yes Fiber to the house is pretty awesome


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## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

Something is way slow on downloads tonight. A 10 minutes SD cartoon (maybe 200MB if that) has taken over an hour to download.
My net speeds with other applications seems fine (Comcast 8mbs that Speedboosts to 16 on Speedtest.net tests).


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

You guys are making me feel quite inadequate


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## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

Ken S said:


> Something is way slow on downloads tonight. A 10 minutes SD cartoon (maybe 200MB if that) has taken over an hour to download.
> My net speeds with other applications seems fine (Comcast 8mbs that Speedboosts to 16 on Speedtest.net tests).


We are all hitting it at the same time apparently  I was grabbing the Allman Brothers - its a 34 minute clip and took about an hour.


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## JeffTex42 (Sep 14, 2007)

I suppose the company shouldn't be too concerned about people streaming audio (or video for that matter) when we have this much bandwidth!


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## dbooth (Nov 6, 2007)

hmm


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## ccr1958 (Aug 29, 2007)

thats weird your upload is faster....what kind
of pkg is that


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## dbooth (Nov 6, 2007)

the @ work package no one in the us outside a few crazies is getting 40 down 50+ up at home


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

dbooth said:


> the @ work package no one in the us outside a few crazies is getting 40 down 50+ up at home


I get 20Mbs down and 48Mbps up.  My ISP doesn't throttle the upstream

For an extra $90 a month I could've had 50Mbps down and 50Mbps up. Then I'd be one of those "crazies"... I just won't pay that much for Internet.


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## dbooth (Nov 6, 2007)

Radio Enginerd said:


> I get 20Mbs down and 48Mbps up.  My ISP doesn't throttle the upstream
> 
> For an extra $90 a month I could've had 50Mbps down and 50Mbps up. Then I'd be one of those "crazies"... I just won't pay that much for Internet.


case and point!!


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## mx6bfast (Nov 8, 2006)

mx6bfast said:


> I have a 6 mbs Comcast connection. I thought I've noticed a slow down in recent weeks. I ran the speedtest a few times last night and this morning both on my wired and wireless computers. The highest speed was barely over 3 mbs. :eek2:
> 
> I guess that explains why it took from 9:30 pm to 7 am to vod 4 45 minute and 2 23 minute shows.
> 
> Looks like I'll have to take a day off from work to have them come take a look at it.


I called Comcast shortly after I posted this and they said there wasn't a problem with my modem, there were not lost packets.

I just recently bought a new Linksys wireless G router to replace my 5 year old wireless B router. Oh my goodness it's like I have a brand new internet. I was able download a 4 minute golf channel thing in about 4 minutes. My dl speeds have more than doubled.

This is from my wireless laptop. My pc is wired and is faster. Not 20 mbs + but it'll do.


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