Bandwidth question

My home LAN consists of the ISP's DSL modem/router, a couple of ethernet
switches, and my computer.

Bandwidth tests at 5.5 Mbit down / 925 Kbit up.

When watching streaming video, all seems fine. But if I download a file while
watching video, the video stops, rebuffers, starts again, over and over until
the file is downloaded.

The download is, typically, less than 350 Kbit speed according to the
download application. This should be of little effort for a provider
bandwidth of over 5 Mbit, yet it is choking somewhere.

I do have one 10/100 switch in the path. Would this be a cause of the
bandwidth problem? If t is a limiting factor, why do I get speed test of 5.5
Mbit through this switch?

Thank.

> I do have one 10/100 switch in the path. Would this be a cause of the
> bandwidth problem? If t is a limiting factor, why do I get speed test of 5.5
> Mbit through this switch?

Doh!

100 > 5.

So, where's the BW choking?

Thanks.

On Sun, 6 Mar 2011 17:11:24 UTC, DaveC <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> My home LAN consists of the ISP's DSL modem/router, a couple of ethernet
> switches, and my computer.
>
> Bandwidth tests at 5.5 Mbit down / 925 Kbit up.
>
> When watching streaming video, all seems fine. But if I download a file while
> watching video, the video stops, rebuffers, starts again, over and over until
> the file is downloaded.
>
> The download is, typically, less than 350 Kbit speed according to the
> download application. This should be of little effort for a provider
> bandwidth of over 5 Mbit, yet it is choking somewhere.
>
> I do have one 10/100 switch in the path. Would this be a cause of the
> bandwidth problem? If t is a limiting factor, why do I get speed test of 5.5
> Mbit through this switch?

Silly question - What speed is your PC? FTP transfers tend to gobble
up bandwidth & CPU.


--
Regards
Dave Saville

> Silly question - What speed is your PC? FTP transfers tend to gobble
> up bandwidth & CPU.

1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo (c. 2006)

Thanks.

On 06/03/11 17:11, DaveC wrote:

> When watching streaming video, all seems fine. But if I download a file while
> watching video, the video stops, rebuffers, starts again, over and over until
> the file is downloaded.
>
> The download is, typically, less than 350 Kbit speed according to the
> download application. This should be of little effort for a provider
> bandwidth of over 5 Mbit, yet it is choking somewhere.

It's quite possible that the uplink is saturating. Data transfers use a
handshaking protocol that uses the uplink to signal that it's ready to
accept data.

>
> I do have one 10/100 switch in the path. Would this be a cause of the
> bandwidth problem?

No




--
Bernard Peek
(E-Mail Removed)

> It's quite possible that the uplink is saturating. Data transfers use a
> handshaking protocol that uses the uplink to signal that it's ready to
> accept data.

I set up several downloads and one video stream to watch.

Watching the monitor figures (3rd party software monitor):
Upload: 150-200 Kbit/sec
Download: 200-500 Kbit/sec

I watched the monitor for 30 seconds. It updates 2x per second.

All during this period, the video stopped, buffered, started. About every 5-7
seconds, stopping for about 2 seconds.

Everything I can see I'm not saturating the network interface.

> All during this period, the video stopped, buffered, started. About every 5-7

> seconds, stopping for about 2 seconds.

And if I suspend the downloads, the video plays uninterrupted.

On Sun, 6 Mar 2011 14:03:39 -0800, DaveC <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> It's quite possible that the uplink is saturating. Data transfers use a
>> handshaking protocol that uses the uplink to signal that it's ready to
>> accept data.
>
>I set up several downloads and one video stream to watch.
>
>Watching the monitor figures (3rd party software monitor):
> Upload: 150-200 Kbit/sec
> Download: 200-500 Kbit/sec
>
>I watched the monitor for 30 seconds. It updates 2x per second.
>
>All during this period, the video stopped, buffered, started. About every 5-7
>seconds, stopping for about 2 seconds.
>
>Everything I can see I'm not saturating the network interface.

Could you be using more than one real time security package?

I had this effect until I disabled SpybotSD's T-timer feature and also
replaced Zonealarm with Malwarebytes.

I use these freeware programs a couple of times a week to check if
anything slipped through my primary security package, and don't need
them to operate real time.

I also have an automatic backup program (Memeo) which also caused
streaming video to stutter.

So I now do downloads to a folder that doesn't get backed up, and then
move the files to their actual destination.