How does bandwidth work?

I have a broadband connection with an effective download rate of 25-30 Kb/s.
I find that even when I am downloading far less than this, other
connections are blocked. The principle seems to be that so long as there
is a solid band on a time basis, it is irrelevant that the height of that
band (the bandwidth scale) is less than maximum. Other apps "can't get a
word in." I notice that Downloader for X seems to pulse the download when
the download rate is restricted, allowing gaps for other applications.

Have I got this right?

Doug.
--
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
- Shakespeare.

"Doug Laidlaw" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:v5alg4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a broadband connection with an effective download rate of 25-30
>Kb/s.
> I find that even when I am downloading far less than this, other
> connections are blocked. The principle seems to be that so long as there
> is a solid band on a time basis, it is irrelevant that the height of that
> band (the bandwidth scale) is less than maximum. Other apps "can't get a
> word in." I notice that Downloader for X seems to pulse the download when
> the download rate is restricted, allowing gaps for other applications.
>
> Have I got this right?
>
> Doug.
> --
> Love is not love
> Which alters when it alteration finds
> - Shakespeare.
>

You might want to supply more information. DSL or cable or satellite?
Lately, some providers in the NE have had some trouble.

Also, 25-30 Kb/sec? Generally, we say KB/s is KiloBytes per second, and
Kb/s (little b) is kilobits/second. If when downloading, it tells you
25KB/s, then that's likely KiloBytes. that would be roughly (times 8) a
connection specified at 256K (I think providers like to list their speeds in
kilobits cause the numbers are 8 times bigger). Whether they limit you to a
single download at a time, that's their policy perhaps. Sounds like a poor
provider - maybe even satellite (Direcway?) 256kbit isn't much bandwidth at
all. If you're paying for 'broadband' you're getting scarcely 4 or 5 times
dial up. On cable I get 400kilobytes/s (100 times dialup) from some
servers, and other DSL services, you can get (1500 down by 256 up?) 200 or
so KB/s download speeds. Fire someone if you can.

JB

Doug Laidlaw wrote:
> I have a broadband connection with an effective download rate of 25-30 Kb/s.
> I find that even when I am downloading far less than this, other
> connections are blocked. The principle seems to be that so long as there
> is a solid band on a time basis, it is irrelevant that the height of that
> band (the bandwidth scale) is less than maximum. Other apps "can't get a
> word in." I notice that Downloader for X seems to pulse the download when
> the download rate is restricted, allowing gaps for other applications.
>
> Have I got this right?
>
> Doug.

It could be the upload side that is causing you problems, not the
download side. This is often the case when using bittorrent or other
sharing programs - your upload link is saturated, and that effectively
blocks downloads. The issue here is that tcp/ip downloads require a few
small packets upwards as well. Even excluding things like dns queries,
each tcp/ip connection will require at least a request from the client,
and an acknowledge packet. These are small, but important, and if you
already have a lot of upwards packets from bittorrent, these packets end
up at the back of the queue. DSL modems often have quite long queues,
so you might find that your little ACK packet is delayed for a second or
more, thus blocking the download. The key to avoiding this situation is
using a router with traffic shaping to let the small packets skip the queue.