Slow McDonalds WIFI

On 3/27/2011 9:00 AM, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I went to a McDonalds and connected to their WIFI on my laptop. I was
> using IE8 in XP Pro. The connection button said I was connected at
> 52 Mbs (which I believe is 52 megabytes per second). [IS THAT
> CORRECT?]
>
> While that seems very fast, (At home I have a 56K dialup modem), I
> found that this connection was incredibly slow. I went to download
> Firefox 4. It's 11.? megs. It took about 8 minutes to download. I
> went to youtube and tried to watch a few videos. A 8meg video was
> constantly stopping and starting (just like on dialup). 10 minutes
> later I had only seen half that video when I abandoned it because my
> battery was getting low.
>
> While this is slightly faster than dialup, it was not significantly
> faster. Why would it be so slow?
>
> I should mention that this is a new (used) computer. It works fine,
> it's a 1.86ghz P4 with 512m RAM. XP Pro SP3.
> I must say I have never used IE8. In fact I normally dont use IE at
> all. I use Firefox. That's why I downloaded FF. The last time I
> used IE, it was IE6 in Windows 2000. Could this slowness have
> anything to do with IE, or is it just the connection? I guess what
> I'm asking is this. While I was connected at 52 Mbs, could the system
> still be slow? If so, how can that be? I can see where youtube might
> be busy (on a Saturday night around 9pm), but I cant see where
> Mozilla.com would be all that busy.
>
> Thanks for all tips and suggestions.
>
>
>
It isn't bytes, it's bits. 8 times slower, or 7n Bytes/second.

I went to a McDonalds and connected to their WIFI on my laptop. I was
using IE8 in XP Pro. The connection button said I was connected at
52 Mbs (which I believe is 52 megabytes per second). [IS THAT
CORRECT?]

While that seems very fast, (At home I have a 56K dialup modem), I
found that this connection was incredibly slow. I went to download
Firefox 4. It's 11.? megs. It took about 8 minutes to download. I
went to youtube and tried to watch a few videos. A 8meg video was
constantly stopping and starting (just like on dialup). 10 minutes
later I had only seen half that video when I abandoned it because my
battery was getting low.

While this is slightly faster than dialup, it was not significantly
faster. Why would it be so slow?

I should mention that this is a new (used) computer. It works fine,
it's a 1.86ghz P4 with 512m RAM. XP Pro SP3.
I must say I have never used IE8. In fact I normally dont use IE at
all. I use Firefox. That's why I downloaded FF. The last time I
used IE, it was IE6 in Windows 2000. Could this slowness have
anything to do with IE, or is it just the connection? I guess what
I'm asking is this. While I was connected at 52 Mbs, could the system
still be slow? If so, how can that be? I can see where youtube might
be busy (on a Saturday night around 9pm), but I cant see where
Mozilla.com would be all that busy.

Thanks for all tips and suggestions.

On 27/03/2011 11:00 PM, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I went to a McDonalds and connected to their WIFI on my laptop. I was
> using IE8 in XP Pro. The connection button said I was connected at
> 52 Mbs (which I believe is 52 megabytes per second). [IS THAT
> CORRECT?]
>
> While that seems very fast, (At home I have a 56K dialup modem), I
> found that this connection was incredibly slow. I went to download
> Firefox 4. It's 11.? megs. It took about 8 minutes to download. I
> went to youtube and tried to watch a few videos. A 8meg video was
> constantly stopping and starting (just like on dialup). 10 minutes
> later I had only seen half that video when I abandoned it because my
> battery was getting low.
>
> While this is slightly faster than dialup, it was not significantly
> faster. Why would it be so slow?
>
> I should mention that this is a new (used) computer. It works fine,
> it's a 1.86ghz P4 with 512m RAM. XP Pro SP3.
> I must say I have never used IE8. In fact I normally dont use IE at
> all. I use Firefox. That's why I downloaded FF. The last time I
> used IE, it was IE6 in Windows 2000. Could this slowness have
> anything to do with IE, or is it just the connection? I guess what
> I'm asking is this. While I was connected at 52 Mbs, could the system
> still be slow? If so, how can that be? I can see where youtube might
> be busy (on a Saturday night around 9pm), but I cant see where
> Mozilla.com would be all that busy.
>
> Thanks for all tips and suggestions.
>
>
>
The connection speed showing is the wireless connection , how fast was
the actual adsl connection ?
buggered if I know and possibly a very small one hence your perception
of slow
Why not go tell them about your concerns and post the results

--
X-No-Archive: Yes

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I went to a McDonalds and connected to their WIFI on my laptop. I was
> using IE8 in XP Pro. The connection button said I was connected at
> 52 Mbs (which I believe is 52 megabytes per second). [IS THAT
> CORRECT?]

54 Mbits/sec is the common "good" 802.11 g conection between you and the
access point. You don't get to see the conection from the access point to
points further up the link toward the internet.

The last McDonald's I was at was about 1.5Mbits/sec.

> found that this connection was incredibly slow. I went to download
> Firefox 4. It's 11.? megs. It took about 8 minutes to download. I

Doesn't a download in Firefox show you the current download speed?
That would be a decent measurement of speed. It might be limited at the
sending end, but in this case, it would probably have shown the McDonalds
speed.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 07:00:29 -0600, jw wrote:

> I went to a McDonalds and connected to their WIFI on my laptop. I was
> using IE8 in XP Pro. The connection button said I was connected at 52
> Mbs (which I believe is 52 megabytes per second). [IS THAT CORRECT?]
>
> While that seems very fast, (At home I have a 56K dialup modem), I found
> that this connection was incredibly slow. I went to download Firefox 4.
> It's 11.? megs. It took about 8 minutes to download.
http://www.speedtest.net/
> Thanks for all tips and suggestions.
YW

Shadow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> http://www.speedtest.net/


speedtest.net seemed to have problems at the last McDonalds where I tested
it. The site came up, but the test wouldn't run.
I wonder if some clever hotspot operators might block the common
speedtests, since they do present a burden to the network.

Just prior to moving over to the McDonalds in Alameda, CA, USA, I had given
up on trying to use the WiFi at Starbucks nearby.
I figured I was in trouble when I saw the number of laptops deployed when I
walked in. Both my Win7 laptop and Blackberry had difficulty connecting to
the WiFi, which would occasionally disappear from the Available Networks
scan, and were virtually unusable when they were connected.

The Win7 might have various issues, but the Blackberry should connect to an
AT&T hotspot without even having a profile built for it.

While I was connected, I couldn't even get speedtest.net to open at
Starbucks, I think for performance reasons, not an outright block.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:03:52 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Shadow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> http://www.speedtest.net/
>
>
>speedtest.net seemed to have problems at the last McDonalds where I tested
>it. The site came up, but the test wouldn't run.
>I wonder if some clever hotspot operators might block the common
>speedtests, since they do present a burden to the network.
Speedtest needs a ping, javascript and flash.
Maybe McDonalds blocks pings ?
Seems unlikely they block the IP of all the test sites. You
can manually choose one.
Speedtest usually replies to tech queries pretty fast. Ask
them.
[]'s