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On Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:07:51 +0100 Rob Beard wrote: > On 27/07/10 14:09, Julian Hall wrote: > > On 27/07/2010 13:14, James Andrews wrote: > > <snip> > >> So the Internet has no "speed" that anyone can measure in bps > > > > No, but the point is - whatever your method of measuring speed - > > that if your initial connection is slow you cannot tx/rx data fast > > regardless of any external conditions. A mythical condition could > > exist where every external connection is 1000Gb[1], but it your > > connection is 1Gb (1000 times slower) that's all you're going to > > get, and that is where the UK system is failing consumers. More > > like BroadBLAND Britain than Broadband. > > > > Julian > > > > [1] Or however you choose to measure it > > > > Or on the other hand, your connection could be reasonably quick and > the other end could be slow, or have a bottleneck. > > For instance I'm on Virgin 20Mbit broadband, I regularly get the full > 20Mbit/sec from some hosts, but other hosts I can be limited to > something like 300Kbit/sec. I only tend to find this with smaller > sites, possibly hosted on the other side of the globe. The big sites > such as Microsoft (yes I know!) I get the full 20Mbit. > > So it's not all down to the connection at the premises, it's also the > connections to servers wherever they may be. > > Rob I think the point, though, is that it doesn't matter what the connection speed of the other side is - if your connection is pitifully inadequate you'll never have a chance of attaining even their speeds. If I took the attitude of "it doesn't matter what connection speed I have as the other end, or any intermediate point, might not be up to the job" then I'd still have 56k dialup. Grant. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq