🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <19961203001228269242@chadales.demon.co.uk>,
david@chadales.demon.co.uk (Dave Howard) wrote:

>I have a 14.4 USR modem which seems to behave itself.
>Now I know that 14.4 is slow, and I'm considering upgrading, *but*,
>is it worth upgrading when a lot of the speeds that I see as I access
>web sites and FTP sites are well below 1k/s, sometimes 800/sec, even
>300, 50, and 0!

I asked myself exactly the same question a year and a bit ago, and all I
can say is that over all the increase in speed *was* phenomenal. If my
experience is anything at all to go by, even the slow throughputs do get
quicker. It was explained to me by someone who knows what they are talking
about, and I have forgotten the explanation, but it happens.

-- 
Peter

On Tuesday, in article
     <19961203001228269242@chadales.demon.co.uk>
     david@chadales.demon.co.uk "Dave Howard" wrote:

DH> I have a 14.4 USR modem which seems to behave itself.
DH> Now I know that 14.4 is slow, and I'm considering upgrading, *but*,
DH> is it worth upgrading when a lot of the speeds that I see as I access
DH> web sites and FTP sites are well below 1k/s, sometimes 800/sec, even
DH> 300, 50, and 0!
DH> 
DH> I think I understand why this happens, but as it does happen why
DH> upgrade?

For web use, I don't find nuch gain with a 28.8 modem over my
old 14.4: my modem is not the bottleneck.  Yes, sometimes I do
get some of the increased throughput I'd expect, but I don't think
I've ever exceeded 2k/sec, at least according to Netscape's
statistics.  Most of the time, like you, I get less than 1k/sec.

I take a lot of newsgroups, and subscribe to many mailing lists,
so my SMTP and NNTP traffic is quite high, and since it
all comes direct from Demon I get a noticeable performance gain
from my 28.8 modem, which I reckon has made it cost-effective.
However, if I wasn't taking so much mail and news, I'd have stuck
with my 14.4 for web usage (if it hadn't been stolen, I'd prob have
stuck with it anyway), and I generally advise my clients to
buy a s/h 14.4 modem for 30quid or so rather than spend 100+ on
a new 28.8.

A further point is that 28.8 connections seem harder to achieve,
and the modems somewhat less reliable, though I've no firm figures.

[cc'd by mail]

-- 
/ P. McNab  // mac@siberia.demon.co.uk /

Is aibohphobia a fear of Palindromes?

In article <19961203001228269242@chadales.demon.co.uk>,
david@chadales.demon.co.uk (Dave Howard) wrote:

> I know that 14.4 is slow, and I'm considering upgrading, *but*,
> is it worth upgrading when a lot of the speeds that I see as I access
> web sites and FTP sites are well below 1k/s, sometimes 800/sec, even
> 300, 50, and 0!

Not strictly-speaking a Macintosh question.

Check the 'receive' light on your modem while you're downloading
something.  If it's on all the time, then your modem is the
bottle-neck and getting a faster modem would speed-up your download.

Simon.
-- 
Simon Slavin.  Junk email not welcome here.  Please don't email me copies.
    I administer ISO 9000 and year 2000 certification tests for food.
   "With the possible exception of the author's need to make a living,
  there is no justification for this book being written." -- Hank Stine

In article <850157237snz@siberia.demon.co.uk>,
mac@siberia.demon.co.uk (P. McNab) wrote:

>Of course, I do most of my web-browsing
>on US sites at high-usage times; if you are using something
>closer to demon when the 'net is less busy, you may well
>experience bigger gains with a faster modem.

With the present new blue Demon connectivity, it doesn't seem to make any
difference what side of the Atlantic your target is; it comes down pretty
fast.

The exception, as you say, is when the US internal net is choked, but it's
looking pretty good these days from Demon.

-- 
Peter