Toshiba Phone System

What internal factors could reduce my broadband internet speed?

I have recently become a subscriber to a broadband internet service. I logged onto SpeedTest.Net, to test the speed of the system. I am supposed to be connected to a 20Mbps download system. The result of the test tells me my average download speed is about 2Mbps. A friend says he is getting about 6Mbps. So I took my laptop over to his villa. I logged on, re-ran the same speed test and.....got the same value as before, about 2Mbps!! This surely suggests that there is something wrong with my laptop, since it eliminates the wiring to my villa. Perhaps I should explain that the broadband comes into our compound via a fibre- optic cable and from there via the phone lines to each villa. So my question is, what could be causing my laptop to have such a low connection speed. I run XP Home on a Toshiba Equium M50-164 laptop through an EchoLife Home Wireless Gateway modem.

Public Comments

1. To make sure I understand this correctly, you have an internet service that you and everyone else share (assuming everyone else has a subscription). I'll also assume that this is DSL since you mentioned it coming in via telephone wiring. The difference between your friend's and your speed could be a ton of things. I'll start with the most obvious and go from there: The first thing is the setup of your Internet Service Provider(ISP)'s network. Given it's delivered through one line and then split up into multiple lines, that right there could be the problem if you really want to call it a 'problem.' You'll have what's called peak times and down times. Essentially, the point of the day most people are using the internet in your compound is the peak time. This will be the time your internet runs at its slowest because you're basically sharing the same connection at the same time as everyone else. Yeah, that means your friend slows you down too if you're both on it at the same time. Down time is the exact opposite. The point of the day when the least amount of people are using the internet in your compound. In any case, there's nothing you can do about it short of knocking people out to make sure they can't get online. The next reason why your internet may be running slow is if you have programs running in the background. Even more so if they're using your connection. Examples could be Windows updating, or your Anti-Virus downloading new virus definitions. Even better if you're downloading movies, music, or really anything for that matter. In regards to programs just running and not using internet, some examples are your Anti-Virus running a scan, having a lot of programs open at once (such as having Photoshop open and then you decide to open up Word to type a document but then you changed your mind and decided to open up Excel to create a spreadsheet to distribute to staff at tomorrow morning's meeting but then you remembered you promised a friend to create a flyer for their kid's sports team so you go open Publisher.), or anything else running. Just close everything you don't need open. The next thing is you might've just had your computer on for too long. Contrary to popular belief, computers do need to be restarted from time to time. The more RAM that is taken up, the slower your computer will run. In order to clear your RAM, you have to shutdown the computer. Simple, yes? Getting more technical, you could update the drivers to your Ethernet port or for your wireless network adapter (depending on if you connect via cable or wireless). Passed that, I couldn't tell you without having the laptop physically in front of me and I doubt anyone else could either. Hope this helps!