Reality check

[Michaelaw]

Here in Vancouver Canada I'm experiencing periodic slowdowns on Google, slow loading waiting fifteen seconds or so for Google to load and very slow loading for other sites. People in my area I know are reporting the same. I run an extremely well maintained system and am very familiar with computers as I began computing when the Timex Sinclair came out :) I've recently upgraded my service to a 5mbps level but I'm still slow. Online speed test shows I'm getting what I'm paying for with totally consistent results. I'm just curious to know if this is a local problem or are you guys experiencing difficulty also before I begin to rattle the cage of my Internet provider.

Cheers

Michael

[Greg_Nuspel]

Google is still very fast for me. I thought life just slows down a little on the west coast ;)

[kat]

Wish I could help you out but my internet provider isn't that well. My internet goes out daily, flow coming decreases making it hard to do anything on the internet.

Hope it isn't anything to major! Good luck!

[Lovin]

Works fine here, in North Van.

[F8&Bthere]

I am experiencing the same just outside of Calgary on Shaw iExtreme. Problem is surfing speed is so hard to troubleshoot, right? Shaw proudly announced recently a free internet speed upgrade and my system for surfing- not just google- seems slower than ever! I can't say I'm a 'puter whiz, but I do some basic maintenance like temp files and such, mostly using ccleaner, and it still seems slow either with Firefox or IE. Using MSN messenger for long distance video chat? Fuggedabudit! Yet like Michaelaw says my speed test show I'm just fine.

[Iguanasan]

I'm not having any issues here at all, Google is zipping along smoothly. If you've been using computers since the Timex Sinclair then maybe you are geeky enough to already know this. Google has a number of different data centres all over the place and though mine may be fine yours may not be doing so well.

[Michaelaw]

I'm not having any issues here at all, Google is zipping along smoothly. If you've been using computers since the Timex Sinclair then maybe you are geeky enough to already know this. Google has a number of different data centres all over the place and though mine may be fine yours may not be doing so well.

I'm only geeky enough to understand how to keep my system running as smoothly as it did when I built it. As far as my understanding of the way information is routed and handled on the net...I'm not fully versed. I'm like the vintage car owner who won't have a turn signal or a brake light not work....Everything's got to work, but I'm totally oblivious to the workings of the fuel industry (thank god, cos I don't think I'd sleep nights knowing the skinny on that stuff!) My issue has gone away like magic without me changing a single setting which lets my OS off the hook...For now. Didn't know about the data centers being a collective, I always assumed it was one big pipe leading to a source, that's mainly because I never thought about it but when I do think about it it makes more sense to have a hive approach. Thanks for the distribution pointer :)

[nomad358]

I believe the problem is that ADSL and Cable modem users have this thing called "Contention." Basically what it means is that you are connected as with other users in your area to the same point or "Node" on the network and sharing or competing for the same bandwith with 20, 30 or 50 other users. Even though your connection is reading what it should be, the network often experiences traffic jams at peak times when every other user is connected to the node at the same time. Most users don't know about this because the Internet provider doesn't tell you. It's something they would rather you didn't know about. More information here: http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/11

[Iguanasan]

How's your service been going? Who is your Internet provider? While it's true that Cable connections can suffer from neighbourhood issues, it is not likely to be a big issue if you live in an urban environment as they will normally just split the network if it gets overloaded. Cable backbones are generally much faster than the neigbourhood runs. Generally 100s of Mbs on the backbone compared to 5Mb on the neighbourhood loop.

Since you are at 5Mb I assume you are on cable since DSL, while capable of that speed, is generally capped at 1.5Mb or 3Mb.

[Michaelaw]

I'm having no issues at the moment. It seems to me that my slowdown coincided with the Vancouver Canucks being in the playoffs but I'm not sure if that's feasible or not as I'm not a sports fan and have no idea as to how many may have been streaming the game. My provider is Telus and as I said, No issues.....

[kat]

Glad for you! Ha ha..I just sent a letter to the head person for shaw for my internet. Not going to get anywhere with it but thought I'd at least try to say I did. Sooo not a happy camper right now!