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Newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post that used to be slow to download with a 56K landline modem now load quickly.

Meanwhile, the smaller newspaper sites and other sites which used to download fast now download slow, and sometimes time out.

Hoookup speeds have been steadily decreasing during 2007 from 49.9 bps to 36-38 bps and even 32.2 bps.

Sometimes, like today, even with the occasional "fast" 40 bps hookup, downloading a site takes an unusually long time.

Opinions and solutions are appreciated in advance. Thanks to all who respond.

I guess I am not 100% sure what your asking. If you are wondering about your Internet connection being slow on some things and fast on others. Have you noticed static on your line? Is it consistent with the same site or intermittent?

There are a lot of factors involved in slow connectivity and timeouts. Also, who is your provider and have you talked to their tech support about the issue?

Also, modems can degrade over time, as well as phone line problems. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your modem and unplug and replug your cord several times from the jack on the modem and wall. The contacts in the jacks can become a little dirty and that will slow down the connection too.

Two factors are the most significant limitations to download speed: the speed or bandwidth of the communication channel, and the speed at which the remote server can pump bits into the channel.

Broadband has practically eliminated the speed of the channel as a consideration. You still see it sometimes with overseas sites.

That leaves server speed.

Big sites like the New York Times or Washington Post have server farms that are designed to handle millions of hits a day.

Small newspapers may not even operate their own servers. They may use a low-cost web site host or piggyback on another company's site. If one of those servers gets a lot of hits because of a popular story, the server will not be able to keep up with the traffic. It will be bogged down by disk access times and memory limitations, the same as any computer performing an intensive task.

You can test your Internet connection speed here or at any number of other sites.

(IANAL, but I am an electrical engineer.)

- Jim

In the past hour since the original thread was posted, download times have been shortened considerably through no doing of mine.

There's an explanation for that, too:

The wire from your house (whether it's cable or DSL) eventually goes to a router in the central office. From there, your Internet traffic can take millions of different paths. Some of those paths are fast, and some are slow because of high traffic or equipment malfunctions.

It's analogous to driving somewhere. You can take a large number of different routes, some of which are quicker than others. Sometimes a longer, more complicated is faster than the most direct route because of traffic jams.

Did you try the speed test?

- Jim

Did you try the speed test?

Yesterday. Got 32 kbs. Can't take that pounding much longer.

Looking at satellite v. 3g.

The local towers will remain 2g for a while.

Mobility versus speed.

Casingpoint, I am assuming you are still using dial-up?? It may be a line issue if so. Have you had static on the line??

Keith B,

Yes, there is some background static now that you mention it. Way in the background. Not very audible.

casingpoint wrote:Keith B,

Yes, there is some background static now that you mention it. Way in the background. Not very audible.

I would suggest you contact your phone service provider and report the static. That way they will either fix the static by repairing the cable or move you to another cable pair. Hopefully the static free line will also provide you faster speed. Telco's will not repair lines due to slow dial-up speeds, so don't report that.

Russell wrote:The tubes are clogged!

Dialup is dependent on the copper pairs, the longer the pairs the more places it can degrade over time

You can have your lines conditioned to ensure you dialup stays stable but it gets expensive