Baffling speeds...?

[Skiz]

Just when I though I understood exactly what sort of speeds to expect from newsgroups, I am again surprised. Any internet speed test I've ever done, has always put my download speed at around 5MB, but somehow I usually download at a max of 6MB. Tonight, I am downloading at 800KB+.

Can anyone explain this? Is there a way to achieve these speeds regularly?

I use my ISPs news server, via RoadRunner.

[digitrifecta]

It looks like your maxing out your internet connection just fine, I'm pretty sure that you are getting 5-6 Mega bits down stream not 5-6 Megabytes a second. For example I have the fastest internet package Charter offers at 10 Mega bits that translates into 1.2 megabytes a second on average.

[haydeno]

1 megabit = 128kb so 6mb = 768kb so 800 is only 5% fater than it should be

[NovaPatrol]

hey i know this is probably the wrong place to ask this question but i was just wondering if road runner had some decent usenet servers. cause i have earthlink which is basically road runner and earthlinks usenet servers are +90% incompletes. just wondering if i should switch. i think road runner just upgraded a couple of weeks or maybe a month ago. i used to get around 590kbps and now i get around 740-780kbps. i do get over 800kbps though. i also live in austin texas.

[Skiz]

hey i know this is probably the wrong place to ask this question but i was just wondering if road runner had some decent usenet servers. cause i have earthlink which is basically road runner and earthlinks usenet servers are +90% incompletes. just wondering if i should switch.

I love RoadRunner. Very rarely do I get anything that is missing PARs, and if I do, then it always an old file. New stuff is always fine.

Highly recommended.

[NovaPatrol]

thanks for the quick reply ill call road runner tomorrow.

[weenden]

hell skizo id take any speed i could get ...

[QstorM]

Man, a few minutes ago I finally decided to quit being lazy and check out what groups my ISP host (Verizon). And to my surprise they host the groups who are most importants to me Finally I've found FREELEECH!! and they allow 16 connections! Thanks to this thread for making me jealous and decide to look TY

[spirex]

Since Roadrunner outsourced their newsserver the retention is great, getting stuff over 80 days old, but speeds seem to suck during the day(3-4 mbps on a 10 mbps connection) and are ok in the morning hours. You can enable your newsreader to use more than the four connections and eventually it will connect and the speeds will return.

Even better its free and has unlimited usage. Downloading headers is only up to 30 days.

[Rebelatheart]

No speedtest is really accurate. I never can do a download speedtest that actually shows my max download. Speedtest.com will show 13000kb/s but i'll go d/l from NG's at 200000kb/s or 2MB. I found NG's are the best way to test your download speed. Speed test give an idea. Although some people can do a speedtest and it'll be very close to their max, while for some like me, its never really that close.