for the last 35 minutes i've been downloading a movie from kazaa at 30Kbytes/s, the thing is i have a 56K modem and normally get speeds of 5 - 6Kbytes/s.
at first i just thought the speed was being misjudged as this has occasionally happened to me before, but when i saw that i've downloaded over 30Mbytes in around 20 minutes i knew something was up. this has also happened to a few friends of mine aswell. my cpu usage has also increased while this going on. anyway, the point is i was wondering if anyone could help explain how and why this is happening, and if possible give some advice on how to keep this kind of speed permanant.

btw, i am also searching google, so no replies telling me to do that.
any other input will be appreciated.

edit: speed has now jumped to 55Kbytes/s

[This message has been edited by XIPHER (edited 11-23-2002).]

I remember when I had a 56k modem. I was downloading a file off of the internet when all of a sudden it started going at 60kb/s and I was ammazed.

I don't know what to say, but it might be a conspiracy.

-=MaTrIXSpirit=-

When you say 56k, do you know what it actualy stands for? The K is not kilobytes, its kilobits. There are 8 bits in one byte. Your computer measures your speed in kilobytes, not kilobits. So take your download speed and times it by 8. This tells us that you can never download anything faster than 7kilobytes per second because 7kbytes = 56kbits. When I was on dialup I had occationaly gotten way above 7kbytes/s but I blame unaccurate software and inconsistant software.

A few years ago when dialup modems and the internet were becomming popular to the public (after Al Gore passed a law that allowed the public to have access to the internet), the phone company became concerned that the phone lines would get horribly clogged and cause errors resulting in no phone service. They stopped this before it happened by saying that at no time should anyone's phone line be using more than 64kbits of data per second, to ensure constant availability of phone service. When people hosted conference calls the data rate shot up massivly, this is why the phone company also put a restriction on this by saying that if there were more than 4 people connected that the phone company itself would host it (and charge you outragous fees as well). I am not entirely sure, but as I recall, this is also how ISDN came about, multiple phone lines all used together to make one connection. It multiplies the bandwidth by 6 (or however many lines you had) and didn't take up more than 64kbytes of data per line.

Modern day modems are not supposed to go over 56kbytes/sec even though the limit that the phone company put on it is only 64kbytes/sec. This ensures an overlap.

So to answer your question: yes you can rewire crap inside your modem to make it faster, but the phone company will catch you and crucify you.

quote:

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Originally posted by Zok:
When I was on dialup I had occationaly gotten way above 7kbytes/s but I blame unaccurate software and inconsistant software.
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Modern day modems are not supposed to go over 56kbytes/sec even though the limit that the phone company put on it is only 64kbytes/sec. This ensures an overlap.

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Your half wrong Z, they have nothing capping your speed. I have a modem (a Moterola SM56), and when I installed it, along with some software i downloaded off of kazaalite called TweakMaster. I was getting 8-12 KBS. Yup, wasnt fake either, i was downloading stuff pretty fast. Then in two weeks I dropped to 2-3kbs. A real bitch. But I blame that on Netzero for I discoverd that they altered some of their access numbers to new v.92 software so people would not have to reconnect to make a phone call. Of course you can only use this for 4 consecutive minutes before you DO have to reconnect.

quote:

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origionally posted by Zok.
When you say 56k, do you know what it actualy stands for?

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yes, i was aware that it was 56kbits, thats why i was wondering how and why this is happening.

quote:

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origionally posted by Zok.
but I blame unaccurate software and inconsistant software.

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that's what i thought at first aswell, but it cant explain why i downloaded around 250Mbytes in just inder 2 hours

quote:

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origionally posted by Zok.
yes you can rewire crap inside your modem to make it faster, but the phone company will catch you and crucify you.

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damn. always a catch.

the possible conclusions i have come up with are
1. i get higher speeds when downloading from users with higher bandwidths, but the problem with that is i dont see how my modem can exceed its set speed.
2. alot of people (people around my age, 17-19) were at Schoolies Week that night, and one of the biggest nights at that. for those who dont know, Schoolies Week is a 2 week long party for people who have just completed 12th grade, im not sure what they call it in other countries, or if its held at all, but thats not the point.
once again, that doesnt explain why my modem was going over its set speed.

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceFalcon2001:
Your half wrong Z, they have nothing capping your speed. I have a modem (a Moterola SM56), and when I installed it, along with some software i downloaded off of kazaalite called TweakMaster. I was getting 8-12 KBS. Yup, wasnt fake either, i was downloading stuff pretty fast. Then in two weeks I dropped to 2-3kbs. A real bitch. But I blame that on Netzero for I discoverd that they altered some of their access numbers to new v.92 software so people would not have to reconnect to make a phone call. Of course you can only use this for 4 consecutive minutes before you DO have to reconnect.

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Phone companies have become more lax within the last few years as cable and dsl are becoming more popular. Once again, it could be faulty hardware and the phone company not caring or changed regulations.

Actually, FCC rules limit modem speeds to 53kbps.

i asked a friend about this today and told him about how the movie was a fake (what can you expect from kazaa) and showed just a black screen, he said something about how sometimes certain frames could have looked identical to others in the movie and since the frames where already cached it would appear to download alot quicker than it actually did.
this made a lot more sense than the theories i came up with.

[This message has been edited by XIPHER (edited 11-26-2002).]

ive just tried to clock my modem, i read a file saying that, my computer>properties>device manager>ports>and change the bps to 92000. it didnt work and i couldnt get connected agter disconnecting. i thought it sounded to easy. anyone got any idea how to do it? this guied wasnt for xp though which i run it was for 9x,me,2k so maybe that had something to do with it. i was thinking as well you might need someone on the inside maybe?
-
lae

there are tweaks for 56k modems to speed them up, but you still cant get too much faster. if you connect at less than 40kbps id try them though. mess around with your MTU and TCPRWin settings.

that was some good advice eh? ok... instead of elaborating... a link. theres some tests you can run, examine the results, theyll tell you what to change, then fuck around till you find the max setting for your modem. or you can try to download some rip off software to change these settings for you...

where have you been my bitch?

*benny hill chasing sound*

Get him! I wan�t his ass raped ...


P.S.: Use Proxomitron and stop your comp from downloading wasty shit.

I "optimized" my modem a while back and finally got to 36kbps.
Needless to say this isn't much different from 24k(which is what I previously ran at).