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Download speeds seem slow

Posted: November 12th, 2011, 6:06 pm
by madmike283
Hey all, new user here again. I'm up and running with SABnzbd, SB, nzbmatrix, and astraweb/blocknews as my server providers. Things seem to be working smoothly. I'm concerned about download speeds a little bit.

If I run speedtest.net I get the following results.

Image

I ran the test four times and got very similary results. While downloading though, inside SABnzbd I only see transfer rates of ~2Mb/s. I've downloaded about 20G so far over the past couple of days and download speeds hover right around 2Mb for each download. I've checked the Glasnost throttling test to make sure that my ISP isn't limiting me. It returns no indication of traffic shaping.

Is there anything I can do about this? Is there any reason I should see these slow of speeds while downloading from my provider? I currently have the astraweb unlimited DSL package that does not limit d/l speeds. I also have blocknews for a block provider and have downloaded jobs directly from them as well with the same speeds.

I don't know where else to ask this question. I don't think it's a SABnzbd problem, just thought I'd ask the general question here in the general forum. Thanks for any input.

Re: Download speeds seem slow

Posted: November 12th, 2011, 6:44 pm
by shypike
bits vs bytes.
ISPs advertise in bits/sec, SABnzbd shows you bytes/sec.
Multiply SABnzbd's results by 9 to get bits/sec.

Re: Download speeds seem slow

Posted: November 12th, 2011, 7:00 pm
by madmike283
Duh, I really should have picked up on that. So I'm getting pretty decent speeds then. Sorry for cluttering up your forum with dumb oversights. lol

Re: Download speeds seem slow

Posted: November 13th, 2011, 5:39 am
by shypike
You're not the first.
Measuring bits/sec makes sense for ISPs, because that has a one to one relation to line speed.
Counting bytes makes sense for SABnzbd, because that's what actually arrives at your PC.

Re: Download speeds seem slow

Posted: December 4th, 2011, 6:04 pm
by Disgustipated
Also don't forget that Comcast has "Power Boost" on your connection. Basically they allow you to run unregulated for the first 10 MB of whatever you download. Due to this speedtest.net becomes essentially useless on a working Comcast line and you will always see significantly higher results on speedtest.net than you will on a sustained transfer, like when using SABnzbd+.