Internet Upload Speeds

[Fred Weiss]

We get our internet connection from AT&T and have an upgraded plan that's as high as can be had in our area ... 12 to 18 Mbs. When I upload a file either via FTP to our server or to an Amazon S3 storage destination, we see speeds of 250 to 275 Kbs. This means that to upload any of our local backups to an online destination will take several hours to a couple of days.

The AT&T Internet Speed Checker shows that our upload connection is running at just under 2 Mbs. Later on that page it says:

Upload Speed 1.93 Mbps (240.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Reading this, it appears that the actual transfer rate we are getting is only 1/8 of the speed of the connection.

Does anyone understand this? Is this simply AT&T's way of misleading advertising or is there anything we could and should do to improve on our transfer speed?

 

[J Hill Designs]

We get our internet connection from AT&T and have an upgraded plan that's as high as can be had in our area ... 12 to 18 Mbs. When I upload a file either via FTP to our server or to an Amazon S3 storage destination, we see speeds of 250 to 275 Kbs. This means that to upload any of our local backups to an online destination will take several hours to a couple of days.

The AT&T Internet Speed Checker shows that our upload connection is running at just under 2 Mbs. Later on that page it says:



Reading this, it appears that the actual transfer rate we are getting is only 1/8 of the speed of the connection.

Does anyone understand this? Is this simply AT&T's way of misleading advertising or is there anything we could and should do to improve on our transfer speed?

you are getting megabit and megabyte confused
2 megabits is 250 kilobytes

 

[rjssigns]

The "rocket fast" advertised speeds are for downloads only. They bury the upload speeds in the fine print.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

The "rocket fast" advertised speeds are for downloads only. They bury the upload speeds in the fine print.

This...

Upload speeds are generally not advertised. Download speeds are.

Although I like the idea of offsite backups, it is often more practical to backup locally and remove from the site (take home or to another location). Slow Internet speeds and large file sizes can make this type of backup very impractical.

 

[HDvinyl]

I have Wow! and just upgraded to 110/down 10/up.

 

[2B]

This...

Upload speeds are generally not advertised. Download speeds are.

Although I like the idea of offsite backups, it is often more practical to backup locally and remove from the site (take home or to another location). Slow Internet speeds and large file sizes can make this type of backup very impractical.

 

[Snydo]

According to the Google you should be able to get Comcast Xfinity cable service. Should be massively faster up/download speeds than AT&T can offer. Hell, up here we have small towns 20 miles from nowhere that can get kick *** internet speeds via Charter.

 

[Drip Dry]

According to the Google you should be able to get Comcast Xfinity cable service. Should be massively faster up/download speeds than AT&T can offer. Hell, up here we have small towns 20 miles from nowhere that can get kick *** internet speeds via Charter.

Don't know, but could the faster speeds in those small towns be because there isn't as much activity as compared to a large city. Just wondering out loud...

 

[Ssmedia7]

Use a script/App

I don't know what is your primary platform but we use Macs. I use a program called Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC). First our OSX server makes Time Machine (TM) backups of itself. When ccc sees a new or updated TM backup it will back the file to Amazon S3 and my server at home. General files are stored on an external drive on the server. Ccc pays attention to this folder and does the same thing. Ccc only does backups at 1am so as to not slow down the network during working hours.

With a few apps and a bit of configuration you could automate the entire process and not worry about backups. I check the logs about every two weeks just to make sure everything is ok. So... Hope this gets you to think about a new solution that kinda skirts the slow upload speeds you are getting.

 

[Pippin Decals]

If you can get "charter cable" (west coast name )for internet you will get a waaaaayyy better deal. try using there charter speed test to test your speed .At&T sucks bad.

 

[Brink]

you are getting megabit and megabyte confused
2 megabits is 250 kilobytes

J Hill Designs had the correct answer for you pretty much. A byte is 8 bits. So speed in bits divided by 8 equals speed in bytes.

 

[Fred Weiss]

you are getting megabit and megabyte confused
2 megabits is 250 kilobytes

According to the Google you should be able to get Comcast Xfinity cable service. Should be massively faster up/download speeds than AT&T can offer. Hell, up here we have small towns 20 miles from nowhere that can get kick *** internet speeds via Charter.

If you can get "charter cable" (west coast name )for internet you will get a waaaaayyy better deal. try using there charter speed test to test your speed .At&T sucks bad.

J Hill Designs had the correct answer for you pretty much. A byte is 8 bits. So speed in bits divided by 8 equals speed in bytes.

I ran a speed test using the Comcast-Xfinity site as well as the Charter site and the numbers were pretty much the same as the AT&T U-verse numbers ... Downloads = 16, uploads = 1.9. So the AT&T service we're using is about as fast as the competition and all are way too slow for uploading our backups. I guess we'll just stick with copying them to the USB drive we bought for the purpose and unplugging it when we're done.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

[Snydo]

Fred that is a speed test, the numbers you are seeing are the stats for your AT&T connection. I'm fairly sure you would see massively faster speeds with Charter or Comcast if either are available to you. I have the least expensive package, the business plans offer faster upload speeds.

 

[stevenjowens]

Don't know, but could the faster speeds in those small towns be because there isn't as much activity as compared to a large city. Just wondering out loud...

This is almost certainly the case. To use the information superhighway metaphor, most people have 8 lane driveways leading to 4 lane surface roads, leading to a 1-lane onramp to the information superhighway.

 

[Pippin Decals]

Fred that is a speed test, the numbers you are seeing are the stats for your AT&T connection. I'm fairly sure you would see massively faster speeds with Charter or Comcast if either are available to you. I have the least expensive package, the business plans offer faster upload speeds.

You are correct Snydo...

 

[Techman]

unfortunately, ATT is the worst.
Their system has not been upgraded in years, And will not be for years to come. They are spending all the cash on cell systems. IE wireless.

Cable is a much better deal and much higher upload speeds.

Upload
11.20 Mbps is my upload speed using the economy level of service on the wireless wifi. This is the second lowest package . I pay 40 a month.. . This speed is while using skype and the honey streaming her vids.
The wired level is higher on the wired office computer..

 

[kheebl]

I use Comcast and my speeds are plenty fast for me. Here are the test results from my iPhone. My computer is hard wired and even faster.

 

[kheebl]

Here are the speeds on my desktop. Cheapest plan Comcast offers.

 

[bob]

When we first moved to our current location, somewhat off the beaten path, the only choices we had were Hughes Net and Wildblue. Both satellite uplinks. We went with Wildblue and a few years later went to DishNet which was really Wildblue providing the service. The service was mediocre, the speeds as well, but the killer was a 5gb monthly limit.

About 18 months ago we went with a local mom and pop outfit that provides line of sight radio links to their server in town. With this service there's no data limit and speeds are in the neighborhood of 25/25, during the day, and dropping to 6-8/1-3 at night. When everyone is streaming movies and clogging the bandwidth. It's a small operation in a small town so this is to be expected. $49.00 a month.

One nice thing about the radio connection is that since the radio, a tiny thing up on my roof, is a router, no other router is needed. The output of the radio is just a cat 5 cable. I plug their input into a 5 port switch and connect everything in my place to that switch. Since I do want to have wireless for my TV, I plugged an old wireless router into the switch as well. In one room I needed two connections, one for my computer and one for my Xbox, and there was only one ethernet connection in that room. I just plugged that connection into another 5 port switch and then connected the computer and Xbox to that switch. It all works perfectly.

You might nose around for a similar provider. I know, after having this that and the other service over the years, this is the best it's ever been.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Let me start by thanking all who recommended I look at cable. We ordered a setup from Comcast on Saturday to replace the AT&T u-verse internet hookup as well as our Directv setup. It was installed today.

Comparison of speeds is amazing and our monthly outlay is about $90 less than we were spending.

We have a Cat 5 hardwired Ethernet setup connecting 3 workstations using a switch-hub and also a laptop that uses Wi-Fi. The installer demonstrated the speed test at the router-modem and the download speed was 154 Mbps (don't recall the upload speed). The switch and the wiring took a pretty heavy toll and the following is the same speed test from my workstation, a drop from 154 to 69 mbps. Still a nice improvement from the 15 Mbps and 1.9 Mbps using the u-verse connection from AT&T. I'm told that these speeds vary with how many others are online or watching TV and my tests were in the early evening.

Trying a second speed test in the late night resulted in an increase in download speed of 3 Mbps and no significant change in the upload speed. A real world upload of a large file via FTP was also done to compare old and new speeds. Out old transfer rates were anywhere from 250 to 275 KB/s. The image below shows the new transfer rate of just under 3 MB/s ... a whopping increase of about 1,100%.

I'm a happy camper.