Is my ISP throttling my download speed?

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se7en0n3

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351
2011
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Im really puzzled about this and a bit worried.
It all started a few months ago. My internet subscription is 5mbps line and was maxing my download speed, usually getting 4+mbps on almost all filehost.

See the thing is, Im more of a downloader than an uploader, I usually leave my pc open 24/7 downloading games, tv shows, movies and stuff so Im always maxing my line. 2TB of HDD's were almost full now.

Two weeks ago I cannot even get to download anything as my speeds became horrible. Speeds were below 1mbps and if I'm lucky I'll be getting 1.2ish mbps. Thinking it was the file host problem I tried filehosts like WU, FSC, FS, MF even paid premium to RS and MU but my speeds remain below 1mbps.

Thought it was my router or pc that was causing it so tried a lot of stuff and formatted also but speed remains the same. Got my laptop and tried it from there but still speed was slow. Yesterday I downloaded drivers for my VGA card from NVIDIA and whoa I was again maxing my download speed. So now I know its not my pc, router or modem that was causing the problem.

The funny thing is I always use VPN when im doing "my uploading stuff" so just now I had an idea, could it be that my download speeds were being throttled down when I download specific filehosts? What if I tried downloading through VPN? since they wouldnt know that Im connecting to a filehost...

Well now Im connected to VPN (connected to the server nearest my country) and guess what my speed was around 3.8mbps to 4.6mbps, not as stable as before but 300% better without VPN.

Afaik using VPN just makes downloads/browsing go slower since my traffic will be routed to the vpn rather than going straight to the site right?

So what do you think is going on? Could my ISP been tracking on my online activities? I cant just really go there and ask them " hey why cut down on my speed when im downloading MW3?"

IDM Speed Using VPN
8b6531e8ab.jpg



Here's when Im not using VPN
fc69162d89.jpg
 
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11 comments
From the sounds of things yes they are. Here in the UK (I have no idea where you are :P) most ISP's now have traffic management policies along with a Fair Usage Policy. Since you say you are/were downloading 24/7 then frankly what do you expect really? The ISP you have provides internet to probably thousands upon thousands of people so if you are constantly downloading then you can have a adverse effect on their network, which in turn could cause customers to complain or even leave.

My advice would be to curb your activities to a lesser extent and download during the night for big downloads, doing this should help since you would be using the network outside of peak hours (peak hours is when the most amount of users are likely to be online).

JGM.
 
Yes it sounds like they are.. If I download around 10gb in one day they cut my speed right down for a day or two. The speed comes back after I stop downloading heavily for a few days though.
 
Thanks guys, One more thing I worried about is them tracking my online activites cause if they will throttle my speed down then I shouldnt be able to max out my speeds on the nvidia site but Im only getting this shitty speeds when Im downloading from a "commercial" filehost. Please see the snaps that I did a while ago.
 
Cable providers are notorious for throttling speed. But if you have DSL you should not have that problem as it does not affect any of the other customers. Unlike cable dsl gives you your own connection not shared by anyone.

So if you have cable don't bother contacting them as it is in their policy.
 
Yesterday I downloaded drivers for my VGA card from NVIDIA and whoa I was again maxing my download speed.

Are you sure you didn't downloaded NVIDIA driver package, which actually updated your LAN card drivers?? Because, updating VGA drivers have nothing to do with your speeds..., but if you did what I just wrote, that has everything to do with it...

Usually, throttling was doable like 10 years ago, I am only hearing for such examples, when users are brand new ( newbs ), about how their ISP is throttling their speeds, while, in almost all cases, they either don't have proper LAN drivers installed, or are already infected with trojans, etc...

You can open task manager, go under networking tab, click on view>>select columns, and check Bytes Sent Per Interval, and Bytes received Per Interval checboxes...and click ok after finishing...


Now you can monitor your traffic in real time, and figure out, is there something else that is stealing bandwidth

65KwI.png



Do a test on http://speedtest.net , and post image here
 
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@cvrle

I think you misunderstood, I downloaded my VGA driver from the nvidia server using IDM and yet I was able to max out my connection.

Speedtests were ok and was showing 3.5mbps but downloading stuff from filehosts were really low. I got 2 laptops an Iphone, Android and tablet which I all tested to download stuff from filehosts (wireless router) but it really never even reaches near to 1mbps.

I was just wondering why all filehosts eg RS, WUP, FS, FSC, FJ, FP, MF, MU were all really slow.

the funny thing is when im under the radar...vpn...Im maxing it on almost every filehost. So yeah I think their watching me now lolz
 
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