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Comcast Cheating On Bandwidth Testing?

Posted by kdawson on from the tuning-for-the-benchmark dept.

dynamo52 writes "I'm a freelance network admin serving mainly small business clients. Over the last few months, I have noticed that any time I run any type of bandwidth testing for clients with Comcast accounts, the results have been amazingly fast — with some connections, Speakeasy will report up to 15 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up. Of course, clients get nowhere near this performance in everyday usage. (This can be quite annoying when trying to determine whether a client needs to switch over to a T1 or if their current ISP will suffice.) Upon further investigation, it appears that Comcast is delivering this bandwidth only for a few seconds after any new request and it is immediately throttled down. Doing a download and upload test using a significantly large file (100+ MB) yields results more in line with everyday usage experience, usually about 1.2 Mbps down and about 250 Kbps up (but it varies). Is there any valid reason why Comcast would front-load transfers in this way, or is it merely an effort to prevent end-users from being able to assess their bandwidth accurately? Does anybody know of other ISPs using similar practices?"

8 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Seriously now, is _anyone_ surprised over _anything_ bad Comcast does to their customers anymore?

  2. Re:This is an advertised feature I believe by sm62704 · · Score: 3, Funny

    There is an old saying "never attribute to malice what incompetence can explain", but come on guys, this is comcast. A snake doesn't bite by mistake.

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  3. Can't be right by ultranova · · Score: 5, Funny

    That can't be right. From your description, it sounds like a genuinely good and beneficial to the user idea. Where's the catch ?

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    1. Re:Can't be right by Tassach · · Score: 5, Funny
      Any actually benefit to the customer is purely coincidental and unintentional.

      That nice warm shower feels pretty good until you realize someone is pissing on you.

      --
      Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
  4. Re:Powerboost by Your.Master · · Score: 2, Funny

    And nobody would say they downloaded 600 millibits.

  5. Re:This is an advertised feature I believe by jsebrech · · Score: 4, Funny

    If your client has a bandwidth chart, watch it scroll by and enjoy the thrill as your upstream bandwidth surges to heights like you have never seen before.

    Nobody should ever enjoy a bandwidth chart to the degree you are enjoying it. I don't know whether to be scared or awed.

  6. Re:This is an advertised feature I believe by croddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey man, I use Linux -- this is one of my favorite computer games.

  7. Re:This is an advertised feature I believe by jdev · · Score: 2, Funny

    You know, normal people just have aquariums.

    Link