I just got Cable Internet for the first time yesterday. I got it from a local service provider here in Mexico City where I live. In the past I've used DSL as it's quite convenient but I decided to go with Cable due to their offering TV, telephony and broadband for a lower price than the competition.
Anyway, the issue is like this. This is a 1.5mbps connection (yes, very low, but keep in mind I live in Mexico!).
It's quite easy for me to max out the connection when web browsing. Sites with a lot of pics / content (like, say, Wired.com; Amazon.com; Engadget, etc) easily saturate my connection, and I usually get 170KB/s when web browsing, which is pretty good for a 1.5mbps connection. Sites load plenty fast and I get really good pings on US servers considering I'm not in the US.
Running speedtest.net also maxes out my connection, measuring it at 1448kbps, which is really close to the promised 1.5mbps. No problems there.
But the problem is doing anything else! If I try to download a file in Firefox (or IE), the file downloads at literally dial up rates (usually less than 2KB/s). Trying to stream a Youtube video, for example, also yields abysmal transfer rates (less than 1KB/s). Ditto with iTunes podcasts.
Oddly enough, downloading demos through Xbox live does max out my connection at over 160KB/s.
So what the hell is wrong here? Is my ISP throttling me? But then, if they are, why are they throttling only file downloads and the like instead of my whole connection....and in such a harsh manner that they'd pretty much cripple my bandwidth? Why can I max out my connection when downloading 1.6GB demos on Xbox live but not when streaming Youtube videos? Hell, I can't even connect to the Steam servers.
Could it be something else? I doubt it's my computer since both my iPhone and my GFs laptop exhibit the same problem when connected to my network. So, is it possible for a firewall to do stuff like this? I disabled the firewall on the modem/router to no avail...(this is an Arris WTM552G/H telephony modem).
Thanks in advance.
Anyway, the issue is like this. This is a 1.5mbps connection (yes, very low, but keep in mind I live in Mexico!).
It's quite easy for me to max out the connection when web browsing. Sites with a lot of pics / content (like, say, Wired.com; Amazon.com; Engadget, etc) easily saturate my connection, and I usually get 170KB/s when web browsing, which is pretty good for a 1.5mbps connection. Sites load plenty fast and I get really good pings on US servers considering I'm not in the US.
Running speedtest.net also maxes out my connection, measuring it at 1448kbps, which is really close to the promised 1.5mbps. No problems there.
But the problem is doing anything else! If I try to download a file in Firefox (or IE), the file downloads at literally dial up rates (usually less than 2KB/s). Trying to stream a Youtube video, for example, also yields abysmal transfer rates (less than 1KB/s). Ditto with iTunes podcasts.
Oddly enough, downloading demos through Xbox live does max out my connection at over 160KB/s.
So what the hell is wrong here? Is my ISP throttling me? But then, if they are, why are they throttling only file downloads and the like instead of my whole connection....and in such a harsh manner that they'd pretty much cripple my bandwidth? Why can I max out my connection when downloading 1.6GB demos on Xbox live but not when streaming Youtube videos? Hell, I can't even connect to the Steam servers.
Could it be something else? I doubt it's my computer since both my iPhone and my GFs laptop exhibit the same problem when connected to my network. So, is it possible for a firewall to do stuff like this? I disabled the firewall on the modem/router to no avail...(this is an Arris WTM552G/H telephony modem).
Thanks in advance.