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Slow speeds (4 posts)

  • Started 16 years ago by Rob Adams
  • Latest reply 16 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • Rob Adams Member

    Hi there. I am using Fetch 5.3. running on a Mac G4 with OSX 10.4.1 I am uploading a 130Mb Video file. I have a satellite internet connection, with 512 down/ 128 up speeds.

    When I first hook up to the remote server I get an initial speed of 40Kbps, but very soon this drops. It is now running at 5.3KBps. this means the file will take 7 hours to upload!

    Anythoughts on what i can do to fix this? I live in Zimbabwe, so there's limited access to tech support... I suppose the problem could be the internet connection or the firewall, or course.

    I'd be very grateful for any assistance or thoughts you might have.

    Best wishes

    Rob Adams
    Harare
    Zimbabwe

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Rob,

    Unfortunately, there probably isn't anything you can do, I believe the slow speeds are caused by your Internet connection. Some background on the issues...

    It's not uncommon to see the upload speed drop from the initial speed estimate; Fetch is estimating from very little data initially, so the reported upload speed is usually unrealistically high. So most likely the upload hasn't actually gotten slower, it's just that the speed reporting has gotten more accurate as the upload progresses.

    Another important thing to realize is that Fetch reports speeds in kilobytes per second (KBps) whereas Internet connection speeds are advertised in kilobits (kbps) per second. There are 8 bits in a byte, so you need to multiply the speed that Fetch is reporting by 8 to comapre it with your connection's maximum speed.

    In your case, 5.3 KB/s = 42 kbps. That is still only 1/3rd of your theoretical maximum speed (128 kbps), but it's perhaps not quite as slow as you may have thought you were getting.

    Unfortunately, your speeds are unlikely to ever reach the theoretical maximum. Speed can be affected by a lot of things, such as the amount of errors that happen and need to be corrected - and satellite Internet connections get more of those than most other kinds of connections. The satellite is also a shared resource, and it may not be able to give you faster speeds because others are also uploading to it.

    So, I'm afraid your uploads are probably going to be pretty slow. If you expect to be uploading videos a lot, you may want to look into ways to recompress your videos so that they are smaller.

    And in case your connection drops before the upload finishes, you will probably will want to try Fetch's resume upload capability, which lets you begin an upload where you left off, instead of starting over from the beginning. You can find out more about it here:

    http://www.fetchsoftworks.com/FetchWebHelp/Contents/Tutorial/ResumeUpload.html

    Thanks, and please let us know if you have more questions.

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Rob Adams Member

    Scott, you are a star. I had even googled this and found your previous response about slow speeds and the kilobyte/kilobit issue - and had not logged it. My apologies for wasting your time... my ISP ran a check from my modem to the satellite, and confirmed that I was running at just under 50 kilobits - so I've just come off a one hour chat session with the nice people at linksys, completely reconfirguring my wireless router to try and squeeze more speed..
    anyway, if i'd read the instructions, i'd have seen that I'm running about as fast as i could expect...and if i'd done the math, i'd have worked out that 140Mb divided by 6 hours would give me about what you suggest i'm getting.
    Interestingly though i have fed video from a BGan sat phone (off the roof of a hotel in Mogadishu, no less!) and had a 40 kilobyte speed as reported by Fetch... so maybe i just need to pay out for a faster connection at home.
    I will certainly look into Resume Upload. It would make my life a lot simpler - and reduce the number of straight-through-to-dawn upload nights.
    I use sorensen squeeze to compress my files, but i;m uploading broadcast quality video, so there's only so far you can squash it down.
    Thanks again for you help. Fetch is a great bit (or byte!) of software.
    Best wishes
    Rob Adams
    Harare
    Zimbabwe

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Rob,

    You're welcome, and not a problem.

    You may want to test resume upload with a short file to make sure your server supports it before relying on it; unfortunately not all servers support it.

    And yes, if you're uploading broadcast quality video, I agree there's only so much you can do - good luck finding a faster connection!

    Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

    Best,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

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