Does your High Speed Internet Connection always Behave as Advertised?

Does your High Speed Internet Connection always Behave as Advertised?

When I picked out the house I live in now, in Indiana, a factor that contributed to the decision was how close by my office was. With any high-speed Internet connection, distances covered can matter. I have never actually gained anything from my foresight; the Internet connection is even slower than what I used to have before. It wasn't easy, but when I investigated why, I found out. All the data I sent out, took the scenic route to my office - through Phoenix, Arizona. The Internet is an essential everyday tool today, much like electricity and water supply; as people get used to demanding more from their Internet connection than mere e-mail and webpage browsing, and obtain their high-quality entertainment streamed online as well, the pressure on Internet Service Provider, or ISP to make sure that they have enough bandwidth to keep Skype calls delay-free, really mounts.

There are lots of websites and applications you can buy too, that will let you measure how fast the connection is that you are getting from your ISP. That could work in a limited sense, but testing the data speed you get from your ISP nearby, doesn't adequately represent how you get a file from across the country - a feat that will require the participation of hundreds of computers en route. Your high-speed Internet connection in reality, depending on where the website you are interested in is served, could slow down to a crawl.

It is getting so that even simple Web browsing is getting complicated. The moment you click on a link to open a new webpage, commands go out to a dozen different servers; they try to gauge your location, calculate what advertisements would best suit you where you are, stream them from several company servers, and then, give you your actual webpage. A weak or slow link on any one of those dozen servers, could slow down your entire experience.

Service providers are very interested in their speeds too. If they are not doing right by you, they would lose your custom. Of the many websites out there that help you test your high speed Internet connection, most will use overburdened lines and servers to give you your test. This will hardly make any sense, and results can vary widely depending on how loaded down they are. For a more meaningful testing experience, some websites, like Toast.net will base their results on trying to download to your computer files from locations on all continents. Visual Ware has a paid service that uses some pretty sophisticated tests too.

If you ever noticed that your high-speed Internet connection is quick enough when you start downloading something, but slows down over time, you're not imagining it. ISPs like to give priority to people who browse the Internet over those who like to download large files. Once they catch you doing it, their computers will take speed away from you to put where it is needed more. But sadly, it isn't really your ISPs fault, if your short distance Internet communication is getting bounced around all over the country. This kind of networking is an inescapable part of the Internet - it makes the Internet indestructible. The moment a part of the Internet goes down or slows down, the servers en route figure out how to take another path to you. Perhaps a little awe would be in order, not a complaint.