bsnl download speeds

[nandac]

i am under a uld 900 plan with bsnl.

on the net, i can see several claims that you can get 512 kbps speed with downloads with this plan. or 256 kbps during particular hours. there are some claims about 4 Mbps speed as well. (also what is the difference between kbps and Kbps? - because i can see some reference to this in various posts on the net).

but when i download i can see the speed oscillating between only 6 kB/s to 12 kB/s during the day. during night from 2 am, onwards it took like 4 hours to download a 1.4 gb file.

is wifi slowing it down? will a physical connection to the modem improve speed? or something else?

also i checked on the uld 900 plan which says downloads are pretty much unlimited, but scared that when the bill turns up i will wind up with an astronomical charge for the various downloads i have done during the day.

appreciate the insights.

 

[sabarishm]

Hi Nandac,

The 'k' and 'K' are always kilo, but the 'b' and 'B' does differ, 'k-bits-ps' and 'k-bytes-ps'. if they say you get 512 k-bits-per-second, it means you get 512/8, ie 64 Kilo Bytes per second.

The speed of the download depends on more than your subscribed plan. How much bandwidth is available on the remote server, proximity of the remote server, in case of torrent the number of seeds available etc. It will not be the wireless router that is causing this bottleneck.

Hope I confused you further (j/k).

Good day.

 

[Rgn1]

kbps = kilobits per second
kBps= kilobytes per second

8bits = 1Byte

@ internet speeds of 512kbps you will see download speeds of around 60kBps
@ internet speeds of 2Mbps you will see download speeds of 200 kBps

If you are on unlimited plan then you bill is pretty much fixed. You will not be charged for excess download.

Slower speed could be due to noise in the telephone line / attenuation etc. Check the SNR and attenuation levels reported in your modem and complain to BSNL exchange in person that you are not getting the speed. They will check and change the copper telephone wire and it would improve your speeds if that was the culprit.

 

[baijuxavior]

BSNL speed varies from location to location. I'm on a 2mbps night unlimitrd connection. While others get around 200kBps download speed, the maximum I get is 90kBps. I am hardly 400 meter from bsnl exchange. Starting from last week, bsnl connection is unreliable like lots of disconnection and very slow download speed like 2kBps. Contacted customer care today and they said problem has been resolved today.

 

[nandac]

>Starting from last week, bsnl connection is unreliable like lots of disconnection and very >slow download speed like 2kBps. Contacted customer care today and they said problem >has been resolved today.

is this only in your area or all over india?

 

[Ashenden]

I use similar plan ULD900. For the first 8GB of data transfer its at 4Mbps D/U, which translates to an actual speed in the range of 300-370KBps [for me]. Beyond the 8GB usage limit, it is unlimited at 512Kbps, which is again around 50-60KBps download speed in my case.

No extra charges have been billed till date, so no need to worry . Your issue is with the line in from bsnl, you can call their customer care and they can ping your connection and determine the issue

 

[baijuxavior]

>Starting from last week, bsnl connection is unreliable like lots of disconnection and very >slow download speed like 2kBps. Contacted customer care today and they said problem >has been resolved today.

is this only in your area or all over india?

I think it is a problem in my area only. I hope it is resolved now. Need to check torrent speeds tomorrow. I used to download around 2GB per day, but today it was only 800MB:sad:

 

[arnprasad]

I have a 1350 unlimited plan with 4mbps for 35 GB.

It works decently - the most demanding websites are video websites - you tube and other YYY ones - I see minimal buffering on these - meaning I get very good speeds.

the other speed hungry process is downloading stuff off torrents - this is where you can see the actual speeds - I routinely get 300-500 kilobytes per sec - meaning I get anywhere from 50-100% of the speed promised by BSNL.

I am extremely satisfied with BSNL - except of course the limited times when I try to contact them - that is when it gets extremely frustating

 

[nandac]

I have a 1350 unlimited plan with 4mbps for 35 GB.

It works decently - the most demanding websites are video websites - you tube and other YYY ones - I see minimal buffering on these - meaning I get very good speeds.

the other speed hungry process is downloading stuff off torrents - this is where you can see the actual speeds - I routinely get 300-500 kilobytes per sec - meaning I get anywhere from 50-100% of the speed promised by BSNL.

I am extremely satisfied with BSNL - except of course the limited times when I try to contact them - that is when it gets extremely frustating

hmm i get an average of 32kbps/sec. i guess we must be talking about different bsnls then!!!

 

[nandac]

actually for the last two hours or so, it is showing 0.0 kbps/sec. hung for some reason - not sure what.

 

[nandac]

internet connection is working fine. but the download is frozen for the last 2 hours or so. does it mean that they have blocked the site or something?

 

[Rgn1]

Are you downloading via torrents?
If so please check if there are enough number of seeds for the file.

Also do check speed once or twice at speedtest.net.

 

[arnprasad]

hmm i get an average of 32kbps/sec. i guess we must be talking about different bsnls then!!!

I am no technophile but I guess they allocate a given bandwidth between few users..so I guess if all of us downloading at once, it is bound to come down.

Also downloading during day time may be slow since they may share their total bandwidth with corporates and government offices.

If you are getting 35 kilobytes per sec = 300 kilobits per sec = 512kbps.

Upgrade to 4mbps and you will get 10times the speed.

 

[nandac]

>please check if there are enough number of seeds for the file.

says : 2 of 2 connected (11 in swarm)

by the time i typed this it changed to 1 of 2 connected.

what does that mean?

 

[echo77]

check your speed - Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

btw bsnl has been quite slow for me this afternoon

 

[arnprasad]

I have used internet across the world including airtel and bsnl in India...no where is it uniform all the time..if we get anywhere from 50%+ of the promised speed we should feel lucky.

 

[Rgn1]

>please check if there are enough number of seeds for the file.

says : 2 of 2 connected (11 in swarm)

by the time i typed this it changed to 1 of 2 connected.

what does that mean?

Looks like there are only 2 seeds for the file that you are trying to download. i.e. there are only 2 persons sharing the file. They may have imposed restrictions on their upload rates and hence you see the very slow speeds of download. As suggested in the above post, do check your speed at speedtest.net which will give you a better idea of the bandwidth that is available to you with a non torrent download and with that you can identify if the problem is with your ISP connection or with the torrent itself.

I am no technophile but I guess they allocate a given bandwidth between few users..so I guess if all of us downloading at once, it is bound to come down.

If I remember right I think BSNL has higher contention ratio of 1:50, i.e. same line is shared with 50 people in the hope that not all people are simultaneously using theirs. But then that is not guaranteed and hence the use of the phrase "upto X Mbps". I believe some other provider have contention ratios of 1:4 which pretty much gives you near promised bandwidths.
I have been using BSNL for the past few years and have been getting excellent bandwidths till now.

 

[nandac]

i tried downloading another file and it is going quite fast. but the first one is still hanging. not sure what's happening with that.

 

[baijuxavior]

your first torrent has not enough seeders to get a good download speed. Always download torrents with high seeders and lower peers.

 

[venkatcr]

Is there an issue with BSNL connection? When I try to access Gmail, I am getting blocked. I tried Mail.in.com, and I am having the same issue. Something is afoot.

Cheers