What causes my signal problem?

Sounds like your computer is loaded to the max. when was the last time you cleared out all the cookies?

Try speedtest.net and let us know your results.

(after your results are displayed, you should see a button titled “Copy Direct Link”. Hit that, then come back here and Ctrl-V (or ⌘-V on a Mac) to paste the result.)

Like this: http://www.speedtest.net/result/858074135.png

You never get the same speed uploading as you do downloading. 500KB/s is pretty typical. Do you have a lot of BHOs running on your computer? Those are things like toolbars, instant messengers, weather information, that kind of thing? All of those can hog bandwidth and slow down your connection. Have you tried using another browser, like FireFox or Google Chrome? And do you have a continuously running antivirus on your system? Those are bandwidth and CPU hogs too.

@john65pennington I think I’ve done nothing about the cookies. I don’t even know if there’s a way to clean it.

@robmandu That is such a good site! here’s my result: http://www.speedtest.net/result/858084352.png

@IchtheosaurusRex Yes,have those thing in my computer. I’m currently using Firefox(but sometime I use internet explorer,but it’s slower) and I don’t occasionally run my antivirus program but I let it to active.

Wow. My results hitting the same test server as you, from over 10,000 miles away, were actually better than yours.

BTW, what OS are you running? Have you looked at your task manager to troubleshoot?

Assuming your PC isn’t saturated with malware and viruses (nods @IchtheosaurusRex), the problem might be out of your control. It could be a systemic problem with your ISP‘s network.

Have you contacted your service provider? And what is the bandwidth they sell you? What technology is your internet connection based on? DSL? Cable TV? Fiber Optic?

Finally, for residential service, it’s not unusual (at least in the US) for the ISP to only allow uploads to run at a fraction of the speed of downloads. That might explain the discrepancy between your up and down rates. The question that remains is why they are both so low?

@Doctor_D go to tools at the top of the page and click on internet options and give it a good cleaning!

More then likely your upstream bandwidth is no more then 768 kbps… You will need to get a higher tier package if you want faster upload times.

You really shouldn’t have any issues with doing anything else while uploading something unless you are just really saturating both your downstream & upstream pipe.

You should check your machine for malware. Also are you connected VIA wireless? You maybe catching interference from your house phone if you’re on wireless. Bad wireless signal will make your internet connection run like crap. Try to connect directly with ethernet and rerun your speedtest.

First off, I also managed better from that server on my 1024/384 DSL line through my laptop’s wifi about 30 feet from my router (strong signal).

I agree with @DVSAZN that testing it with a direct connection if you are using wifi; interference and/or weak signals can do bad things. However, the disparity between the upload and download speeds is something that I find odd. I would expect a connection with that sort of download speed to at least have an upload speed that was better than dial-up! At that download speed, I would expect the same upload speed I have; about five times what you have.

Unfortunately, since sending a page request requires uploading that request, your connection will suffer overall, especially if you load multiple pages at a time since that involves multiple requests. (I’m not talking about just multiple tabs open at one time: I am talking loading multiple pages simultaneously).

Another thing is that if you are running any sort of P2P file sharing, your connection will go to shit in a hurry. Whenever my roommate is torrenting, it clogs the upload side of my connection so bad that page requests from my computer time out; it effectively cuts me off even if he is not actively uploading because of the way the P2P programs work. Even uploading an e-mail attachment pretty much shuts me down from surfing momentarily despite having an upload speed five times faster than yours.

@jerv Totally agree… If you are running any P2P you will saturate your upload bandwidth in a hurry… Especially if you don’t throttle down the allowed upload bandwidth…

Just fyi, the test results I posted earlier were from my office with a (slo-o-o-o-ow fractional ISDN) commercial connection to the internet.

To illustrate the difference between upload and download speeds for a residential connection (typical to the US), here’s my result from home.