Broadband Connection Question

[Sole]

Hello everyone, I have a question about broadband, its kind of a general question so if its too vague im sorry, but I just recently got a broadband connection so this may just be common knowledge for many.

When I look at my router settings it says the incoming/outgoing speed is 1984/512, now I know im probably dreaming that I would actually get this much bandwidth, but when I pull up the connection moniter in the router settings it appears as if my router is really using all/most this bandwidth, and I don't really understand where its all going or what the deal is.

I do have a small home network set up, but only about three of the computers are actually on at any given moment, and between all of them on the network I can only manage to pull around 200 kb/s, which, given that I just moved from somewhere where I could only get 28.8 dial up, its phenomenal, but why not get more if I can. There is nothing running in the background on any of them that would take up bandwidth (except windows and avg), which I know doesn't consume 1300 kb/s of bandwidth. I believe my deal with AT&T gives 1.5 mb/s, so why am I getting conflicting numbers all over the place and only getting about 200 kb/s at best?

I figure its something to do with the router, but im unsure as to what it could be, something with the firewall maybe?

Windows XP Pro
2wire 1800HG router
AT&T broadband

I don't see how my cpu specs have anything to do with this considering its the same for every cpu across the network, so I won't list them. Does anyone know what the deal with this could be, or is this just how it is with broadband? If anyone has any tips for me they would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[snowmonkey]

Hey Sole,

Your service with AT&T may be 1.5Meg D /.5 UP ...but where does it say that this speed is a sustained speed? 1.5MB/512KB is as fast as it could be but often the not they are not.....don't mess around with your router of computer....problem is not your end it is your ISP.

I have given up on bandwidth monitoring software (these software calculate LAN and WAN traffic together and that's not what you want)..try the free test on the following site:

http://www.speedtest.net/


Cheers

[Sole]

Even if AT&T is screwing me, i should get more than 200 kb/s though right? i live right next to a college so location should not be a problem. www.speedtest.net said 1300 kb/s and the moniter i was talking about was on my routers ip, regardless, at any one time over the network i get a combined bandwidth of only about 200 kb/s over the whole network, do broadband ISPs really screw their customers this bad?

edit: by the way what do you mean by sustained speed?

[snowmonkey]

ISP bandwidth Throttling is not something new.....it's been there for a long time.....read the article at this URL:
http://news.cnet.com/5208-1034_3-0.h...=16995&start=0

sustain speed is when your Internet speed does not change...it stays the same.

Cheers

[Sole]

That sucks, i agree with the guy that wrote that article, if they advertise something and i pay for it, then i should get it. I don't guess there would be any way around this then other than trying a new ISP?

[Ghermination]

although i'm sure you dont, do you have anything like norton, or a firewall running? It's probably not that, but, you know, just to check...

[Sole]

Just windows OS firewall and the avg firewall, its not an automatic update though if thats what you mean. I am just hoping maybe I can increase my bandwidth somehow to what it should be or even get it somewhat close.