What can I do about a slow shared internet connection?

Possible Duplicate:
Internet connection too slow

I am in a student residence, and the internet acces provided (cablecom / studentcom) is very slow.

Speedtest.net results:

ping (ms)  download (mbps)  upload (mbps)
112        0.2              fail
60         0.17             fail
59         0.12             fail
60         0.19             0.04

What can I do about that ?

The first and obvious thing to do is warn the society, but this has already been done.

An other possibility is to get a smartphone, and use it as an wifi acces point. But that's expansive, and most of the phone providers don't allow it.

I wonder if there are some software that can diagnose network and help troubleshooting. I also wonder if they are software to soak up more bandwith like orbit, but for the whole browser (not just only downloads).

Benjamin Crouzier

Posted 2011-10-06T21:58:23.163

Reputation: 4 288

possible duplicate of Internet connection too slow and/or What tools could help me figure-out what is wrong with my internet connection?

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-10-06T23:05:15.830

Answers

If you can't upgrade your connection then you can optimize the bandwidth usage, something like an old PC can be installed as a linux proxy server/router, that can allow for:

The proxy server (squid) will store locally frequently visit websites and images, that can reduce your bandwidth needs and gives you the effect of a fast connection.
The router/firewall functions in Linux allows you to limit traffic in a more balanced way so the bandwidth available is distributed fairly between all users.
If possible, you can block some services and types of traffic so the bandwidth is used on really important things.

Best regards,

jhcaiced

Posted 2011-10-06T21:58:23.163

Reputation: 1 488

1Good answer. Blocking certain types of traffic, such as Netflix videos or BitTorrent files, can go a long way towards freeing up the precious bandwidth. Though it'll also go a long way towards pissing off all your dorm mates. – music2myear – 2011-10-06T22:25:08.517

In your second bullet, the router/firewall has to affect all students, not just me, I guess. So I cannot set up this kind of router unfortunately. – Benjamin Crouzier – 2011-10-06T22:50:37.483

Connection must be managed. Except chaching-proxy you can think about additional HW, which can implement QoS, traffic priority, and (for same bandwidth) give interactive traffic some more freedom and speed. Anyway, find local good network-admin

Lazy Badger

Posted 2011-10-06T21:58:23.163

Reputation: 3 557