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[Duke_Of_URL]

Originally Posted by Warren01

Would would be the cause of this? I can pretty much see the tower from my house, it is about 5 miles away.

To note, speed tests shouldn't be taken for gospel... there are a significant number of factors that affect them, and network connection speeds in general, particularly over a wireless network. Many times I've seen two tests run back to back and on the second test seen speeds dropping to a third or going up by twice or more.

[Warren01]

Originally Posted by Duke_Of_URL

To note, speed tests shouldn't be taken for gospel... there are a significant number of factors that affect them, and network connection speeds in general, particularly over a wireless network. Many times I've seen two tests run back to back and on the second test seen speeds dropping to a third or going up by twice or more.

Agreed, but in the same breath I know my connection is slow when it takes longer to do everything, even takes 5 seconds sometimes to load google homepage.

[Lifeguard]

Originally Posted by Warren01

Agreed, but in the same breath I know my connection is slow when it takes longer to do everything, even takes 5 seconds sometimes to load google homepage.

Here's a thought, are you sure that you don't have major issues with spyware, malware, virus's registry problems. I've seen lot's of occasions were people thought their internet connection had gotten really slow, but after a scanning for virus's, malware spyware and registry errors they were amazed how fast it was again.

Also an older machine can cause troubles, especially if there are a lot of programs running in the background (if you're not using them, close them, they are just sucking up bandwidth and system resources.) Might be that your pc can't keep up to the internet, however I doubt it in your case with what you've told me.

[Duke_Of_URL]

Originally Posted by Warren01

Agreed, but in the same breath I know my connection is slow when it takes longer to do everything, even takes 5 seconds sometimes to load google homepage.

Fair enough bud. Here's a question for you - when you are loading pages do they stay blank for several seconds and then the entire page loads quickly or do they start to load (some text, maybe a picture) and then the rest comes slowly?

[Warren01]

Originally Posted by Lifeguard

Here's a thought, are you sure that you don't have major issues with spyware, malware, virus's registry problems. I've seen lot's of occasions were people thought their internet connection had gotten really slow, but after a scanning for virus's, malware spyware and registry errors they were amazed how fast it was again.

Also an older machine can cause troubles, especially if there are a lot of programs running in the background (if you're not using them, close them, they are just sucking up bandwidth and system resources.) Might be that your pc can't keep up to the internet, however I doubt it in your case with what you've told me.

Originally Posted by Duke_Of_URL

Fair enough bud. Here's a question for you - when you are loading pages do they stay blank for several seconds and then the entire page loads quickly or do they start to load (some text, maybe a picture) and then the rest comes slowly?

For sure thanks for the feedback, pretty certain it is just a slow connection. I am running a Macbook Pro (should be less prone to the issues outlined) and I use multiple internet connections per day (couple office, etc) where everything works excellent. Not to mention that the apple TV takes time to download everything you want to watch vs where we just moved from we had DSL and everything was instant with no download time required.
The DSL where we just moved from would test out at around 4-5mbps.

I know what you are describing Duke, seems they just load slow all the way across, and if you try watch a video its stop and go..

[Warren01]

Here is what I am getting on the Iphone from the office today, same cell tower but -86db for signal

[Duke_Of_URL]

Originally Posted by Warren01

I know what you are describing Duke, seems they just load slow all the way across, and if you try watch a video its stop and go..

If it's slow right across that does indeed sound like a speed issue rather than what else I was thinking.

It's difficult to say how your experience will be at your particular location without actually trying it, however if your speeds through the phone are slow it would suggest that other devices utilizing the same network would also provide slow speeds. The devices can handle data speeds faster than what the network is delivering. For example my MTS Blackberry I tried watching a 53 minute video on YouTube in the city and in many places it will do exactly as you describe... periodically stop and buffer, then continue and repeat, whereas when I'm out at the cabin I watched the same 53 minute video straight through without one stop and buffer.

Your problem as Lifeguard said clearly isn't a signal strength issue if you're reporting -76 dbm, but signal strength and network speed aren't mutually exclusive. I'd say client density on the tower is the more likely culprit and would agree with Lifeguard that perhaps a call to your provider is in order. I wouldn't mention speed tests to them however, just how the device performs in general. You can pretty much guarantee they have a canned explanation for why speed tests are unreliable. :)