While watching the news the other day my wife was very upset when a story came on about people paying for certain Internet speeds and not getting what they paid for. Since I was in the business of selling Internet to customers years ago I know a lot about what happens to the data as it crosses the wire. The simple truth is, you will never get the speeds you are paying for. WHAT! WHY?
My wife tried to compare Internet speed to buying meat at the store, you ask for two pounds and you get two pounds. Better yet when you get home there is still two pounds in the package. Here is another she brought up. If she stops for gas and puts in ten gallons of gas when she leaves the station she has ten gallons of gas. So she asks why should the Internet be any different?
In the last two examples we have no variations in the trans port. There are no outside forces. Here is an example. If we asked someone to buy the meat for us and on the way to your house they eat even a few slices you will end up with less then two pounds that you paid for.
Now on to the Internet. The Internet provider that you pay are selling you a certain speed of Internet. In this example let’s say you pay for 5 MBPS. The provider sets up their equipment to send you a total of 5 MBPS. When it leaves their offices it travels over the hills and through the woods on some sort of wire. If you live in a lot of places those wires have not been changed out since the telephone was invented. Every time the data or Internet traffic hits rust or corrosion on a phone line the speed takes a hit and slows down a bit. Now when it enters your house it hits a break out box and slows down a little more. If you are like many people today, you have a wireless router in your house to share your Internet with all family members. Again this is another point where the Internet will lose a little more speed. By the time the connection which started off as 5 MBPS hits your devices in your house it might be 3 MBPS. And if you are living out in the country you might be at a greater loss. If you only have DSL available to you, your provider might only be able to offer 1.5 MBPS because of the distance from the office to your house. Let’s face the facts. When phone lines were first installed no one ever knew there would be something called Internet to travel across the wire. One day maybe we will all be lucky and have fiber optics put in to replace all of the old copper. But even with that the speed will be better but you will still lose a little speed as it makes it’s way to your house.