How to determine why your downloads are so slow

This article is not in itself a method to cure slow broadband. I am merely going step-by-step through one process which will help you to determine where any bottle-necks occur, using only a Microsoft operating system (XP), no external software.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Windows XP, 2000, or Vista.

1. Ok so your internet has been slow all day and most of the previous day and your ISP isn't doing anything about it.
   lets imagine you keep hitting a website and trying to download but either the browser or the downloads take ages.
   What is the problem
   OK lets pretend its from http://www.bbc.co.uk
2. Click the 'Start Button'
   Click 'Run'
   Type 'cmd' (do not add quotes)
   Press enter
3. A black window should now open up
   Type into this
   tracert bbc.co.uk
   (or the name of any site you are visiting (don't include the http://www. bit))
4. amongst the output will be stuff that looks like this
   6 15 ms 13 ms 42 ms win-bb-b-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com
   7 25 ms 14 ms 37 ms win-bb-a-ge-000-0.inet.ntl.com
   8 19 ms 15 ms 27 ms gfd-bb-b-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com
   9 14 ms 35 ms 17 ms redb-ic-1-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com
   10 18 ms 18 ms 17 ms
   11 40 ms 22 ms 46 ms
   12 26 ms 25 ms 22 ms rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk
   
   You are interested in the numbers next to the letters ms
   In overly simplistic terms, the numbers show the hop took that number of milliseconds to reach from the preceding hop, also the computers named at the end of each line are the servers handling your request for data - you can use this information to conduct other tests which I will illustrate
5. The greater the number, the bigger the problem, generally speaking these numbers should normally be in the range of 15 to 45 higher than 45 may indicate a problem -
6. For a proper analysis of the tracert command visit microsoft.com or google the terms +tracert +analysis

Tips & Warnings

• Please don't assume that just because a site had a higher than 45ms hop time it will be THE single cause of your problems. It needn't be a cause it could be an effect - tracert is merely a tool to help you determine what's going on - experience with using it will help you determine what normal parameters are