Hi Ak03. Internet connectivity speeds are not guaranteed. Every ISP will tell their customers and potential customers that in every disclaimer message.

You cannot base your connectivity on one test during one time of day, especially during the late evening hours. You are sharing your bandwidth with every person in your area that has your same ISP.

If you are concerned about your speed, you need to do multiple tests during different time frames. You have one test now. Do another test in the early afternoon. Do another test in the morning. Do another test on a weekend day. The more tests you do, the better equipped you will be to address this issue with your ISP.

ALSO...100mbps is megabits, NOT Megabites...(I believe I spelled it right)....If I am not mistaken, 8 mbs equal 1MB. Therefore, 100mbps is the equivalent of 12MBs per second...but again, this is not guaranteed.

The only way you would have a reading of 100mbps is if you have a wireless connection. Your internet speed is not based on the wireless connection speed. It is based solely on your ISP connection....standard for comcast is 6-12 MBs per sec, but again, that is not guaranteed.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

There is no "problem." For example, I had Comcast's 8MBs per second service. However, I rarely reached that speed. Why? Because I was sharing my bandwidth with everyone around me. The only time I ever got close to that was early morning hours or during times when I was home and the majority of computer users around me were not using their computers.

There is no "problem." Now, if you take several tests and compare that to the service plan you are on now, if the speeds are excessively different, then you can take that information to Comcast.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

Very good points, jbking. If I may add....

PC Pitstop has a great utility that will track how well your connection is at any point and time. They also have an utility that will show you how many hops your ISP uses to get from site to site...and they will show you how long each hop takes.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

No. "Hops" are just like it seems. The amount of times your internet connections "jumps" from one point to another before it reaches its destination.

I will run a test within PC Pitstop to give you an example...be back in a bit.

TEST RESULTS:

Okay, here is a perfect example of about what jbking speaks. I am using my Sprint connection, which is faster than DSL but slower than Cable.

In my test, it took 20 hops to get from my IP address to yahoo.com's IP address. Even though it only takes me a fraction of a section to actually go to that site, there are many different servers that my connection has to navigate successfully.

I cannot display the graph in this window, for security reasons of course, but the suggestions that both jbking and myself have given you will give you more knowledge if and when you decide to speak to Comcast. Trust me, Comcast, or any other ISP, will do the same things that the both of us are suggesting to you. Until then, again, there is no problem.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

• Open Internet Explorer - since you need Active X install for this site, IE would be better

• Go to PC Pitstop's Trace Route Utility

• You will see a both that says "Name or IP." Type in any domain name (without the www)

• Leave everything else alone

• Click "Trace Route"

**The system will trace how many hops it takes to get from one IP address to another**

Once the trace is complete, you will see a graphical report showing how well your internet connection did to get you from one IP address to another. If you see any other color but GREEN, that doesn't mean there is a problem. That just means that it took longer than average to get from one hop to another.

You will see a link that says "Click here for information on interpreting your results." After the test, click on that link to get a summary of what the graph means.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/tracert_results.asp has some information on interpreting the results. The key is to see how well does the data flow through the network as sometimes one can get bottlenecks and experience what is known as "lag" as not everyone's internet connection runs at the top speed 100% of the time.

Regards,
JB

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Home Desktop: VoodooPC Hexx. AMD Athlon FX-60, 2 GB RAM, 2 x 250 GB HD, 7900 GTX video card. Home Laptop: HP dv4000, Pentium M, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, ATi 700 Radeon Mobility

Thanks JB..I already gave him the link and he ran the test. I have the results and will post in a moment.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself