Uploading with slow internet connection

There is often a few days where my inet connection is very degraded. Down to something like 24kBytes/sec,  about what the original dial-up connections ran at. I can surf and post, but if I upload a pic it takes about 40-60 seconds which is not a problem, it just chugs along. Until the very end, when it hangs and doesn't complete the "submit".

This looks a whole lot like some kind of time-out issue, maybe something with the handshake between the upload process and the main submit process, but I don't know exactly where. Or it could well be with the lower level site server protocols making the problem less accessible. But since it "almost" works, maybe it's just one setting that could clear the path. We're talking 1MB files here, nothing huge and the progress bar goes steadily to completion but then just hangs there and the "submit" cannot be recovered.

Thanks for any thoughts here.

edit: Aha! Your site does have "awareness" of the connection speed - It notified me that I was uploading this message from a slow connection. So there are some higher level setting available for the site.


Rufus

24kb... yikes!  {{{o-0}}}

How long has the slowness been happening?  These days network settings are supposed to be automatically optimized.  

Is the connection cable or DSL?  

Do you recall if the slowness began after an operating system upgrade to network software/hardware?  

Perhaps a node was upgraded or other work was done recently?  

Are neighbors also experiencing similar slowness?  

Is either the modem or router old, possibly outdated?

Those are my best guesses without being in front of the device.  Hopefully someone with more current knowledge will respond soon :.)

A trick I used to do when internet was slow (on a PC; On mobile, your mileage may vary.):

1) Using firefox, type into the address bar "about:config". Press enter.
2) In the filter, type "timeout".
3) Here comes the guess work: At this point you'll usually see a lot of results that include "timeout". They're usually not all relevant to your problem. Read the titles. On the ones that look potentially relevant, increase the values. (I used to multiply the original values by 4.)

This won't make things fast, but the browser will now wait or "try" four times longer before "giving up". (Timing out.) Bring a book to the computer with you, for the sake of your sanity. Good luck!

Thanks for the thoughts, guys.

Cathine - The inet connection is not the problem, really. I know what's happening there: I run most of my inet through my cell phone because I'm not usually in one place long enough for it to be worth contracting a wired connection; also, I feel the cell phone connection is _much_ safer than any open wifi connections I could connect with. But I didn't realize how much data I'd be using these last weeks and ran over the quota and so my connection speeds have been throttled for the next few days. But the connection is realiable, consistent and secure and _should_ work ok. So far excepting uploading the attached pics to permies, it has.

TM - Thanks for that hint about FF. I'll look-see tonight if I have the energy and see what turns up.


Cheers,
Rufus

Rufus Laggren wrote:But I didn't realize how much data I'd be using these last weeks and ran over the quota and so my connection speeds have been throttled for the next few days.

Did they throttle your phone's data connection to the celular network, or your WIFI hotspot connection to other devices? If it's the second thing, and the phone is android, I know an app that I think will help.

Throttled the cellular data. I try not to use any public wifi networks except for things like updating the google-play apps or getting the op-sys upgrades (though I doubt this phone will get any more of those).

I do use the cell data to provide a local access point for my main internet connection. Looks like I need to to drop another $10er on more data each month. I started this 3 months ago to see if that will work and it seems OK - until I use more than I paid for. <g>


Rufus

Rufus Laggren wrote:Throttled the cellular data. I try not to use any public wifi networks except for things like updating the google-play apps or getting the op-sys upgrades (though I doubt this phone will get any more of those).

I do use the cell data to provide a local access point for my main internet connection. Looks like I need to to drop another $10er on more data each month. I started this 3 months ago to see if that will work and it seems OK - until I use more than I paid for. <g>


Rufus

In that case, the app I have in mind won't help.

We paid for unlimited data, and turned off our home internet. We would just use our phones as WIFI hotspots. What we didn't know was that our WIFI hotspot usage was limited. Fifteen GB per phone per month, then it throttles. I don't understand the justification for this, since my use of MY WIFI radio costs my carrier $0. I still have unlimited data, so they're not saving bandwidth. WIFI is short range, so they're not saving traffic on the tower(s). There's no option to pay them more money and get a higher limit, so it isn't greed.

I found an app called PDANet+ that uses my WIFI radio to create a hotspot. It's always full speed, no throttling. The down sides are:
1) It's not as stable as the "stock" hotspot. I have to reconnect frequently. "Upgrading" to the paid version helped this, but didn't solve it. More details about that, if anyone wants them.
2) It's not a standard hotspot; your phone / tablet / kindle / computer won't automatically know how to connect to it. The app has to be on both devices. (Usually) On one device, you enable the hotspot. On the other, choose "connect to a PDANet hotspot". There's a windows version, so you can connect your computer.

I had thought this might be your situation too. Sounds like it won't help you after all.

You must use a lot of data. Streaming movies?

Anyway, if you're problematic because of maxing out one phone, maybe each person uses their own phone for their own access point (hotspot) use. Load spreading... Name the  connections uniquely, keep from treading on each other's bandwidth.  I only use about 5-6GB/mo even with videos and some manga. But I don't do any streaming from Netflix or such.

Not sure I understand your wifi concept - where's the "wifi radio" come from, how does it connect to the main net?  Got to connect to the big hard pipe somehow. If it's a cell-connected appliance, how does that lift the burden from your cell contract?


Rufus

Rufus Laggren wrote:You must use a lot of data. Streaming movies?

Lots of youtube and remote controling a PC through teamviewer. My wife and kids stream netflix, Disney plus and the like all the time. My oldest son downloads everything he can find to download. Both kids game online, when they can keep a fast connection.

Rufus Laggren wrote:Anyway, if you're problematic because of maxing out one phone, maybe each person uses their own phone for their own access point (hotspot) use. Load spreading... Name the  connections uniquely, keep from treading on each other's bandwidth.  I only use about 5-6GB/mo even with videos and some manga. But I don't do any streaming from Netflix or such.

We've tried that. It worked until we tried to binge-watch a season of Walking Dead on Netflix. (On the TV.) My oldest son has gotten a lot better. Nowadays, some months, when he hits 15GB and gets throttled, it's not the first day of the billing cycle. Sometimes.

Rufus Laggren wrote:Not sure I understand your wifi concept - where's the "wifi radio" come from, how does it connect to the main net?

I just meant the part in your phone or computer that lets it connect to WIFI. That talks both directions. (It can upload & download.)

Rufus Laggren wrote:Got to connect to the big hard pipe somehow. If it's a cell-connected appliance, how does that lift the burden from your cell contract?


Rufus

It still uses my data. (The connection between my phone and the internet.) PDANet+ doesn't relieve that. That's why I no longer think it will help you. We pay for unlimited data, so that's okay for us. Our data connection isn't throttled.

What is limited for us, that PDANet+ does help with, is our WIFI hotspots. (The connection between my phone, which is online, and a device I'd like to have online, like a laptop or tablet.) After a WIFI connected device (or collection of devices) has used 15GB of my hotspot in one month, my WIFI speed gets throttled. THAT hotspot is created and managed by software that came with the phone. Once it throttles, I turn on PDANet and create a new hotspot, using the same hardware, but unthrottled.

> hotspots... throttled...

Weird. Cell company-speak. Glad I'm just a little guy.

Maybe a bit of limitation is a good thing for your kid - there _are_ a few realities out there, need paying attention too!


Cheers,
Rufus

We've got satellite internet, and it gets slowed down after 5gb of usage. Some months, by not watching more than a few youtube videos at the lowest quality, we'd manage to stay in that limit. Then it'd go to dial-up. Permies was often hard to use, and everything took forever to open. This WAS handy at getting past some website's paywalls, because the paywalls often loaded after the text, so once I saw text, I'd stop the page from loading. Now a lot of pages are making that harder.

When the data was throttled like that, I couldn't even stream at 144p quality. It took 2 seconds for 1 second of video to load.

BUT, something happened, and now I can stream at 240p. And that's about the same as when we've got out "faster" internet...which streams at 360p on a good day. I'm happy with these spreads. Having things be a little slow means we don't spend as much time addicted to the internet. But, it's also still functional when we do use it. Dial-up speeds STINK

Speaking of, this thread How to Use Less Data on Satellite Internet--for non-satellite users, too! might be handy.