The chain is only as strong as the weakest link.
most likely slowdowns:
1) If you're on cable (rather than DSL), you're sharing a local loop through your neighborhood. If you have a lot of neighbors online doing big downloads, your maximum possible speeds drop as well
2) The sending server has a limit as well. If a server is behind a T-1 connection, for example, the fastest it can ever send out is 1.5 MBit. Shared by everyone downloading stuff from that server at that time. Doesn't matter if you have 8 Mbit if the sending party can't keep up
3) Your internet service provider has oversold their backbone, and their uplink to the internet may not be big enough to facilitate your maximum speed at certain (or even most) times of day
You can check out some of these things by trying to download several large files at the same time from different hosts -- do additional downloads slow down your downloads already in progress? If so, then the limiting factor is probably your ISP, local loop, or the ISP's uplink.
If additional downloads don't affect the speed of existing downloads, then most liekly the sending server is the limiting factor.
most likely slowdowns:
1) If you're on cable (rather than DSL), you're sharing a local loop through your neighborhood. If you have a lot of neighbors online doing big downloads, your maximum possible speeds drop as well
2) The sending server has a limit as well. If a server is behind a T-1 connection, for example, the fastest it can ever send out is 1.5 MBit. Shared by everyone downloading stuff from that server at that time. Doesn't matter if you have 8 Mbit if the sending party can't keep up
3) Your internet service provider has oversold their backbone, and their uplink to the internet may not be big enough to facilitate your maximum speed at certain (or even most) times of day
You can check out some of these things by trying to download several large files at the same time from different hosts -- do additional downloads slow down your downloads already in progress? If so, then the limiting factor is probably your ISP, local loop, or the ISP's uplink.
If additional downloads don't affect the speed of existing downloads, then most liekly the sending server is the limiting factor.