Online eye is a small, easy to use TCP/IP protocol monitor which can be used to see your exact throughput on both incoming and outgoing data - whether you're using a modem, cable modem, DSL, or even local network! It doesn't just stop there, it lets you see how quickly your data goes fromyour computer to another computer on the internet; it even will tell you how manyother computers your data must go through to get there! But wait - there's more!
A zoomable and printable graph shows time and speed history, allowing you to see what Internet activity took place when you were away from the computer.
The active taskbar icon graphs the current speed. A networkmonitor shows every internetactivity of your DSL connection and let you unmask all spys !
DSL and cable modems are fast, much faster than dialup modems, if you havn't used the internet over a DSL or cable line before, then they are faster than you've imagined them to be.. but are they as fast as the ISP or Telco is telling you they are?
How are broadband lines sold?
DSL lines, following the tradition of 56k and previous modems, are sold in kilobits per second. They are sold by naming two speed quantities.. download speed and upload speed. The ISP will put more emphasis on download speed, sometimes not even mentioning upload speed at all as if that side of the equation is inconsequential to you, when in fact, upload speed can be a critical part of the performance puzzle.
The typical speed quote comes as a three and sometimes four digit number, often with the same or a smaller number alongside it. This is a kilobit per second speed rating. Another way is to express speed as mbits.
How do DSL kilobits per second translate to speed?
Browsers and other file transfer agents tend to show speed in terms of kilobytes per second, usually with one or two decimal
places..
Thus, you may see your browser report a "Transfer rate:" being "XX KB/Sec", (along with the flying paper graphic as displayed to the right. Audio and video playing applications tend to report the data rates needed or used, in terms of kilobits.Aside: Browsers sometimes use this estimated transfer rate to predict the total time a download is going to take. (For some reason, transfer rates displayed by browsers are rarely accurate .. in this example, the transfer rate displayed of 194KB/sec was not correct - data can buffer up before the timers are started, and this causes exaggerated readings, especially when only part of the download has yet been received).
So.. bytes and bits? I just divide by 8 then?
DSL Speed
Maximum VisibleTransfer rate
256k
~28KB/sec
384k
~42KB/sec
640k
~69KB/sec
768k
~83KB/secNot so fast!
Communications equipment vendors like to think in terms of low level ATM data rates without regard to the structure or content of the data.. ATM is a protocol for transferring data between two points. Internet uses ip as the protocol for communicating, therefore, and in particular, tcp/ip. So your data is going over your DSL line via tcp/ip over ATM.TCP has an overhead in transmission that can be as low as 3%, but ATM overhead is more like 10% .. So you can expect to lose 13% of your purchased speed at least when counting application data transfer rate. Making up a rule of thumb here
