[Q] Low download speed with Internet Connection Sharing?

[win7463]

Anyone test their speeds using Internet Connection Sharing? I did a bandwidth test from the phone and got 8.9 Mbits download and 3.6 Mbits upload. Then I then did a test from my laptop and I got 3.5 Mbits upload but my download would not go above 0.6 Mbits. Anyone else noticed this problem?

 

[vikram.m.mohan]

This is not slow, hsdpa gives 7.2 Mbps speeds only so expected

Sent from my TITAN X310e using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

 

[win7463]

This is not slow, hsdpa gives 7.2 Mbps speeds only so expected

Sent from my TITAN X310e using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

This phone is capable of 14.4 Mbps, not just 7.2 Mbps. My Carrier is capable of 21 Mbps. This was not the issue. The issue was getting over 8 Mbit/s download speeds on the Titan, but when using Internet Connection Sharing the speed would not be greater them 0.6 Mbit/s. This was tested right after the initial test. The upload speed was very similar though.

 

[twisticles]

As is my understanding, you will never achieve the same speeds when using ICS.

When your phone is communicating with the internet, it is dealing with one lot of data being sent and one lot of data being returned.

But when connecting your computer via your phone, your phone has to take that data from your computer, then pass it on. So it is dealing with one lot of data to/from your computer, and another lot of data (the same data!) to/from the internet - So you are doubling the amount of work the phone does. Your phone only has the one radio chip for this data, so it has to alternate between all the incoming and outgoing data.

You get the same slow-down on home wifi networks if you use a wifi repeater.

 

[win7463]

As is my understanding, you will never achieve the same speeds when using ICS.

When your phone is communicating with the internet, it is dealing with one lot of data being sent and one lot of data being returned.

But when connecting your computer via your phone, your phone has to take that data from your computer, then pass it on. So it is dealing with one lot of data to/from your computer, and another lot of data (the same data!) to/from the internet - So you are doubling the amount of work the phone does. Your phone only has the one radio chip for this data, so it has to alternate between all the incoming and outgoing data.

You get the same slow-down on home wifi networks if you use a wifi repeater.

I understand that it will be less, but to go from over 8 Mbits on the phone to 0.6 Mbits on my laptop is more then what one should expect as a penalty for connecting thru the phone.

Even with your example of using a wifi repeater the bandwidth is only halved, and that is because the link is using the same frequency band over both hops. In the case of the phone, Internet Connection Sharing is acting like a home router with the cell frequency side the equivalent of the wan port and the software is providing NAT to clients connected on the 2.4ghz wifi connection side so there is no penalty for using the same frequency band.

As I also stated the upload from the phone and the upload from my laptop are the same, around 3.5 Mbits. What I was asking is if other people have had this same discrepancy when using Internet Connection Sharing. Even if the results from just the phone were ignored, the fact that I only got 0.6 Mbits download vs 3.5 Mbits upload thru the phone tells me something is not working properly.

If anyone is seeing this discrepancy between upload and dowload speeds with Internet Connection Sharing let me know.

 

[drupad2drupad]

I understand that it will be less, but to go from over 8 Mbits on the phone to 0.6 Mbits on my laptop is more then what one should expect as a penalty for connecting thru the phone.

Even with your example of using a wifi repeater the bandwidth is only halved, and that is because the link is using the same frequency band over both hops. In the case of the phone, Internet Connection Sharing is acting like a home router with the cell frequency side the equivalent of the wan port and the software is providing NAT to clients connected on the 2.4ghz wifi connection side so there is no penalty for using the same frequency band.

As I also stated the upload from the phone and the upload from my laptop are the same, around 3.5 Mbits. What I was asking is if other people have had this same discrepancy when using Internet Connection Sharing. Even if the results from just the phone were ignored, the fact that I only got 0.6 Mbits download vs 3.5 Mbits upload thru the phone tells me something is not working properly.

If anyone is seeing this discrepancy between upload and dowload speeds with Internet Connection Sharing let me know.

Have tried same SIM different phone? Different SIM same phone?
It could well be your provider!