[X4U] Ssssllllooooowwww download speeds from Apple

[Doug McNutt]

At 15:52 +1000 9/23/12, Conlon Brett wrote:
>I'm curious what others are getting speed-wyse when downloading stuff from the Apple servers.
>
>My MBPro is connected wirelessly to a Time Capsule that has a cable connection to the internet and according to www.speedtest.com, I'm getting around 21Mbps av. download.
>
>When I download files from apple (eg. iTunes 10.7) I'm getting download speeds of around 50Kps.
>
>A number of years ago I remember I was getting downloads in the order of MBps but haven't seen that for a LOOOONG time. Everything of late seems to take forever to download from them, for me at least.
>
>I'm sure it's due to Apple's surging popularity and especially the recent iOS6 release but I thought I'd see how others are faring.

And your cable provider is . . . . .

Cable bandwidth is limited and shared.  That coaxial cable is not like individual fibers to each home. When users ask too much all at once the cable provider has little choice other than to deliberately limit throughput by throttling back high speed users. It's a bit like getting more automobiles into the tunnel using a timed entry controlled by a traffic light. Slowing down traffic from Apple might also be considered a wise choice when discrimination  is deemed the only way to be "fair".

The wide open net  is impossible when natural bandwidth limits get into the way. Higher charges for preferred treatment is a solution but right now that's politically impossible.

How is your speed late at night?

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