How are upload and download speeds related, and why are they different?

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I could be wrong here, but I think you misinterpreted the OP's question.

I think what the OP wanted to know is this: let's assume your download speeds are 12 Mbps and your upload speeds are 2 Mbps. Why would someone purchase a more expensive plan that gives them faster download speeds if the server they're downloading from still is limited to an upload of 2 Mbps?

Mike -- The upload /download speed of your service has no bearing on the upload speed of your end server.

you are in effect correct though that a 12 Mbps connection against a server capable of only uploading 2Mbps is just as effective as a 20 Mbps on your side against the same server /site.

The biggest reason to upgrade service is for multitasking as the majority of servers are limited in their upload speeds.

--zig

I believe DAF made a car that could go as fast backwards as forwards (it used rubber belts so it had the same no of fwd/reverse gears), and the Austin Allegro had better aerodynamics backward than forward. Of course, Italian tanks go faster backwards than forwards ;-)

Where the upload speed hurts the most is using a video web cam.

Download and upload are somehow related based on my knowledge reading over the internet. if your upload is high, your download speed slows. Server capacity is not really a problem if you want a faster download. All you have to do is to make sure that the seeder and leecher are almost the same like 50/50. There are some downloader that you have choices if you want to upload file while you are downloading it or not.

As Mike points out, the question seems to be one of "how is the remote server's upload speed affecting my download speed" and "if the remote server is bandwidth limited for its upload, doesn't that limit my download". The answer is that the remote server is likely not connected to "the internet" via the same bandwidth limited connect as your client machine is. Most servers are sitting on high bandwidth connections to the internet, often far in excess of 100Mb. Their connection speeds (up and down) are completely unrelated to your connection speeds. The net bandwidth that you have to any one server will be affected by factors which include: the server's bandwidth, the client's bandwidth, the load in all of "the pipes & switches" between the two, and even things like the distance between the two and how well tuned the software is on each of the two... its a complex equation.

One unmentioned large reason for asymetric bandwidth for many client's connections is... well... to prevent them from becoming effective servers. Your ISP can control via such knobs how much data you put on the net, and thus their costs. Likewise, the can employ technologies such as "caching proxies" to provide the client with an copy of a commonly fetched web page without even visiting the server (or just asking the server to validate the proxie's cache with a low cost transaction really ;-). Taken to the extreme, this is (in essense) the whole idea behind technologies such as Akamai's (a whole business built on this ;-).

I read you article but that does not help me. I am not at your level. Maybe you can help. I use a Verison aircard to connect to internet. I bought a VoIP phone but could not use it. Upload speeds were to slow. How can I get faster upload speeds. When I call tech help, they go DAHHHH, I don't know what you are talking about. My cousin has the same phone in Calif. and the same air card and his works fine even in my house here in Alabama. Why?

Can anyone explain this phenomenon?
i have uploading speeds of 25kbps
but downloads around 22-26kbps
it relly is annoying me
and above all it is not a peer to peer download and also the server that i downloaded wasn't busy.
so i suspect my ISP has to do something wid this?

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