I don't put much stock in regular speed tests. For me, a speed test is "what's my steam download rate?" For a long time, it would cap out at about 650 kB/sec, which is respectable (since that's kilobytes, so it's around 5 megabits) given how far I am from the access point.
This afternoon, I discovered that I could set up my service to use a static IP, rather than dynamic. I figured this would be handy if I need to access my computer from away - going to set up VNC or something.
Changing to a static IP increased my steam download rate to around 950 kB/sec. This is sustained. It has been about an hour or so, running solid. Yesterday, it was running solid at the lower rate (I have a brand-new computer and am installing a lot of queued games, which is how I noticed this stuff).
So: I don't know if it's a side-effect or what, but I figure it was worth raising this interesting point: going from the dynamic IP service to the static IP service but keeping everything else the same increased my download speed by 50%. Woof. Pretty neat.
This afternoon, I discovered that I could set up my service to use a static IP, rather than dynamic. I figured this would be handy if I need to access my computer from away - going to set up VNC or something.
Changing to a static IP increased my steam download rate to around 950 kB/sec. This is sustained. It has been about an hour or so, running solid. Yesterday, it was running solid at the lower rate (I have a brand-new computer and am installing a lot of queued games, which is how I noticed this stuff).
So: I don't know if it's a side-effect or what, but I figure it was worth raising this interesting point: going from the dynamic IP service to the static IP service but keeping everything else the same increased my download speed by 50%. Woof. Pretty neat.