Why Do Some Downloads Take Longer Than Others To Complete?
Posted by Ross Mann on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 11:46 AM
FilesDirect is all about moving big files around the net. Our users have an easy time putting big files right into the hands of the people who need them - customers, clients, or colleagues.
But sometimes, the same file can take a different length of time for one user to download than for another. Why is that?
The reason is not everybody has the same sized connection to the internet. Some homes and offices have DSL connections or even dial-up (although this is rare these days). Other offices have cable modem connections, which are themselves of differing speeds depending on how much money the company pays for the service. Beyond cable, some offices and campuses have fiber connections to the internet, which provides the fastest of all service - and the fastest download speeds.
The geographical location matters too. Some continents, such as Africa, have few fiber connections at all, relying mainly on DSL. Other places, such as Japan, have fiber to the home roughly as common as cable to the home is in most of the US.
That's why some file downloads take longer than others - even if the files are of the same size. The pipeline between one point and another can slow things up.