Upload Isp Speeds

[Barquentine]

We are just trying to upload only our second video ever to YouTube. I did one 5 years ago and recall it took a while. This one though is 25 mins long and it says it will take 1,200 minutes to upload. Does anyone know why our ISP is still providing such slow internet speeds? We've had the same provider since 2006. Maybe time we changed.

[hc4361]

How you done a speedcheck to see what your upload speed is?

My download is 150 but my upload is 12 and will never get any faster, according to Virgin. I think its to stop us pirating movies

[Barquentine]

Just did a speedtest. Download is 5.39Mb/sec and upload 27.16 mb/s

is this really slow?

[VHG]

>>Download is 5.39Mb/sec and upload 27.16 mb/s

That sounds wrong, download is always faster than upload, usually MUCH faster.

Try reducing the quality of the video you want to upload to YouTube. The better the quality of the video the larger it will be and the longer it takes to upload.

A 25 minute video will be quite a large file.

[Buenchico]

The 'A' in 'ADSL' stands for 'asymmetric'. In order to get your phone line to work in the best way for most internet use (which involves downloading quite a lot but uploading hardly anything other than 'page requests') the system deliberately allocates over 90% of your line's capacity to downloads, rather to uploads. (For example, I'm currently getting 9.96Mbps for downloads but only 0.96Mbps for uploads: http://www.speedtest.net ).

Further, a 25 minute video (using the high definition that many cameras, phones and tablets now offer) use a massive amount of data. (Perhaps 5Gb if recorded on an iPhone but far more if recorded on an HD camera).

Check your download & upload speeds (using my link above) and see how good they are. Here are some figures (for conventional copper-wired phone lines) for guidance. (I've quoted download speeds. Roughly divide by 10 for the corresponding upload speeds):

The Government's target download speed for all homes is 2Mbps but many rural areas still get less than 1Mbps.

The minimum usable download speed for streaming services (such as Youtube, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, etc) is typically around 2.5Mbps.

Many people (without fibre optic cable services) who live reasonably close to their local telephone exchange get around 3 to 5Mbps as their download speed. (Most people in my street, which is about 2 minutes walk from the exchange get around 5Mbps).

People who get an 'ADSL 2+' service (rather than the usual 'ADSL Max' that BT wholesales) get roughly twice the speeds of their neighbours (on 'ADSL Max'). So, because I pay to have ADSL 2+, I get around 10Mbps.

The fastest download speeds though copper cables tend to be around 12Mbps. (Slightly faster is theoretically possible but, it seems, rarely ever achieved).

See how your speed compares with those figures. If it's broadly in line with them (and preferably near to the upper end) it's unlikely that a different ISP could offer higher speeds unless
(a) they can offer a fire-optic cable service (which would be your best option to achieve a higher speed) ; or
(b) they can upgrade you from 'ADSL Max' to 'ADSL 2+' (which will roughly double your speeds.

[hc4361]

Could that be megabits per second and not megabytes?

[Buenchico]

Your speed figures weren't there when I started typing (while doing several other things at once!).

As VHG suggests, they appear to be the wrong way round! Even so, they don't seem slow (for non-fibre services). If it's your upload speed that's 5.39Mbps then it's about 10 times faster than most 'ADSL Max' lines (and still 5 times faster than 'ADSL 2+'. If your upload speed really is 27.16Mbps, that about 50 times as fast as a standard 'ADSL Max' line!

[Baldric]

just used chris's speedtest
D-load 40.37
U-load 17.29
BT.

[Buenchico]

That's obviously a fibre-optic connection and a fairly good speed. Just how big is the video file?

[Barquentine]

Thanks Buenchico - your speed test link is really helpful - we have 5.86 mbps download and 0.69 mbps upload so that compares reasonably with the figures you gave. My wife is using her laptop to upload. It's a movie she made on moviemaker, with photos, music and some HD video (from a camcorder). After leaving it running overnight, this morning it says 657 mins remaining (56% done)! I don't know how big her file is. I've asked her to check it if and when she gets out of bed! I can't/won't use her computer - it has something called "Windows 8", so I cannot find a thing in it and get hopelessly lost amongst randomly changing windows and illogical menus. If her file is 5Gb that should only take 2 hours at around 0.7 mbps. Can we plug in the yellow internet cable to speed it up midway through?

[Buenchico]

Windows Live Movie Maker is known for creating large files. This might help in future:
http://www.oaultimate.com/computers/reducing-video-file-size-with-microsoft-movie-maker.html

To check a file size you simply need to hover your mouse over its icon. (That should show the basic file information. If it fails to do so, right click on the file ans select 'Properties').

Using an Ethernet cable will produce a (very) slightly faster speed than using a wireless connection as long as the computer is close to the router. The difference would probably be hardly noticeable.

Remember that anything you upload might also be constrained by the download speed of the receiving server. If millions of people are all trying to upload files to Youtube at the same time, Youtube's servers will share out capacity between them, meaning that slower-than-expected upload speeds might be encountered. (i.e. your connection is capable of uploading data at 0.69Mbps but that won't help much if Youtube can only receive it at a slower speed).

[Barquentine]

The file is 2.6Gb so that should only take an hour. It's been uploading for 14 hours and has 10 hours to go! Clearly something wrong somewhere.

[Buenchico]

Try googling 'Youtube upload speed'. There are lots of threads discussing why, say, uploading a video to Youtube takes vastly longer than uploading it to some other sites. Unsurprisingly, many people blame the problem on Youtube limiting the download speed at their end.

However other people suggest that it's a browser problem. I'll leave you to decide whether any of the suggestions offered actually make sense to you!

[Barquentine]

Thanks for everyone's help, especially Buenchico. Nearly 24 hours and now at 76%!!

[Barquentine]

Someone on Radio 4 said average broadband speeds in London are 24Mbps. Did I mishear that? Ours has been stuck at about 6Mbps since 2007!