Different Internet Upload and Download speeds?

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I was trying to figure out how to become my own server and really become part of the internet. My question is. . . if I do manage to figure out how to become a server/web host on the net, Why are the upload and download speeds so different?

Im asking because if I am the server and I have a few hundred or even a few thousand clients/users- how will I be uploading my forum/website to the users at speeds of much less then the download rate?

For example my AT&T internet now, has download speeds starting at 1.5MB but upload speeds of much less. Is there anywhere I can read up on this?
 
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Cost and what not. However, I don't know what type of service you have or what you're trying to run, but I doubt you'll be allowed to have a web server. If you start racking up too much bandwidth, they might charge you for a higher service. Also, some ISP's block port 80 to prevent people from having web servers.

If you wish to make your own website, do so on some paid server. Trust me, it's the best option in the long run.
 
I have never heard of an ISP actually blocking ports, but what I have heard them do is kill your bandwidth so you still have service, but it just sucks and then they will ask you nicely to take down your server. I once set up a pop smtp server once to see how it works and downloaded a script to send and receive massive amounts of mail to see how much stress it would take. My ISP thought I had some killer virus, and then they called me and told me they were going to shut down my service until I took care of the virus. I told them it was an email server and they said for me to take it down immediately.

Typcially your ISP wants to you run business class broadband to be able to host anything major. However, most of them let you host your own minor sites as longs it doesn't get huge. Or they will alot a certain amount of bandwidth and if someone tries to access your site and you are out, you get 404 and 500 errors trying to access it. This happens a lot when personal websites get killed from digg.com.

Do note with cable internet your download may be 1.5 to 8 megabits/second, but your upload is usually capped at like 50k/second which is asinine slow to host a web page. They configure that way on purpose, unless you upgrade to business class. For example, I have time warner 3.0mb connection, and my upload speed is capped at about 65k/second, I know this because I see it cap in my bittorrent client all the time.
 
How to get around the status quo?

It seems like the big corporations have made it especially difficult to become a webserver? The only thing I can imagine is having my own satellite system on the clarke belt, and having people aim at it like Dish TV.


To The Other One:
How do you determine what ones bandwith is? and What is port 80? But I dont think that its better in the long run to just subscribe to some other server. In the short run, yeah, but in the long run, if 10,000 people wanted to contribute $500 each, they could own and operate a satellite for internet in space, charge a better price for the equipment/subscription than the only 1 or 2 other options available and no one would pay more than they have to.

To tlarkin: I still dont understand this. If I am the server, and someone wants to download, say 1MB of data, it will take the 20 Seconds to upload from me, plus the 0.5 seconds to download from them(assuming they have 2MB/sec download rates). So how can that be? How would I or anyone else download Mb's upon Mb's, if it takes that long to upload from the server? Correct me if Im wrong, but everytime a server/search engine has to provide results for whatever someone is searching for, the server/engine has to "upload" it first , before you or I can "download" it? The upload speeds of the server/search engines would have to be at least into the MB's, not 50 or 60kbs. If so, why is it so difficult to get an upload speed like that, if you're not Time Warner or AT&T?
 
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okay this is how it works. For a crude example lets say you have 10 people downloading something from you, all different various things.

10 @ 50kbps roughly means that each user is going to get an awesome download speed of 5kps from you. And that is only if there connection is good from your point to theirs since the info is going over the internet.

A client can only download as fast as its host can upload.
 
Why so slow?

So what is the fastest upload speed I can get? without launching my own telecom satellite, yet?

If what you say is true, "A client can only download as fast as its host can upload", then all the millions of servers that comprise the internet must have access to very fast "upload" internet speeds. I read on wikipedia that the internet is just millions of servers, so how can they have fast internet "upload" speeds and others cant? I find it hard to believe that there could be more than a few dozen telecom satellites in space, transmitting the billions and trillions of bytes of data being transmitted every second via the internet? I really want to create my own server, so I dont understand why some can have fast upload speeds and others cant. I think if you have a satellite dish antenna and the proper know-how, you should be able to communicate equally as fast "uploading" as you do "downloading". It must just be a check from the big companies to prevent any competition, or any server from growing faster than google or yahoo would like to have a competitor. Please let me know at least what speeds I can achieve to become my own server, i.e. what is the fastest upload speed I can get?
 
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you are forced to purchase buisness class broadband, which is more expensive and removes the upload cap and gives you more overall bandwidth. Considering some hosting costs, it is better to pay someone else to host it IMO.

Trust me, my bittorrent client maxes out at like 50 to 60k upload and I have a 3.0 megabit connection.
 
Mostly every residential service, as tlarkin said, will have caps on certain protocols. Packeteer, a name that P2P users cringe at, is one of the more popular companies that offer packet shaping products. However, packet shaping is a fancy way of saying QoS (Quality of Service). I hyperlinked to the wiki about QoS since it is a vast topic to cover in one post. Many ISPs will "inflict" QoS rules on their residential users since many of the things you should and shouldn't do with your connection are spelled out in very small font in the TOS and if they're not there, then you can't say much because you're only a residential user.
 
If you are running AT&T ADSL (asynchronous) then at optimum conditions you will get 1.5 Mbps downstream and 384 kbps upstream. A 384 kbps upload speed is equiv. to 48 KB/s which is nowhere near what most modern webservers can transfer data at. Just for some reference info, I just ran a bandwidth tester and my connection gets 2.2 MB/s upstream and 3.48 MB/s downstream. :) The fact that I can attain much higher upload speeds than dsl is due to the fact that my apartment came equiped with an RJ-45 jack right in my room, and a 100 mb/s LAN along with it. In my opinion, the speeds offered are not sufficient for a heavy home user of the internet. Luckily, Bright House now offers 15 mb/s Roadrunner service. At least in Tampa, FL they do...
 
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