Broadband Tuner

According to the Broadband Tuner page, it changes three system parameters and installs a uninstaller (which I imagine resets the system parameters to what they were before and removes any stray files) and a file that will reset the variables each time you restart.

This leads me to believe that there is no program that is running, only system variables which have been updated. I don't think a restart is necessary or they would have mentioned it. So if you do not see any improvement, it is likely that you won't later.

Installed the broadband tuner, it feels fast, but from my SysStat widget I see no difference.
But then, the widget may only give the speed to my airport station 640 Mb up, 1140 down, not from the adsl modem.

how do you actually measure the speed?

Where is the uninstaller?

Matt

Thanks!

Matt

I installed the broadband tuner and did not notice any change. When I restarted my computer I got a kernel panic and it froze. It says I have to restart o push the power button to restart. Did it and waited for some minutes and it restarted but froze a soon as I started looking for the download to uninstall it. Any sugestions? I have a 12´powerbook with a 840 G4 I think (One of the early models) with 10.4.3 and 640 of RAM I don´t remember well.

william, unlikely this was the only problem. Start from your Mac OS dvd (start up while pressing C and run disk utility.

Start up takes several minutes this way, be patient

William,

the settings involved can all be changed 'on the fly', and once the script is run, the changes will take affect. Depending on the quality of connection from your ISP, you may not see any noticeable effect at all.

..k

My typical download rate from a fast server (Apple is one) used to be right around 600 kb/sec.

After installing the tuner I got..... 600 kb/sec

A high latency connection would be a satellite link, the up and back path to the satellite is about 1/4 sec. There are few links that have both high latency and very high data rates. I doubt that many folks will see any improvement with these network settings tuned.

- gws

Thank you Sijmons it worked. I'm ok now and uninstalled broadband tuner.

I am using Verizon's EVDO 3G cell data connection with a Kyocera 650. Download improved by about 25% at max speed - from 80 kbytes/sec to 100 kbytes/sec. This is comparing the same cell site, same server, same files.

There is still a problem on my system that locks up the card with sustained, highspeed throughput. Verizon is waiting for an update from SmithMicro. Normally, I throttle bulk downloads to 60 kbytes/sec using download manager to avoid the issue.

Note that this is high latency, but slower than the speed range quoted. And the Kyocera looks like a modem to the system. Go figure...

I have a Verizon FIOS connection at home (fiber optic to the home, 15 Mbps down / 3Mbps up), and since Apple's description of the Broadband Tuner app specifically mentions FIOS connections, I thought I'd try it. However, FIOS is not a high latency connection -- ping times on FIOS are under 10Ms to on-net servers and no more than 40ms to any good server on a tier-1 connection.

Tested with Verizon's on-net speed test server: http://infospeed.verizon.net/fttp

Safari 2.0.2 / Empty cache before each run (speeds in kbps)
BEFORE Installing BB Tuner
Three runs: 147843 / 156862 / 155172

AFTER Installing BB Tuner
Three runs: 156862 / 156182 / 155171

So, no difference. I'm un-installing. If BB Tuner does what it says, it is NOT for FIOS connections, since they have a very LOW latency (which is what you'd expect from an all-optical PON).

Later,

Mike