Bigger Bytes, Bigger Packets?

Question

I have a 500+ kbps connection to a local ISP. But I noticed that response and loading time were really slow when visiting a website. I've called support/technical but they say that the reasons was because of traffic but when I looked at My Local Area Connection icon at the taskbar, I saw that small packets were being sent and received.

Answer 1

500 kbps, That's it? I have 100 mbps.

Are you on a wired or wireless connection?

Answer 2

Someone said they have a 100Mbps connection -- that would of course be to their LAN, not to their ISP.  Even if you have a wireless LAN,  your local network speed is probably many times faster than your ISP connection, and is not the issue.

For comparison, 768Kbps/1.5Mbps/3Mbps/6Mbps ("Basic"/"Standard"/"Pro"/"Elite") internet service speeds are available as tiers of service/price from ATT Yahoo DSL.  Broadband streaming video is typically at 500Kbps.

Also, a byte is 8 bits (by definition).  There is no such thing as a "bigger byte."

Those things out of the way...

You are able to adjust the packet size.  It might make a difference, or it might not (the default values are usually fine).

If you want to try changing the packet size:

In the link below, the best answer (not written by me!) links to a YouTube video that shows how to do this (it also gives the URL of a Microsoft Knowledge Base article which explains the settings in detail).  If you are using Internet Explorer, this involves editing the Windows Registry, which can mess up your computer if you don't do it right.  Be careful.

On the other hand, the slow response and page loads might really be due to temporary (let's hope) high traffic!