Why is my email so slow?

[ProDave]

We have "end of line" copper broadband, that achieves a download speed of about 3MBPS that if I am understanding it correctly is 3 million bits per second.

So allowing for stop, start and parity bits, and an 8 bit byte, that would probably equate to a download speed of about 250Kbytes per second. Is that a fair estimate.

This slow broadband is capable of streaming live tv and all normal web browsing okay.

So please tell me why I have just waited a painful half an hour for my email do download a 2.1Mb document? By the above calculation, that should have taken about 10 seconds. There is clearly some huge gap between theory and practice.

Also, recently I tried to send a load of photographs totalling 20Mb. It failed after half an hour and the only way I could get it to send was one picture attached to each email and 12 separate emails. Even than a couple of them failed and had to be re sent.

Clearly my email system is not working very well.

[joe90]

50 minutes ago, ProDave said:

We have "end of line" copper broadband,

ha, I think I have the other end of that long long copper broadband (opposite end of the country for those that don’t know), my Email and various stuff slows right down at times for no apparent reason, I just put it down to “country living”.

[jack]

54 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Also, recently I tried to send a load of photographs totalling 20Mb. It failed after half an hour and the only way I could get it to send was one picture attached to each email and 12 separate emails. Even than a couple of them failed and had to be re sent.

 

I can't explain the download speed issue, but the "A" in ADSL stands for "asymmetric", and refers to the fact that download and upload speeds are different. You're likely to be getting far less than 3MBPS upload. What does a broadband speed test give you for an upload speed?

[Bramco]

In some situations, ISPs will have a fair share policy, so if everyone on that bit of the network is trying to do lots at the same time, your connection may be throttled back.

 

And I think some email systems have time outs built in, so if your connection has a hiccup for whatever reason, the server or your local email may time out.  I have more trouble with large emails not working than with downloads etc. and we're on the original Virgin Media cable at 60Mb download and about 5Mb upload speeds.

 

And in your case, it could just be a few crows resting on the wire making it sag   ?

 

Simon

 

PS Have you tried using a 4G connection on your phone - or are you that far away from civilisation that the phone signal is also weak.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Bramco

[SteamyTea]

Try sending it using your phone as a wireless hotspot.

That should show if it is the email provider or the ISP who has problems.

[ProDave]

Yes our upload speed is a lot slower so I can understand taking longer to send.

 

Is there an equivalent to speedtest for emails to actually measure the speed we get.

 

The ISP is BT standard copper broadband but the emails are those linked to my domain names and the email hosting service of the doman name host, connected using IMAP and thunderbird mail.  Is the IMAP protocol very inefficient and could explain the slow speed?  Or should I be raising a complaint with my domain host about the poor email service?

 

I was trying to establish with a 3MBPS internet download speed and IMAP how long it should take to download a 2.1Mb document via email?

[Temp]

Sometimes the email server at an ISP goes slow. Ours seems to go slower the more times you ask your email program to check for new messages. So if someone tells you they have just sent you a large message don't sit there hitting the check email button wait 5 min until it's more likely to have arrived at the server.

 

Next time while you wait hit up fast.com and see what it says about your broadband speed  at that moment.