[CLUE-Tech] ISP Bandwidth Brokering

[Ed Young]

Do ISPs portion dialup bandwidth out to different users depending on what
services the user happens to be using?
Or to different process depending on what service or protocol is being used?

I'm wondering because I'm downloading some rpm's using two different methods
and each has a vastly different download speed.
I'm downloading the two rpm's both from ftp.rpmfind.net and from the same
directory.
One download process is running ncftp and is reportedly coming down at 1K/sec
The other one is a netscape download coming down at 4.2 K/sec (I don't know
what protocol it's using but presume http. Is there a way to tell? )

I started the ncftp download and began to see drasticly erratic status on my
kppp histogram. I'd never seen that when downloding using Netscape so I began
another download of another file using Netscape and saw the kppp statistics go
up and become steady at around 5K/sec. The ncftp process continued at it's slow
pace and the netscape continued at it's faster pace. Occasionaly the activity
drops off completely or some reason.

Anyone have knowlege of this stuff?