Return to top. Whether your modem is slow or not may depend on your expectations as well as on hardware and software performance. The ISP's gateway is the funnel sites with widely varying individual speeds. There is wide variability in rates among differing sites. One can often identify sites that are consistently fast in responding and others that are consistently sluggish.
Speed also depends on the Internet network performance.
Several well-known overall network slowdowns have occurred when Internet traffic was unusually high due to unusual news events. The efficiency also varies with the network loading throughout the day. The Internet also assigns a route that passes from computer to computer to connect you with your destination site. This route varies, depending on availability of the intermediate connecting sites. This route variation also contributes to speed variability.