Broadband download speeds

shopbot

I'm new to Broadband. I have a 1.1mps connection however when I download a file it shows the download speed as 123kb/s. This seems low, surely the download speed should be much higher? Please can someone tell me why this is and if there are any ways to get it higher?

Thanks

SB

sco0ter

shopbot wrote:

I'm new to Broadband. I have a 1.1mps connection however when I download a file it shows the download speed as 123kb/s. This seems low, surely the download speed should bemuch higher? Please can someone tell me why this is and if there are any ways to get it higher?

Thanks

SB

That is actually very good for a 1.1Mb connection... nothing wrong with you connection

shopbot

I'm not a techie but does'nt the 1.1 mps mean 1 megabyte per second? If the download is the only thing drawing on the connection should a 12 mb file not take 12 seconds to download?

shahidemran

The download speed depends on different parameters, Some web servers have low bandwidth(slow upload), so even if you have good download connection, you can't get that much.

Joe_Bloggs

Broadband speeds are quoted as bits per second as apposed to bytes. So divide the bit rate by 8 to get the number of bytes per second.
J_B.

wolfman

shopbot wrote:

I'm not a techie but does'nt the 1.1 mps mean 1 megabyte per second? If the download is the only thing drawing on the connection should a 12 mb file not take 12 seconds to download?

No, it's 1 mega bit, not byte per second. All adsl is termed that way.

There are 8 bits in a byte.

So your transfer speed of 123 kilo bytes per second x 8 = 984 kilo bits per second (or 0.984 mega bits pers second)

That's a good speed you have. Basically 1Mbit translates to roughly 120kbps. So 2Mbit is 240kbps, 4Mbit is 480kbps...and so on.

shopbot

Thanks all - very helpful! I've learnt something new this a.m

Rex_Mundi

shopbot wrote:

I'm new to Broadband. I have a 1.1mps connection however when I download a file it shows the download speed as 123kb/s. This seems low, surely the download speed should be much higher? Please can someone tell me why this is and if there are any ways to get it higher?

Thanks

SB

Hopefully the speed as it is written here is a typo. The speed as written is 123 kilo bits per second. I'm sure it is meant to read 123kBps (123 kilo bytes per second. If the speed is the first, it would be very slow for your connection. If it is the second one, it is fine.

A bit is represented by a small b.
A byte is represented by a capital B.

shopbot

Rex_Mundi wrote:

Hopefully the speed as it is written here is a typo. The speed as written is 123 kilo bits per second. I'm sure it is meant to read 123kBps (123 kilo bytes per second. If the speed is the first, it would be very slow for your connection. If it is the second one, it is fine.

A bit is represented by a small b.
A byte is represented by a capital B.

Thanks. On my Firefox download monitor it reads as 122KB/sec.