How Can I Find Out my Internet Package Speed

Ladywriter1968

I have seen adverts where it says: compare broad band speeds. Speed 14MB or 20MB etc. I have done a speed test on my pc and it came up with this below.


Detailed Results
Date 21/04/12 23:46:29
Download speed 3165.28 Kbps (3.09 Mbps)
Upload speed 342.36 Kbps (0.33 Mbps)
Server Port 8095 (tcp)


But it still does not tell me exactly the MB of mine as on the adverts which offer various speeds. Unless there is a way of working this out from my report above.

sickofusernames

You won't find download speeds of 14 or 20MB what you're seeing are adverts for 14 or 20 Mbps download speeds.

Mista_C

The 14MB or 20MB you mention is supposed to be 14Mbps or 20Mbps (Megabits Per Second). ISPs cause a lot of confusion to people who are fimilar with filesizes being measured in Megabytes (MB).

In your case your line speed would be the 3.09Mbps. Don't rely on a single test though as the results can be deceptive. Run a series of tests at different times over several days as the results can be affected by a number of factors including, number of hops (the amount of 'junctions' between your router and the test server), number of people currently connected to the test server, contention ratio (the number of people connected to your 'pipe'. It's unlikely, as a home user, you'll have a dedicated line and you'll share a main 'pipe' with other customers connected to the same exchange).

There are other factors to consider but if you run a number of tests at varying times of the day over say a week you should be able to get a rough idea of your average line speed from that.

ETA: To get an idea of how fast your average file download should be (the one you see in your browsers download manager) you would normal divide your line speed by 10. So if your line speed is 10Mbps then, in perfect conditions, you could expect a download speed of 1Mbps.

robmar0se

Mista_C wrote: »

The 14MB or 20MB you mention is supposed to be 14Mbps or 20Mbps (Megabits Per Second). ISPs cause a lot of confusion to people who are fimilar with filesizes being measured in Megabytes (MB).

In your case your line speed would be the 3.09Mbps. Don't rely on a single test though as the results can be deceptive. Run a series of tests at different times over several days as the results can be affected by a number of factors including, number of hops (the amount of 'junctions' between your router and the test server), number of people currently connected to the test server, contention ratio (the number of people connected to your 'pipe'. It's unlikely, as a home user, you'll have a dedicated line and you'll share a main 'pipe' with other customers connected to the same exchange).

There are other factors to consider but if you run a number of tests at varying times of the day over say a week you should be able to get a rough idea of your average line speed from that.

ETA: To get an idea of how fast your average file download should be (the one you see in your browsers download manager) you would normal divide your line speed by 10. So if your line speed is 10Mbps then, in perfect conditions, you could expect a download speed of 1Mbps.

I agree with most of this but don't quite understand yr addendum.

If the OP's current download speed is 3.1mbps, then I would guess that he/she is on a 8mbps adsl service, and maybe some way from the exchange (on copper circuits, speed drops the further way one is from the exchange). For example, I am 800m from my exchange, and get between 6-7mbps. There can be other factors, but these are the most common.

Speeds higher than 8mbps requires fibre circuits which are, i believe, only available in some Urban areas.

GunJack

robmar0se wrote: »

I agree with most of this but don't quite understand yr addendum.

If the OP's current download speed is 3.1mbps, then I would guess that he/she is on a 8mbps adsl service, and maybe some way from the exchange (on copper circuits, speed drops the further way one is from the exchange). For example, I am 800m from my exchange, and get between 6-7mbps. There can be other factors, but these are the most common.

Speeds higher than 8mbps requires fibre circuits which are, i believe, only available in some Urban areas.

rob, sorry to have to disagree with you there. Some points:-

1. current speedtest of 3.1 Meg means the OP could be on an UpTo 8 Meg, or Up To 20 Meg, or Up To 24 Meg service. The main limiting factor for copper-based bb is the distance from the exchange and therefore the line attenuation in dB. So, whichever of these packages they're on, ALL will give the same d/l speeds once you are far enough from the exchange. Try banging in some different attenuation figures in here to see what I mean
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

and the graph here shows typical ADSL attenuation/speed rates
http://www.internode.on.net/residential/adsl_broadband/easy_broadband/performance/

2. If you're only 800m from your exchange, either you're on a Capped 8Meg service, still on ADSL not ADSL2+, or your exchange hasn't been upgraded to 21CN yet (i.e. up to 24 Meg on ADSL2+) and you're not on a LLU line (i.e. still on a BT-based phone line). Or, there's a line problem and/or an internal wiring & equipment problem that's limiting you to 6-7Meg. For exapmle, I'm on a 49dB line, which equates to around 3.4km, and I sync at 7300 kb/sec, or 7.2 Megabits/sec

3. ADSL1 (or dslMAX, or just ADSL - all are slightly different names for the same type of ADSL service) is only capable of 8 Meg due to the frequencies used to transmit the signals. ADSL2+ introduces a wider range of frequencies, so can go faster - up to 24 Meg if your line's short enough - on a COPPER LINE. No fibre required ADSL2+ is the type of modulation used by LLU providers (TT,Sky, etc) and BT's 21CN.

4. Where Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) is able to bring the higher speeds (i.e. the 40 Meg, 50 Meg, 80 Meg) it is done by "cheating" if you like - simply, the fibre link terminates not in the phone exchange, but in the local PCP (the green cabinets on the side of the road which, under this setup, effectively contain the DSLAM or MSAN equipment that, under a copper line bb service, is housed in the phone exchange. So, the distance of copper from your house to the PCP is usually very short (<1km) so your line doesn't degrade the signal much, and hence if the fibre pipe from the exchange to your PCP is capable of supplying you with 40Meg, you're going to get quite close to that speed at home, as not much is going to be lost on the final few hundred metres of copper.

5. MistaC's estimate and explaination o actual d/l speed is spot-on. For example, I sync at 7300 MegaBITS/sec, and I can actually download data at 780 KiloBYTES/sec. 1024 bits per byte, so divide 7300Mbits by roughly 1000 = 730ish and overheads, so this is about right (it's a bit more complex than that, but it's good enough for estimating )

Not trying to preach at all, just trying to spread a bit of understanding

edit:- almost forgot to answer the OP Call your ISP, they'll tell you exactly what package you're on

callistris

Blimey:eek:

You're awake this morning GunJack, a very informative post for this time in the morning, and on a Sunday:)

GunJack

callistris wrote: »

Blimey:eek:

You're awake this morning GunJack, a very informative post for this time in the morning, and on a Sunday:)

Unfortunately have been awake for some time....but just now I'm putting off starting the ironing :eek:

robmar0se

GunJack wrote: »

rob, sorry to have to disagree with you there. Some points:-

edit:- almost forgot to answer the OP Call your ISP, they'll tell you exactly what package you're on

Morning - No problem I don't see your post as disagreeing just more fullsome, of course technically you are correct!

As I said, I was just guessing at what the OP has (and for me my exchange is not adsl2 enabled!). Its just that I find that typically if the OP has a speed of 3.1mbps it is because either their exchange is not adsl2 enabled or they are on a 8mbps capped package - as I said my guess it is the former. Hopefully the OP will come back and tell us what their ISP tells them, and what their max is??

Figment

It also depends which speed checker you use, as the results vary greatly.

Checking a few just now I've achieved download speeds of between 12 and 57 Mbps, and upload speed of between 0.7 and 2.8 Mbps

Naf

The OP's confusion, as above, is caused by the terminology used.
We're all used to seeing our PC tell us that our photos are around 1-2 Mega-Bytes
Our music is around 3-5 Mega-Bytes
And a movie will take up around 700 Mega-Bytes.
So when we take up an Internet connection advertised as 20Meg per second we expect to be able to download that whole movie in 700/20=3.5 seconds.
The issue is that our PC's MB (Mega-Byte) is eight times that Meg (short for Mega-Bit) advertised by ISPs. In addition, it doesn't take into account that the overall advertised speed does not clearly tell you what proportion of the line is used for overheads, or the % split for Upload/Download.
Your PC's Mega-Byte means 1000 bytes, where 1 byte equals 8 Bits.
Your ISP's Mega-Bit means 1000 Bits - it takes 8 of those to make a Byte.
So when you see (less often now, admittedly) adverts for 8Meg Internet, what they are actually saying is 8 Mega-Bit, equal to 1 Mega-Byte, not all of which is actually available download speed due to transport overheads and division into up and down stream traffic.
Then there's the fact that all of these are advertised as 'up to' a certain figure. This means that you could have a line capable of 12Meg maximum, but still be paying for an 'up to 20M' package. I've heard of people paying for a 20M line, but only achieving 6M or so. The ISP doesn't bother to let them know they could be paying for something cheaper and still getting exactly the same service.

Chances are, with those results, you're already getting the maximum capability of your line (although as above, do check at different times of the day/week as it can vary a lot depending on other factors across the network) so there would be no point in you paying for a service offering 'up to 20M' because you'd still only be getting the same 4(ish)M on your line.
Do any ISPs still offer 8M packages?

robmar0se

Naf wrote: »

Do any ISPs still offer 8M packages?

You're joking of course? You maybe right on cable though. The large proportion of BT exchanges are still plain old vanilla adsl.