abh!shek

Hi, please calculate my broadband speed (in kbps) if it takes 8hrs to download 700MB iso.

Also tell me the difference between kbps and KB/s. My ISP tells me the speed in kbps but my download manager displays in KB/s so I'm confused with it and I think I'm not getting the speed I should get.

Thanks for the help.

SlyMaelstrom

b = bit
B = byte

There are 8 bits to one byte. There for 800kbps (or 800kb/s) is the same as 100KB/s. So, since your time measurment is a factor of 8... if it take 8 hours to download N kilobytes, then it takes 1 hour to download N kilobits. The rest of the math you should be able to handle yourself.

...or you can just take the easy route and http://www.speedtest.net to get a significantly more accurate measurement.

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indigo0086

speedtest.net

abh!shek

So do I calculate speed like this 700*100*8/(8*3600) ? But 19 kbps is very less....ISP says 256 kbps....are they fooling me?

abh!shek

I know that and I have no problem with the speed of my browser, I can surf at good speed, but my downloads are f slow. I think they are throttling my downloads.

SlyMaelstrom

You can't expect to download a file at your maximum speed... especially if you're downloading Peer to Peer. Consider that every P2P download is being uploaded by the other peer. Also consider that upload speeds are consistently much lower than download speeds. As for websites... their websites have a limited bandwidth... if many users are downloading at the same time, generally you will only get a limited amount of speed. Your download speeds are usually restricted by the speed of the server you are downloading from, not by your connection.

...anyway, a MB is not 100 times a KB, it's 1024 times... so the proper formula would be:

800*1024*8/8*3600 = 227.5kbps

Now... considering that I have a 15Mbps (with a 30Mbps burst) connection... I'm sure I wouldn't get much better speed than that downloading off of the same server at the same time.

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abh!shek

What is a burst..? Can it make my connection faster? And is there anyway to bypass my ISP's throttle-filter to get more speed without letting him know?

SlyMaelstrom

The burst that I am referring to is just an option offered by my ISP. It basically doubles your connection speed for the first N megabytes of a download. The only reason I mention this is because if you were to look at the "speedtest" in my signature, you'll notice that it's going at about 24mb/s. Secondly, I already showed you that you're downloading nearly at your maximum potential. I can't imagine there is any legal way to increase your download speed without paying more that is legal.

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abh!shek

aaaaaw.....your speed is like 100 times more than mine

Mario F.

Since we are on the subject, I'm often asked what's my connection speed when configuring software or using some web services. Usually I'm asking to pick from a list looking something like the following (concerning ADSL only): DSL 256Kb, DSL 512Kb, DSL 1.2Mb, DSL 2Mb

Basically, I am being asked about my download speed, right?

And... another thing that confuses me with ADSL is that since this type of connection doesn't suffer from the same problem as cable modems in which their speed gets slowed as new modems are added to a node, why is that my ISP announces my connection is 12Mb when all my speed tests never go higher than 500Kb download and 200Kb upload?

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Originally Posted by brewbuck:
Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

brewbuck

Lots of broadband providers are starting to throttle P2P data rates. Some of them are even admitting that they do it.

abh!shek

But I think you can get around it easily by encryption. Many torrent clients support encryption.

abachler

They dont actually look at the data you are passing, just the hostname of the other end of the connection, if its another dynamic IP then they throttle. Encryption wont change the hostname.

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Until you can build a working general purpose reprogrammable computer out of basic components from radio shack, you are not fit to call yourself a programmer in my presence. This is cwhizard, signing off.

SlyMaelstrom

I'm not embarrassed to say that I spend a healthy sum of money (and time) on my internet connection. However, the US is not too expensive compared to some other countries. Right now, I believe my household tosses about $58/month for our connection.

Maybe if I get a big raise at work I can afford the $150 50Mbps connection that Comcast will be offering soon.

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abh!shek

.....and I will sell my arms and legs