Internet Speed not being what's advertised?

[Cyanide]

Hello.

Ever since I got my new internet service on Sept. 4th 2012, I've been getting low bit rates for my laptop. On speed test.net it would say average to high speeds like where it should be at, but when I actually download something it's not nearly anything like it.

If you look at the attached file I just tested this speed. It looks very high correct? Well, when I download it's pretty much 1/10 that speed. Like 100 KBS and lower.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? I'm planning on calling my ISP the second time this month.

 

[MRValiant]

Try this one. More or less the line is being saturated.


MegaPath Speed Test Plus | Test Your Broadband Quality & Speed

 

[MilesAhead]

If your download software is telling you the download speed is 100 KB/s that's roughly equivalent to 1 Mb/s (with a small 'b'.)

Megabit per second speed you divide by 10 to get a rule of thumb for the expected MegaByte per second speed. 1/10 MegaByte a second is around 100 KB/s.

I don't see the discrepancy.

Also those online meters can register a bit high because of the short term nature of the test. The download speed is still surging or bursting before the test is over. More reliable indication is start a binary news reader download of a large file, like GB size. Watch the speed indicator. It should stabilize after the "surge" or "burst" subsides to give you a better idea.

 

[Cyanide]

There you go.

 

[Cyanide]

If your download software is telling you the download speed is 100 KB/s that's roughly equivalent to 1 Mb/s (with a small 'b'.)

Megabit per second speed you divide by 10 to get a rule of thumb for the expected MegaByte per second speed. 1/10 MegaByte a second is around 100 KB/s.

I don[t see the discrepancy.

Uhm, 1000kbs = 1MB. I was told to get 900Kbs - 1.2MBS, but i'm only recieving 100KBS and less.

 

[MilesAhead]

If your download software is telling you the download speed is 100 KB/s that's roughly equivalent to 1 Mb/s (with a small 'b'.)

Megabit per second speed you divide by 10 to get a rule of thumb for the expected MegaByte per second speed. 1/10 MegaByte a second is around 100 KB/s.

I don[t see the discrepancy.

Uhm, 1000kbs = 1MB. I was told to get 900Kbs - 1.2MBS, but i'm only recieving 100KBS and less.

The picture you posted shows 1.05 Mega bit per second download speed correct? (Note the "Mbps" in the green.) That's roughly 100 KiloBytes per second(actually it's 125 but I divide by 10 for "rule of thumb" see my first post. It's a quick ball park idea what to expect. ) If that's not what was promised it's another matter. 1.05 Mbps is not a MegaByte a second.

I've been on internet since 1993. I think I know what Mbps is. Read your first post over again. I think you are arguing about what you thought you wrote. Not what you really posted.

At any rate, all you can do from here is run a TCP/IP optimizer in case your system settings are totally whacked. Other than that, call your ISP. What can we do here?

I've had good luck with this one:
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Brush up on the basics man. You are mixing bits and bytes.

 

[Cyanide]

I'm not arguing what you know about the internet, because seeing as I am asking your help you are smarter than I am. I just misunderstood what you are trying to say.

What my ISP promised me was that I'd have 1.05 Mbps Download speed. I'm only getting around 100Kbps, which is 1/10 the speed that I was promised by my ISP.

And how do I know if all my settings are okay or not?

 

[tommyg562000]

According to your speedtest screen shot you are getting correct download speeds. I see no problem. 1 megabit per second is approximately 100 kilobytes per second. Don't get your b's confused.

 

[Cyanide]

Isn't the unit up on the screenshot 1 megaBYTE per second?

 

[MilesAhead]

I'm not arguing what you know about the internet, because seeing as I am asking your help you are smarter than I am. I just misunderstood what you are trying to say.

What my ISP promised me was that I'd have 1.05 Mbps Download speed. I'm only getting around 100Kbps, which is 1/10 the speed that I was promised by my ISP.

And how do I know if all my settings are okay or not?

So far I've given 2 suggestions. 1) Measure the speed over a large file download with a binary download news reader.

2) Use the TCP/IP tuner app in the link. You haven't tried either but want to carry this thread on. It's a waste of time.

Make a restore point before you run the TCP/IP tuner in case it gets worse. But I've used that program on XP, Vista and W7 and if the speed didn't go up, it did not go down. It doesn't hurt. Make a restore point just in case though.

Anyone know a nursery rhyme that tells bits from bytes? There must be one. heh heh

:devil:

 

[Cyanide]

I asked before how do I run the tuner? I get the window showing my wifi settings but there isn't anything that says tune it at all..

 

[MilesAhead]

I asked before how do I run the tuner? I get the window showing my wifi settings but there isn't anything that says tune it at all..

If you can't figure out that Gui then perhaps you should leave well enough alone and call your ISP.

I've always done all wired networking. So I'm not the one to help with WiFi.

Good luck with it.

 

[Cyanide]

Seems like I have to call them then.

 

[richnrockville]

FWIW:

bits and bytes are much different. some quote the rate in bits per second and many people are looking at bytes per seconds. This accounts for the 10:1 ratio.

We had the same discussions back in the 300bps modem days when that means 300 bits per second, which translates to about 30 bytes (or characters) per second..


Rich

 

[logicearth]

Conversion calculator for Bits to Bytes: SpeedGuide.net :: Bits/Bytes Calculator
Your Download is messured in BITS that is about 1 Mbps which is about 122 KBps.
Notice uppercase "B" (Byte) and the lowercase "b" (bit). Both screenshots show the speed in bits.

 

[Cyanide]

...

Can you get me a speed test for 1 MegaBYTE? Because I was promised from 900 KiloBYTES to 1.2 MegaBYTES...

 

[logicearth]

I doubt that. All ISPs use bits not bytes. Who is your ISP?

In order to get 1 Megabyte down you would need a 10 megabit connection. If you were to have that kind of connection it would have been labeled as 10 megabit, not 1 megabyte.

 

[Cyanide]

...Something is wrong here..When I set up my internet connection with Verizon I was told to have speeds of 900 Kilobytes to 1.2 Megabytes per second. If the speed test is correct, then is my ISP incorrect?

 

[logicearth]

It was most likely miss-communicated to you.
To be getting 1 MBps you would be spending well over $30/month on it alone.

 

[IPexpress]

The speed of a DSL link is measure in multiples of bits per second, while your file download speeds are measure in multiples of bytes per second. 1 Byte is 8 bits, so if you are getting 1Mbps (bits per second) then that is equivalent to 1,000,000 bits / 8 bits (or one byte) = 125,000 bits per second or 125 Kilobytes. So your 100KBps is not that far off the mark.

If you want to have faster downloads then you would need to upgrade your ADSL. If you wanted 1 Megabyte per second download then you would need a broadband ADSL link of around 8Mbps or greater.