Hi

Im really new to broadband so I have a question.

I have recently signed up for a 512kb service, however when I download say a bike or car clip the reported speed is only about 60kb/sec.

Is there something wrong?

Also, when i connect to the broadband service it is treating it as dialup.

If you got to network connections it is listed in ' Dial up connections' rather than what i expected in 'LAN or high-speed internet'.

I followed the setup procedure as described by the company exactly.

Im using windows XP SP2 in case this helps.

Any help anybody??

Thanks
Brett

 

sounds fine to me.

 

Really? How come such ordinary looking download data rates? Or was I expecting too much?

cheers

 

50-60k/sec is about write for 512BB I’ve got a meg line and I get about 125k/sec maxxed out. Remember dial up download speed is only like 5k/sec

 

60k is fine, go to www.ADSLguide.org.uk to see how you compare.

Regards,

 

Thanks Tim.

Maybe this is where I was confused. I was sure that I was getting about 50-60 kb/sec on my old dial up...perhaps not then! Only a factor of 10 out!

Is it normal that windows is treating it as dial up though. A friend of mine has got a different broadband service and I'm sure his is listed in the 'LAN or high-speed internet' section?

thanks guys

 

no actually that all depends on the modema and drivers mines is in the dial up as well

 

I think you're mixing kilobits and kilobytes. Your Broadband line will be 512 kilobits/second. As there are 8 bits in a byte, 8*60 kilobytes - 480 kilobits/second which is pretty good for a 512 line.

Another thing to remember is that the speed of the server at the other end - or at least the speed of their connection - and how many other people are downloading at the same time will make a difference to your speed, so you won't always see speeds of 60KB/s.

 

And also to com eout of the 512Kb/s is any transmission protocol overhead, resent data, etc, so as douglasb says, 60KB/s is pretty good.

John.

 

Is your broadband modem a USB jobby??? That maybe why it’s treated as a dial up connection. My mates free serve USB modem had to dial up, but when he got a router he never had to dial up again because the router kept the connection open all the time and his internet connection was shown as "LAN or high-speed internet" because it was connected by the RJ45 network port than rather than the USB port.

 

Thanks guys. Appreciate all your explantions and help.

Yes, i was confused concerning the bytes 'v' bits thing. thanks.
Tim: Yes its a USB connection. So all is fine.

Cheers

 

Just tried the website that new scooby 04 recommended.


DIRECTION ACTUAL SPEED TRUE SPEED
Downstream 467 Kbps (58.4 KB/sec) 504 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 243 Kbps (30.4 KB/sec) 262 Kbps (inc. overheads)

Hope does this compare with you guys? My service is a 512kb.

 

Thats spot on.

 

Cheers

 

i got these and im on NTLWorld 750

Downstream 697 Kbps (87.1 KB/sec) 752 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 121 Kbps (15.1 KB/sec) 130 Kbps (inc. overheads)

which is pretty spot on (although notice the crap upload through NTL Grrrr!!!)

Mark

p.s. when you where on dial up you would have connected at something like 50000bps, this is bits per second.
Divide this by 1000 (or 1024 to be really accurate) to get kilobits per second (50 Kbps) and then divide by 8 to get kilobytes per second = 6.25 KB/sec (although with over heads this would more than like be around 5 KB/sec)

 

Thanks Mark.

 

Just for 'reference', a 1 megaBYTE download should be at the following speed and take the following amount of time (actual speed will vary but it gives you a rough indication, some of the connection is for uploading but I'll ignore for now as it can be variable). Also don't forget that the computer you are downloading FROM may have a slow connection as well as the network from there to you. This can slow things down too.

256kbps - 32k a sec - 31 secs to download a 1 megabyte file
512kbps - 64k a sec - 16 secs to download a 1 megabyte file
1mbps - 128k a sec - 8 secs to download a 1 megabyte file
2mbps - 256k a sec - 4 secs to download a 1 megabyte file

As previously stated files on your PC will be measures in BYTES (and kilobytes, megabytes etc.) whereas network/connection speeds are quoted in BITS (kilobits, megabits etc.) There's 8 bits for 1 byte. The media and it industry confuse things for the public as the bit/byte words are often omitted, hence the 1 meg file and 1 meg connection being treated ambiguously.

 

Thanks Dracoro. Maybe Im not such a divvy after all!

 

Don't use Wanadoo then - this is what I get on a supposed 1Mb line:

Downstream 93 Kbps (11.6 KB/sec) 100 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 233 Kbps (29.1 KB/sec) 251 Kbps (inc. overheads)

2 minutes to download a 1Mb file!

Admittedly it is slower than usual tonight, but it has never been as fast as my old BT Broadband 512 connection

Going to have a look at the help guide on the ADSLGuide.org website to try to work out what downstream / upstream are.....

 

Took me about 10 secs to download a 1m file on wanadoo tonight. So far, always quick speeds.

 

Here's mine on AOL 1MB

Downstream 728 Kbps (91.0 KB/sec) 786 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 233 Kbps (29.1 KB/sec) 251 Kbps (inc. overheads)

 

How much do you guys think the spec of the PC influences transfer rates?
I mean there must be a bottle neck somewhere....ie Processor...you are the weakest link goodbye!

 

PC spec doesnt affect transfer IMHO. Me and my mate are both on Pipex 512K broadband. I've got a 3 year old 1Gig pentium 3, hes got a new ish 3gig pentium 4. There is no noticeable difference in transfer rates.

 

PC's tend to be faster than network and i/o by a long way. Things that 'slow' down computing tends to be moving 1's and 0's from one place to another. The slowest part of your computer will be the network part. As an example you plug two computers together (say via ethernet cards, many are 100mbs which is a lot quicker than your BB) and a 1 meg file will copy over very quickly.

Things that may slow down your downloads will be stuff like anti-virus stuff scanning/checking over what you are downloading before it 'lets you have it'.

The processer will be the strongest link

 

Thanks. I just wondered.

 

If you're bored, try a few tests. Like copy a 1 meg file on your hdd to another hdd and see how long it takes. Check CD/DVD speeds too. Graphics cards etc. It will really highlight how far last mile networks need to come. I'm waiting for 100m BB connection speeds It's the 'last mile' that's the bottleneck (the bit from your local exchange to your house). Anyway, it's a big topic so I'll stop. btw - I used to work for a telco that does these massive cross country/city/metro links and some of the technology is amazing. In effect the speed you can get data down a fibre cable is actually infinite (in principle), you just need to get the hardware up to the job. It's all to do with infinite colours in the light spectrum

 

Downstream 1521 Kbps (190.1 KB/sec) 1642 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 240 Kbps (30.0 KB/sec) 259 Kbps (inc. overheads)


Heres mine.

 

Right on the button for mine.

Downstream 1852 Kbps (231.5 KB/sec) 2000 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 245 Kbps (30.6 KB/sec) 264 Kbps (inc. overheads)

Another sly recommedation for Plusnet.

Andy

 

My Wanadoo 1mbps connection (which as you can see is running faster than 1mbps! )

Direction Actual Speed True Speed (estimated)
Downstream 944 Kbps (118.0 KB/sec) 1019 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 143 Kbps (17.9 KB/sec) 154 Kbps (inc. overheads)

 

My Pipex 1mb is also usually spot on with speeds. My old 512kb was not as near to true speeds.

Just tested at:
Downstream 926 Kbps (115.8 KB/sec) 1000 Kbps (inc. overheads)
Upstream 242 Kbps (30.3 KB/sec) 261 Kbps (inc. overheads)