howdy, just something that i've been wondering about as im a bit of a newb when it comes to this sorta s***.

• Incoming: 14115 kbps
• Outgoing: 939 kbps

That's what my bigpond modem is reporting my speeds are (2071-a). Now, Before we updated our plan it was getting an incoming speed of 7000kb/sec roughly, and speedtest.net reported the same. Now that we're getting a higher incoming speed i would have assumed speedtest would have shown faster than 7000kb/sec now but its still the same.

What i'm wondering is am i being limited by my modem, or am i missing something?. My speeds downloading from gamearena are 860kb/sec roughly. Is this normal?

Thanks.

14115kpbs = 1.764375mb(ytes)/s

You have to divide your bitrate by 8 to get the speed in bytes. I don't know how you're getting 7mb/s on a 14mbps connection though...

Btw, bps = bits per second whereas b/s means bytes per second usually.

Don't worry too much about the speeds you get reported from speedtest.net or any other site based speed tester. The most reliable way to see your maximum is either downloading from your own ISPs file mirror or a known fast one. GA for bigpond is usually a good indication, but not always. Try a decent speed site where you can multithread a download as well, you might need to do that to get the most out of it.

When I was on a nice 24mbit ADSL2+ connection I was usually having to open 15-20 connections (dodgy servers) to newshosting to get any where near my speed limit.

Btw, bps = bits per second whereas b/s means bytes per second usually.

B is byte (mB/s) & b is bit (mb/s). It's also sometimes written as mbyte or mbit as well.

Also he's confused it, he's downloading at 7000kbit/s not 7000kbyte/s.

Concur with reso's post.

B is byte (mB/s) & b is bit (mb/s). It's also sometimes written as mbyte or mbit as well.

millibytes? How did that get there I'm not good with SI units.

This post might sound pedantic but if everyone speaks using different notation, everyone will stay confused and you'll spend more time clearing up prefixes than actually discussing the topic.

Btw, bps = bits per second whereas b/s means bytes per second usually.

B is byte (mB/s) & b is bit (mb/s). It's also sometimes written as mbyte or mbit as well.

³dee is completely wrong and reso is partially right.

1. "ps" and "/s" mean the same thing: "per second". Doesn't matter which you use.
2. Small "b" means bits, big "B" means bytes. Can't use little "b" for both.
3. Small "m" means "milli". You want big "M" for Mega*

Though you've made the observation that "/s" is more often used for byte/sec, that's just a coincidence. It's the big 'B' that actually sets it apart, not the slash. So using small 'b' with a '/s' is wrong for bytes/sec, regardless of the slash.

So 8000Mbps = 8000Mb/s = 1000MBps = 1000MB/s.

(The bold shows the more frequently used versions in comms literature)

(* = let's not get into the Mebi prefix as hardly anyone specifically uses it)

You have to divide your bitrate by 8 to get the speed in bytes.

Usually on home broadband, dividing by 10 gives you a more accurate result that takes into account some of the packet overhead.

/cue silly reply from Jim

last edited by parabol at 09:07:16 14/Aug/08

Thanks for the correction, and also for saying partially right instead of mostly wrong :)

So 8000Mbps = 8000Mb/s = 1000MBps = 1000MB/s.

(The bold shows the more frequently used versions in comms literature)

I've never come across bytes being used in comms literature....and I have a degree in IT majoring in data comms so I have read a little bit on the subject. Not saying you're incorrect....perhaps there is certain specialties in comms that I haven't been exposed to that talk in MB/S....but I know through uni they told us numerous times that in data comms you always talk about bits not bytes...which makes sense as a byte doesn't really hold any relevance to data transmission rates.

hi Coochie
i think you'll find its only users that talk in KB/sec and MB/sec.

i think you'll find its only users that talk in KB/sec and MB/sec.

are you saying what I said was wrong?

I've never come across bytes being used in comms literature....and I have a degree in IT majoring in data comms so I have read a little bit on the subject.

Yeah I'd agree that bit-rate is most often used, but I've seen the occasional bytes/sec thrown in when talking about higher-level things like bulk payload transmission in a specific context (say PC communication), as opposed to low-level signaling rates and specifications. I use bit-rate personally, as there is no ambiguity and the bit is pretty much fundamental to digital comms.

last edited by parabol at 18:19:35 14/Aug/08

'silly' replies where such are due. don't earn one, don't get one