But gonna ask it anyway Sure I already know the answer but can't remember it, and someone at work asked me and I forgot

I have 512k ADSL (pal at work has 10mb - wanker )

So how comes in downloads I seem to be capped at 60kbps? Not just bit-torrent or P2P downloads, even downloading from Microsoft's website (forexample)

I had my guy at work on the phone the other day asking me to talk him through setting up some PC security, so we were on line (me at home, him at home) and both downloaded the AVG set up exe (I wanted to make sure it was the right one)

I was getting 56-61kbps - he was getting well over 500kbps! WTF is that all about?

How is download speed calculated? If I go to a speed test website, they all tell me I am doing between 500 and 600k.....

 

To properly understand it, you need to differentiate between BITS and BYTES, where one BYTE is equal to eight BITS.

The initial speeds you mentioned (your 512Kbps and his 10Mbps) are measures in bits - 512 Kilobits per second, and 10 Megabits per second.

Now, to work this into download speeds, you divide those numbers by 8, to convert into Kilobytes/Megabytes per second.

So, your maximum theoretical download-speed will be 64 Kilobytes per second, his will be 1.2 Megabytes per second (or about 1230 Kilobytes per second).

 

Ahh, I see! I didn't know that (been told it before) but could not remember it! Bytes and bits!

So what would the max download speed be for 2mb connection?

 

Im on 1 meg line and i see up to 120-130kbps from microsoft, same on torrents etc when theres plenty of seeders

P.s you cant be capped for download speed, thats like robbing you of the speed your paying for

 

No I meant capped as in the max speed I can get.....

 

Maximum speed on a 2Mbps link would be, theoretically, 256 KiloBytes (KB) per second......with overheads, etc, you'll normally be looking at anything between 210-240 KB/sec.

 

Thanks Dan

 

Any time!