20mb internet, what should be my upload and download speed?

[ah786]

Hi everyone

I have the 20mb internet, and i just wanted to know what my upload and download speed should be?

What do other people on 20mbs get?

Thanks

[deathtrap3000]

768kbps

[homealone]

:welcome:

have a look here

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=33641481

[ah786]

my download speed is excellent, but my upload speed is only 90kbps which is crap.

[chickendippers]

I suspect you mean 90KB/s. As I understand it that is very different from 768kbps.

[ah786]

yeah sorry thats what i ment. its a joke. althought i do more downloading then uploading, anyway to tweak the modem to get more?

[Kymmy]

If your download is 90KB then that's roughly correct as that equals 720Kb...

There's nothing you can do to tweak the modem..

[*sloman*]

look at my 20mb

Download Failed (1) (http://www.speed.io)

[nutellajunkie]

wish my upload was so "crap" LOL

[Northeast_user]

look at my 20mb

Download Failed (1) (http://www.speed.io)

If you're new to it you will have to do a bit of tweaking to get what you want. Also call 151 and make sure you are on the correct UBR

http://www.virginmedia.com/help/20mb-broadband-optimisation.php

[General Maximus]

which modem have you got northeast? I used to have those stats as well because i didnt realise i had to swap my old Terayon modem and I remained on 10mbit down although my upload speed increased. If you never get above 1mb/sec you should have it swapped for the ambit 250 and then you'll be able to pull your full 20mbit.

[Northeast_user]

which modem have you got northeast? I used to have those stats as well because i didnt realise i had to swap my old Terayon modem and I remained on 10mbit down although my upload speed increased. If you never get above 1mb/sec you should have it swapped for the ambit 250 and then you'll be able to pull your full 20mbit.


I was given the 250 after a few phone calls. I'm a cable and wireless customer so they left us behind for a while.

[chamelion]

http://speed.io/pics/1505/8041/speed.io.png

thats me.

[Rik]

http://speed.io/pics/1507/3759/speed.io.png (http://www.speed.io)

Heres me ;)

[Ignitionnet]

Bit congested here at this time of day unfortunately.

http://speed.io/pics/1507/4850/speed.io.png

EDIT: Here's the uncongested version, 10 mins later:

http://speed.io/pics/1507/4991/speed.io.png

[blade85]

on a 10 meg connection

http://speed.io/pics/1518/2212/speed.io.png

[bigsinky]

my download in belfast with a maxed out connection is 2.2 - 2.3 Megabytes per second, my upload speed is maxed out at about 75 - 80 Kb per second

[Raitei]

http://speed.io/pics/1518/8757/speed.io.png

but im torrenting at the moment, so its not completely accurate

[PowerUser]

Erm, Not sure how accurate that test is, But I was getting 5600 kb/s before I used that tuneup advice on the virgin link, Now I get this on my 20MBit..

http://speed.io/pics/1519/0929/speed.io.png (http://www.speed.io)

---------- Post added at 17:14 ---------- Previous post was at 17:11 ----------

Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I tried it again

http://speed.io/pics/1519/1083/speed.io.png (http://www.speed.io)

And again
http://speed.io/pics/1519/1168/speed.io.png (http://www.speed.io)
Must be wrong surely

[General Maximus]

yup, there is no way your modem should let you download that fast. I am going to try it just to make sure :)

[suggsy]

Hi, sorry if its been posted already, (please be patient to a newbie), but i am with bt broadband (up to 8mg), live within 1/2 mile of the exchange, i am thinking of moving to virgin on the 20 mg if you guys think its worth it, i already have virgin tv and landline phone, here is my speedtest results on bt, is it a good speed? Thanks in advance.:
Thu, 1 Jan 2009 14:28:24 UTC Test 1: 1024K took 3229 ms = 317.1 KB/sec, approx 2613 Kbps, 2.55 Mbps Test 2: 1024K took 2480 ms = 412.9 KB/sec, approx 3402 Kbps, 3.32 Mbps Test 3: 1024K took 2231 ms = 459 KB/sec, approx 3782 Kbps, 3.69 Mbps Test 4: 2048K took 10982 ms = 186.5 KB/sec, approx 1537 Kbps, 1.5 Mbps Overall Average Speed = approx 2834 Kbps, 2.76 Mbps

---------- Post added at 16:16 ---------- Previous post was at 16:09 ----------

Sorry, forgot to mention, im using a dell inspiron 1545 via ethernet cable :)

[General Maximus]

despite how close you are to your exchange you are only receiving just over 2mbit. Although you will see people moaning all over the place about the speeds they get from through cable, I can honestly say that barring an extremely unlikely problem, the absolute minimum you'll get is 2mbit.

You can sign up for 2mbit, 10 or 20 with VM and they advertise it as an "up to" speed. I am on 20mbit at the moment which I do get most of the time (downloads at 2200k/sec). I dont always get this speed when it is busier in the evening and it more often than not drops down to 10mbit but it is still 5 times faster than what you are getting atm.

You need to decide what you want to use your connection for and whether you would like something a bit faster. Unless you download a lot of bulky files you might find 10mbit will be a nice speed jump for you at a reasonable cost. When you are at full speed you will download at 1000k/sec instead of the 300k you are averaging above.

You should give Virgin a buzz and and get them to look at what tv package you are on at the moment and what bundle deals they can do either with the L broadband (10mbit) or XL (20mbit). 20mbit is definitely a nice speed to have, even if you only get half of it during peak periods it is still a lot more than what you are getting now.

[suggsy]

Thanks very much general maximus for your very informative reply.
I have the xl tv package with landline phone, i had cable broadband up till about a year ago and was on the 10 mg, but it kept crashing/not working, i upped it to 20 mg but was even slower than when the 10 mg was working.
I also found that cos the b/b runs off the splitter from the tv cable, i think it was effecting the tv and made the tv pic a bit jumpy.
Now i have a big plasma tv with hdmi etc, i was wondering if i would still get 'interference' on the tv, the tech guy replaced the splitter when he set up the tv, which is why im thinking of getting virgin b/b back.
So, i reckon i should be able to get a good deal on say the 20 mg b/b, but id be more pleased if it was fast and reliable.

Sorry for the long winded reply, and thanks again for your response, i dont suppose it would hurt to give them another go. :)

[ontheball]

maximus you talk about being on 20mb package and downloading at 2200k is this correct then. Im on 10mb and download at around 1200k. Im confused though because 1000k is equal to 1mb so what should I be getting. Can someone please post a definitive guide to the following

Kb
kb
mb
MB

One minute I think I shoud be getting 1000 then I read another post and see someone saying they are getting 10000.

[General Maximus]

i'll try and get this right: bandwidth is measured in Mb (Megabits) and Kb (kilobits) and size is measured in mb (megabytes) and kb kilobytes).

When we talk about a 20mb connection we mean 20mbit which is 20,000kbit. If we divide 20,000 by 10 (10 bytes make 1 bit) we get a speed of 2000kilobytes per second or 2 megabytes per second, this is what i was refering to when i said my connection maxes out at 2200k/sec.

Whenever you see a connection like VMs advertised at 2mbit, 10mbit, or 20mbit, you can divide it by 10 to find out what maximum speed you will get: 200k/sec, 1000k/sec or 2000k/sec. You can then work out what that means to you and what you want to pay for. When i was on 10mbit i download at 1000k/sec so a 350mb file takes me just under 6 mins. I double my speed to 20mbit and now it takes me just under 3 mins. This is assuming that you download at your sustained maximum speed of course.

In answer to your question, both of what people are saying is correct, you should be downloading at 1000 kilobytes/sec which is 10,000kilobits/sec(10mbits)

[ontheball]

Excellent. Thanks Maximus so it turns out that im actually getting the right speeds now and even slightly more hitting around 1200. Although this has only been the case recently, probably just before christmas speeds improved. Before that I was averaging 250. I think Im going to upgrade to 20mb as well soon

[suggsy]

Excellent, thanks, i now understand a bit more about speeds etc, looks like i'll also be going for 20mg, just the question of haggling the price now then, seeing as i already have xl tv and landline phone :) Thanks guys.

[Joxer]

(10 bytes make 1 bit)

Erm, I think you'll find 10 bytes make 80 bits as there are 8 bits in a byte.

Comprehensive info on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit

[General Maximus]

nope :) a couple of weeks ago i would have agreed with you because that is what i always understood it to be as well but God of all things internet (Broadbandings) said that when it comes to the internet, it is all done to base 10 and not 8.

[Joxer]

OK, even if I did believe you (which I don't) you still meant to say ten bits in a byte and not ten bytes in a bit.

Lets all start using octets and save all this confusion.

[Kymmy]

i'll try and get this right: bandwidth is measured in Mb (Megabits) and Kb (kilobits) and size is measured in mb (megabytes) and kb kilobytes).

Just to clarify

kb = Kilobit
kB = KiloByte
and there are 8 kilobits in a kilobyte

mb = milibar and nothing to do with cable speeds :p:
K = Kelvin a unit of temp and again is nothing to do with cable (unless you like to supercool your modem) ;)

Mb = Megabit
MB = Megabyte

10Mb (10000Kb) = 1.25 MB (10/8)

[General Maximus]

Just to clarify

10Mb (10000Kb) = 1.25 MB (10/8)

Oooooooh, I can't wait for Broadbandings to chip into this conversation :)

[Kymmy]

I simplyfied it..no sense in going over technical ;)

[Ignitionnet]

Oooooooh, I can't wait for Broadbandings to chip into this conversation :)

Why? That's spot on, 1 MB = 1,000,000 B, not to be confused with MiB which = 1024 * 1024 B ;)

[General Maximus]

sweet, so I was right then :) (or more to the point, you were)

[Ignitionnet]

Well I just read back.

There have always been 8 bits in a byte. The only confusion was that people were discussing Megabits Mb in base 10, and Megabytes in base 8. Officially Mega-anything is 1,000,000 times it. Mibi or kibi-anything, IE Mibibytes, work in base 8, so a Mibibyte is 1024 kibibytes and a kibibyte is 1024 bytes.

Megabits have always been in base 10, they just had some odd *******isation done to them when discussing broadband speeds where they were a combination of both, being 1000 * 1024 bits.

I wasn't saying that the bits in a byte were changed, just that the meanings of Mega and kilo were incorrect as they were discussed with regards to storage. Buy a hard drive now that's 1TB it'll be 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, previously when discussing bytes people interchanged Mibi and Mega.

Anyways that's enough of that!

[suggsy]

Right, thats clear as mud to me, but then im an old git who didnt have computers at achool lol.

I understand kilos and maga, and base 10 thats it.

Anyway, i been in touch with vm today (45 min call, but it was to an english person, no offence at all to non english people, just that i only understand english)
.

As stated before, i have tv xl with 1 v+ box in the main room, and 1 stb in another room, and 1 landline phone. To cut a long story short, at the mo i pay£36.50 P/M, next weds 14th jan, the engineer is coming to fit 20mg b/b, and swap the 'normal stb' for another v+ box. ( All this will bring it up to £54 p/m.

What do you guys think, is this a good deal?

Thanks for your patience and sorry for the long story lol.

[General Maximus]

i think it is great because I pay £37 alone for my BB connection and you are getting it for £20 with a V+ box as well.

Before the dude leaves make sure everything internet wise runs alright and run a speed test on www.speedtest.net just to see what sorts of speeds you are getting. I dont know whether it is on an ongoing issue which they are aware of but i have heard of plenty of people who have problems when their digital TV shares the same cable as their 20mbit connection.

[suggsy]

Ok thanks for your reply maximus.
I will check the speed as you said, i had 20 mg about a year ago and it did indeed affect the tv, the engineers couldnt sort it which is why i ditched it and went with bt, im now hoping vm 20mg is better now, we will see,
cheers.
Btw, they are only charging me a one off payment of £10 for the install of the new v+ box, and i assume they will take away the 'normal' stb, which sounds good to me :)

[suggsy]

I'm getting too frustrated now. i can't even download a music track, and when it does, it takes like 4 mins, it should be about 4 secs lol.

My laptop is brand new with no viruses at all, running vista home on a dell 1545, this is another test i just done and in comparison to lots of others on here, it doesnt look too good.

: Results from http://www.speed.io
(Copied on 2009-01-03 14:06:58)
Download: 6002 Kbit/s
Upload : 362 kbit/s
Connects : 1963 conn/min
Ping: 23 ms.

My main concern with vm 20mg is that it wont be any better, and that i will get 'interference' with the tv, aaargh, what to do? lol

[General Maximus]

try www.speedtest.net

I have seen on other threads that people are running tests from that site (i.o) so i did one the other day and I only got 10mbit down from the test. I then ran one from speedtest.net which is UK based and the test reported 20mbit. I find speedtest.net is far more reliable for your actual connection speed.

[suggsy]

Thanks again, i think i have all my settings set for oprtimum performance, this is the result from speedtest.net:


Last Test Date: 1/3/2009
Total Tests Taken: 8
Fastest Download: 6312 kb/s
Fastest Upload: 375 kb/s
Average Download: 5743 kb/s
Average Upload: 354 kb/s

Hers hoping vm is better lol