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10 meg what download speed should i get
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Old 11-05-2006, 01:02   #16
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
10Mb = 10240kbps = 1280KBps. (roughly 1Megabyte per second)
Upload? 512? 512 = 512 = 64KBps (Roughly 64Kilobytes per second)
If its a 384 upload then it is...
384kbps = 48KBps (roughly 48Kilobytes per second)

Bits to bytes basically, 8 bits to one byte, and NTL measure there speeds in BITS. That means 1Mbit = 1024Bits = 128KBytes
This is not strictly true.
File sizes are measure in bytes and Kilo or Megabytes where (for various reasons its all based on powers of 2) one Kilobyte is 1024 bytes (2 ^ 10) and one Megabyte is 1024 x 1024 or 1048576 bytes (2 ^20). Note the uppercase K for Kilobyte - its significant.

Now for data transmission its a different story. Speeds are measured in bits per second and the standard SI system for units is used. i.e. one kilobit per second is 10 ^3 or 1000 bits per second. Note that here the lowercase k signifying the proper use of the kilo prefix is being used. Similarly a one Megabit per second download speed is equivalent to 10 ^ 6 or 1,000,000 bits per second.

So suppose I want to download a 5 Meg file using my 2 Meg line. The size of the file is actually;
5 X 1024 x 1024 or 5242880 bytes in size or multiplying by eight (eight bits in a byte) we get 41943040 bits in size.

My 2 Meg line should (ideally) download at 2,000,000 bits per second so I should be able to download the file in

41943040 / 2000000 seconds or 20.97 seconds.

In actual fact it will take longer than this as I haven't allowed for the TCP overheads.

But in answer to the original question on a 10 Meg line your should be able to download at 10 million bits per second and upload at 512 thousand bits per second - not that you'll actually be able to achieve this mind!
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Old 11-05-2006, 07:17   #17
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

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Originally Posted by Teccie
if thats the case why do we pay for 10mb ?? tomorrow ima downgrade to 2mb, i am now feelin utterly ripped off.
I understood it that the 10Mb will be sustainable in the near future. I am consistently getting this:
Thu, 11 May 2006 05:16:30 UTC

1st 512K took 711 ms = 720.1 KB/sec, approx 5934 Kbps, 5.79 Mbps
2nd 512K took 711 ms = 720.1 KB/sec, approx 5934 Kbps, 5.79 Mbps
3rd 512K took 721 ms = 710.1 KB/sec, approx 5851 Kbps, 5.71 Mbps
4th 512K took 691 ms = 741 KB/sec, approx 6106 Kbps, 5.96 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 5956 Kbps, 5.81 Mbps
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Old 11-05-2006, 09:18   #18
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

spc, run that same test in the evening about 8pm, i reckon some of those pings will be down to below the 2mb mark. This morning i hit the 10mbit, but last night for myself i was hitting like less than 1mb at certain times, which for 34.99 sux, will run that exact test tonight and post results.
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Old 11-05-2006, 09:27   #19
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

My download speed was at 1 point just uder a gig then l8r on in the day it went down to 300k tops I was on 2 meg which i got 245kbs all the time now feeling a bit peebed that I upgraded to 10 meg Should of stayed on 2meg
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Old 11-05-2006, 09:28   #20
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

I use Giganews for my usenet provider, and I ALWAYS get 1200kB/s

Remember folks if you arent downloading at full speed, it may not be your connection, it may be the source you are downloading from is not up to the job or very busy.

Even HTTP is fast for me

Thu, 11 May 2006 07:29:06 UTC
1st 128K took 109 ms = 1202495 Bytes/sec = approx 10005 kbits/sec
2nd 128K took 94 ms = 1394383 Bytes/sec = approx 11601 kbits/sec
3rd 128K took 109 ms = 1202495 Bytes/sec = approx 10005 kbits/sec
4th 128K took 110 ms = 1191564 Bytes/sec = approx 9914 kbits/sec

Keep up good work NTL!

(No traffic shaping tho please!!)
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Old 11-05-2006, 11:00   #21
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

The thing that strikes me about a lot of the posts about '10 meg' is that people are more irritated by the fact that they cannot either a) get this speed at all or b) get it consistently.

You should not have to pay for something which does not come up to standard but i guess the phrase 'up to 10 meg' is the giveaway. If NTL were able to give a commitment to a minimum speed on '10 meg' then perhaps there would be less annoyance. I expect that is unlikely however.

Personally i've been lucky in ST17. The lowest speed i have measured is about '3.5 meg' during the evenings, the rest of the time its been flying.
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Old 11-05-2006, 20:35   #22
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

I am able to hit around 4mbit (in evening) from a server that directly peers with ntl, strangely enough speedtests from ntlworld are slower which I dont think is down to the webserver been saturated but rather ntl's core network between me and ntlworld.com or possibly my proxy server.

So it seems the reseg which happened earlier has had an effect my speeds have roughly doubled from around 0.5mbit to 1mbit on worst locations and 2mbit to 4mbit on best locations.

Almost any other download link is slower probably down to saturated peering and congested ntl network en route to peering, things here are becoming harder and harder to diagnose.

Even at 5am sort of time downloading from germany now has the triangle speed graph sympton where it takes an age to get to full speed on a file bringing the avg speed down.

I had a ntl fan boy arguing with me earlier in week saying ntl kick ass and its my pc so I invited him to bring his pc over which he did, the look on his face when he seen how bad things are here.
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Old 11-05-2006, 21:11   #23
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

I use easynews and during the night, after midnight and some i get over 1000k/sec but during the evening 8pm i get about 100k/sec, a 10th of the speed i should expect, which is unacceptable.
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Old 11-05-2006, 22:07   #24
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
Originally Posted by Teccie
spc, run that same test in the evening about 8pm, i reckon some of those pings will be down to below the 2mb mark. This morning i hit the 10mbit, but last night for myself i was hitting like less than 1mb at certain times, which for 34.99 sux, will run that exact test tonight and post results.
Thu, 11 May 2006 20:06:59 UTC

1st 512K took 771 ms = 664.1 KB/sec, approx 5472 Kbps, 5.34 Mbps
2nd 512K took 781 ms = 655.6 KB/sec, approx 5402 Kbps, 5.28 Mbps
3rd 512K took 761 ms = 672.8 KB/sec, approx 5544 Kbps, 5.41 Mbps
4th 512K took 811 ms = 631.3 KB/sec, approx 5202 Kbps, 5.08 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 5405 Kbps, 5.28 Mbps

:-)
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Old 11-05-2006, 22:21   #25
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Holding up exceptionally well here too.

Thu, 11 May 2006 20:20:48 GMT

1st 512K took 1015 ms = 504.4 KB/sec, approx 4156 Kbps, 4.06 Mbps
2nd 512K took 1390 ms = 368.3 KB/sec, approx 3035 Kbps, 2.96 Mbps
3rd 512K took 890 ms = 575.3 KB/sec, approx 4740 Kbps, 4.63 Mbps
4th 512K took 1047 ms = 489 KB/sec, approx 4029 Kbps, 3.93 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 3990 Kbps, 3.89 Mbps
4Mb line
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Old 12-05-2006, 03:31   #26
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
Originally Posted by jem
<snip>
In ntl and Telewest land a Mbit is considered to be 1024000 bits, the cap on the modems is set at 10,240,000bps downstream and 512,000 / 384,000bps upstream.

A kilobyte and megabyte are actually 1,000 bytes and 1,000,000 bytes, however for old school reasons the old definitions are still used - in the 'official' standards these are actually kibibytes and mibibytes.

Just thought I'd mention that if we were getting hard core nit picky
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Old 12-05-2006, 04:45   #27
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
Originally Posted by James Henry
In ntl and Telewest land a Mbit is considered to be 1024000 bits, the cap on the modems is set at 10,240,000bps downstream and 512,000 / 384,000bps upstream.

A kilobyte and megabyte are actually 1,000 bytes and 1,000,000 bytes, however for old school reasons the old definitions are still used - in the 'official' standards these are actually kibibytes and mibibytes.
Just thought I'd mention that if we were getting hard core nit picky
personally, i like nibbles


oldskool is 2 nibbles, 8bit days , long live the ZX81.. 16k real-BYTES wobbly rampack, a must.
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Old 12-05-2006, 08:21   #28
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
In ntl and Telewest land a Mbit is considered to be 1024000 bits, the cap on the modems is set at 10,240,000bps downstream and 512,000 / 384,000bps upstream.
I stand corrected. I (perhaps naively) assumed that NTL would be using the 'proper' definitions - obviously not, typical!
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Old 12-05-2006, 13:29   #29
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
Originally Posted by jem
I stand corrected. I (perhaps naively) assumed that NTL would be using the 'proper' definitions - obviously not, typical!
They are the proper definitions... Well, they are generallyaccepted as them, especially when TW and NTL started out.
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Old 12-05-2006, 21:43   #30
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Re: 10 meg what download speed should i get

Quote:
Originally Posted by __spc__
And for comparison, my 10Mb pipe is actually providing 5Mb at the mo'...
Confusing - at the minute, I am running Linux Slack 10.2 on my laptop:
Fri, 12 May 2006 20:39:46 +0000

1st 512K took 504 ms = 1015.9 KB/sec, approx 8371 Kbps, 8.17 Mbps
2nd 512K took 437 ms = 1171.6 KB/sec, approx 9654 Kbps, 9.43 Mbps
3rd 512K took 436 ms = 1174.3 KB/sec, approx 9676 Kbps, 9.45 Mbps
4th 512K took 434 ms = 1179.7 KB/sec, approx 9721 Kbps, 9.49 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 9356 Kbps, 9.14 Mbps

Consistently I get this under Linux, but ca. 5 Mbps under WinXP.

Any ideas?
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