braodband speed

[waheed]

Can someone provide the formula for working out broadband speeds. For example, I know 3Mb broadband is 3200 kbps. I actually want to know what 4Mb is.

Thanks.

[aedipuss]

bits are bits. 3Mb/s = 3,000Kb/s = 3,000,000b/s same goes for 4.

[jagabo]

Unless they count by binary M and K rather than decimal M and K:

3 Mb = 3 * 1024 * 1024 = 3,145,728 bits
3 Kb = 3 * 1024 = 3072 bits

[aedipuss]

communication is measured in standard k=1000
computer file size is not, but uses k=1024.

for reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_data_throughput

[steveryan]

I have a 4MB ADSL connection and that syncs to the exchange at 4096Kbps/768Kbps.

[waheed]

Thanks steveryan (and everyone else), thats what i wanted to know. My line supports 4Mb Broadband and Im signed up with Pipex 8Mb Broadband, but Im only connected at 3200 kbps/448kbps.

Should be at 4Mb connection.

[normcar]

I have about the same speed, and when a cable tech was at my house for another problem, he said the following. 4MB was the maximum, but it depended on location and other factors. The company advertises 4MB, but only gaurantees about 3 MB, and the average was about 3.5 MB. The cable companies are lying about this just as they lie about everything.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Generally, an ISP will only guarantee 80% of what the maximum rated speed for your location is. So if you have a 4MB connection, expect something around 3.2MB.

[normcar]

Generally, an ISP will only guarantee 80% of what the maximum rated speed for your location is. So if you have a 4MB connection, expect something around 3.2MB.

And yet, that is not even in the fine print in the advertisements on TV. But they want more money to get to 6MB. Which means they could get to the 4 MB, they just don't want to because they can get away with 80%, which saves money for them. What if the telephone company or electric company only gave you 80% of what you paid for. The electric would only work about 21 1/2 hrs per day, and only 8 of 10 words would get through the phone to the other person. Most high speed PSPs have monopolies in most areas, and no regulation. They can do what ever they want, and have a googeplex of lawyers to back them up. I wish the tobacco lawers would start suing them and some of the other companies that don't live up to their 'advertized value'. So many companies in our world deliver such crap service that the monopolies have to advertize to try and convince us that their product is high quality. As if we have much of a choice, if we want to surf the net at some kind of high speed.

[aedipuss]

some isp's are better than others. right now i have a cable provider that's rock solid 6.7Mb/s 24/7 with their momentary (less than 1minute) jumps up to 30Mb/s at the beginning of a download. they only claim 6.0Mb/s. and yes it's those guys that are advertising so much on tv.

the only thing that could be better would be if fios showed up in my neck of the woods.

[normcar]

i have a cable provider that's rock solid 6.7Mb/s 24/7 with their momentary (less than 1minute) jumps up to 30Mb/s at the beginning of a download. they only claim 6.0Mb/s. and yes it's those guys that are advertising so much on tv.

the only thing that could be better would be if fios showed up in my neck of the woods.

My cable isp also advertises a lot on TV. They have customer service spots that say how much they care about the customer, the president is shown going door to door helping customers, even fixing the guys car. But he never says, 'But we only give 80% of our product. Their customer service people have kiss your *&%, because the president isn't going to give you your full bandwidth. (Insight cable)


What is fios?

[Lucifers_Ghost]

It has nothing to do with one isp being better than another. You have really high rated speeds. Sweet. You are probably on a loop with very few other customers on it. A person 10 blocks away with the same service level might only be getting 4mb out of the 6mb.

The point WAS that ISP's cant and wont guarantee 100% of the rated advertised speed. It is not in their best interest. Every customer that has a smidge less than 100% will call in every day and get free months cause its slow or call tech everyday cause they just dont know any better.

Oh and those "jumps" to 30mb I beleive is called "burst speed" (or something akin to that). All downloads with pretty much any isp will start like that then slowly drop to your service levels.

[normcar]

The point WAS that ISP's cant and wont guarantee 100% of the rated advertised speed. It is not in their best interest. Every customer that has a smidge less than 100% will call in every day and get free months cause its slow or call tech everyday cause they just dont know any better.

But 20% is huge. If you only showed up to work 20% of 40 hrs (excluding holidays, vac, and weekends) of your work time, your boss would fire you. From what the tech said, everyone is at the 20% below rated. This just means that 80% is what the company wants to give to you. If they wanted to keep from customer complaints of 100%, they would give you 100% most of the time, and then only gaurantee 95%. But we all know that is not how unregulated monopolies work.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

I agree completely. As a consumer, only getting 80% of what is advertised is crap. In almost any oher industry, it would be unacceptable but for some reason with ISP's, we turn the other cheek (well mostly because we have no choice anyway but I digress).

I would love to only work 80% of the time


Boss: "Hey, how come you arent working?"
Me: "Im taking 3% of my slack time now, sucka!

[normcar]

With monopolies or oligopolies (an economics term meaning a very few providers of service or product), you have to accept what they allow you to have. Their only real competition is price vs demand. I.E. if they price it too high, then very few will pay for it at all. Would you pay a $1000/mo for high speed, or would you just not get on the internet at home? You may not be able to afford it even if you really wanted it.

This is why monopolies are usually regulated. Some "consumer group" helps to fix a reasonable price for the delivered goods or services, and a definition of the delivered good or service. Each state usually has a non-profit consumer group which watches and recommends regulations for monopolistic service providers like electric companies.

[Nelson37]

Interesting.

My DSL service is set up the exact opposite. My rated speed is a guaranteed MINIMUM, and I usually get significantly higher than the listed speed.

The terms are usually clearly spelled out in the contract. Careful listening of the ad will almost always reveal the phrase "up to" or something similar in the language.

An advertisement is not a contract or guarantee. A written, signed agreement is both. The first is essentially meaningless, the second is legally actionable.

Or do you really think that drinking a certain brand of beer will cause beautiful women to fall all over you?

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Curiously .. which dsl provider is this?

[Nelson37]

Sprint, now Embarq, in southwest Florida.

They did switch me to a faster, and more expensive, plan without my authorization when the company changed names. However, when I noticed and complained, they immediately switched me back, and credited the two months extra charges back to me. No complaints.

As far as the usage saturation, when I moved last year I could not even get voice phone service for almost three months, but once hooked up it is much better than the DSL I had 2-3 years ago, it used to disconnect every couple days and had to cycle power on the modem to restore service. Have never had to do that with latest service. Even better than cable modem as that frequently went out during lightning storms, no such problems on DSL.

[oldfart13]

I don't think any of the major players have "free months" for downtime of their service anymore. Up where we are Shaw cable ceased this several years ago. Otherwise, with all the outages we get I'd never have to pay for cable Internet again....

[TBoneit]

hmmm. My 3Meg DSL always seems to run slightly over 3Meg.

I've run three lines off of the Modems built-in router, whene I'm the only one on I see full speed consistently.

The Westell itself is reporting 3360 by 864 which is what it usually shows. I remember that twice in a year it has slowed down somewhat and a power cycle brought it back up to speed.

It has gone for short periods of time in really bad weather.

However it is so much more consistent and reliable than the Cabe modem was it is like night and day.

I keep toying with Fios 15Mb speed at $44.95 per month. OTOH I was just talking to a customer that has it now and he reported a 6 hour install, The remove your copper line etc.

5 times the speed for less than double the money.......

It is available, they must have sent something to get us to sign up at least twice a week this summer for about a month after they lit up the new fiber.

[ViRaL1]

Don't knock 80% of rated speed. With AT&T the plans are as follows

384k-1.5Mbps

1.5Mbps-3.0Mbps

3.0Mbps-6.0Mbps

Note the low end on each of the plans. If you are getting more than the rated minimum on the plan you chose you do and will always pay the same price as someone else on the same plan getting just at or below the rated minimum. Support may help a bit and see if they can help you eliminate some bottlenecks, but what you get is pretty much what you get. If you want more, then you pay more.

[normcar]

Don't knock 80% of rated speed. With AT&T the plans are as follows

384k-1.5Mbps

1.5Mbps-3.0Mbps

3.0Mbps-6.0Mbps

Note the low end on each of the plans. If you are getting more than the rated minimum on the plan you chose you do and will always pay the same price as someone else on the same plan getting just at or below the rated minimum. Support may help a bit and see if they can help you eliminate some bottlenecks, but what you get is pretty much what you get. If you want more, then you pay more.

But at least they are telling you up front. If you look on most websites, they advertise the max value, and you have to look at the fine print several pages deep to find the real truth.

The DSL players are probably better because they are trying to lure customers away from the cable monopolies. However, in the long run, 2 players makes for very poor competition.

As always unregulated monopolies can set up what ever conditions/pricing they want. Some just are more truthful about it.

And as always, a monopoly can do what it wants.

[waheed]

My case is different. im actually paying for a 8Mb Broadband, and only getting 3Mb Broadband.

My line is capable of supporting 4Mb Broadband, yet im only getting 37.5% of what im paying for. Im going ring up Pipex (my ISP) and find out whats going on.

[normcar]

How much are you paying for the 8MB line? I would look at the small print on their online site to see what it is that you should get as a min.

I've never heard of a cable 8MB line. The highest I've seen advertised is a 6MB line.

[aedipuss]

you're not paying for 8Mbps, you are paying for "UP TO 8Mbps" which is actually anything over 0Mbps. pretty meaningless advertising ploy, that allows an out for all complaints.

http://www.pipex.co.uk/broadband/howfastcanigo/

[Lucifers_Ghost]

you're not paying for 8Mbps, you are paying for "UP TO 8Mbps" which is actually anything over 0Mbps. pretty meaningless advertising ploy, that allows an out for all complaints.

http://www.pipex.co.uk/broadband/howfastcanigo/

Welll, that all depends. If they have tiered services, then you dont pay for 0 - 8. For example, my isp is:

Lite speed: up to 512k
basic speed: from 512k up to 1mb
hse: 1mb up to 3mb
ultra: 3mb up to 6mb

The biggest advantage to hse/ultra is that those levels have unlimited bandwidth (sah-weeet) whereas the lite and basic have 1gb and 2gb respectively (which sucks ass).