There's a bandwith testing extension that I use with Firefox 1.0.2. Having DSL, I've never been able to download faster than 90 kb/s (even late at night) with wget. Bandwith tester indicates a max speed of 230 kb/s (this is based on 5 small test downloads). How is this possible on a pc with 1 user (I'm not on any network except for the internet)?

what's your DSL speed supposed to be??

post the link to the extension so we can try it and compare results...

That's a good question-I know that last year Verizon was saying it would be 100 kb/s depending on your location. Not sure if they increased it.

The extension link is here: https://addons.update.mozilla.org/ex...Windows&id=178

okay, i tried the extension... i'm on a 320Kbps connection and the extension reported i was at 70Kbps which is insane, LOL... i imagine the server where the files are hosted isn't optimized for bandwidth tests (you need a lot of bandwidth and server speed for that kinda thing) or something... i don't know...

but if i wget this file:

http://cowbox.coe.uky.edu/pub/slackw...7.0-i486-4.tgz

i get a download speed of at least 40KB/s, and since i'm supposed to have a 320Kbps conection that means i'm fine (320 kilobits = 40 kilobytes)...

BTW, i've found the road runner tests work well:

http://www.new.rr.com/TechTips/speedtest/speed.asp

http://www.satx.rr.com/support/speedtest/speed.asp

of course no bandwidth test will never be 100% accurate...

just my two cents...

BTW, if your wget never gets passed 90K then maybe your connection is currently around 720Kbps (90 * 8 = 720)... and if that's the case then the 230Kbps that the firefox extension reported is probably bogus, like the 70Kbps that it gave me on my 320Kbps connection...

Eh, I'd stay away from that. It seems to be giving me really low/weird results even though I'm on a 45Mbps EDU.

Try this site instead: http://www.broadbandreports.com/stest

EDIT: As a reference: (poor results on dslreports tonight )
2005-03-27 21:46:54 EST: 8351 / 2166
Your download speed : 8551581 bps, or 8351 kbps.
A 1043.8 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 2218152 bps, or 2166 kbps.

And from the item you posted:
Results: ~477.5Kbps

For the most part bandwith testing is not very accurate. It depends on the location of the server. A server may be slow a particular day or hour becuase of to many people downloading. It also depends on the particular route you happen to take. To many factors to be an accurate test.

I'd say the best way to get a true representation of you download speed is to go to some domain that you know these factors are minimal and download a big file from them. Go to the really well know domains... microsoft.com is one

320 kilobits = 40 kilobytes

Why? Is there a link that explains bandwith speed?

1 byte consists of 8 bits, so to convert from Kilo BITS per second (which is used to specify line speeds) to Kilo BYTES per second you have to devide it by 8.

These are the basic computer units.

1 byte = 8 bits
1 KB (kilobyte, ie 1024 bytes) = 8 kb (kilobits, ie 8096 bits)

To convert from bits to bytes, just divide by 8.

eg. I'm on a 5 Mbps pipeline. In bytes, that translates to roughly 600 KB/s

And to determine your maximum download speed, you need to take into account that TCP/IP spends a few bits here and there for just packet header information like packet destination, origin and such. The payload part (where the data you're downloading is) of a TCP/IP packet is 80-90% (?) size of the whole packet. And that's why my 8Mb doesn't download 1000kB/s.

Oh, and - unless you're talking about an ethernet connection - that's not enough. Most of us here prolly have xDSL, and that's not transparent either, it takes a certain amount of control data too.

sure, here's a link:

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=115

keep in mind that usually when you use a capital "B" it stands for "byte" and a lowercase "b" stands for "bit"...

like:

KB = kilobyte

Kb = kilobit

bits are usually used to measure connection speeds... bytes are usually used to measure file sizes and download speeds...

i have a 320 kilobit per second connection... my maximum download rate is 40 kilobytes per second...

hence, a person with a 56K (56Kbps) dial-up modem would be able to download at a max rate of 7KB/s (56 / 8 = 7), but we know that the actual (FCC??) limit for those devices is around 53K and add to that all the overhead and well any dial-up user that gets something like downloads at 5.x KB/s has a VERY GOOD connection... from what i've seen they tend to hover more around 3.x and 4.x due to factors like line noise, etc... but you get the point... bits for connections... bytes for files and downloads... usually... hehe...

Very informative-thanks all!

Oh, when I had a dial up ISP and US Robotics 56k Performance Pro modem, I would get 5.x kilobytes per second for a download. Guess I have a VERY GOOD connection with Verizon wires!!

I'm in USA-I read that in Japan they are provided with twice the bandwith then I currently have (I get 720 kilobit per second connection) for half the price (I pay $30/mo + $2 tax)!

Anyone from Japan here that can verify that?