| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 61022 | 2005-08-22 06:00:00 | ADSL speed | Mercury (1316) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 382877 | 2005-08-22 06:00:00 | We were recently persuaded by ihug to change from Ultra Terrestial to Blink. Telecom said it was borderline due to our distance from the exchange etc but it was probably do-able so give it a try. Well we joined on the 2Mb lite plan (which I have been told is megabits not megabytes). The ihug broadband speed check currently shows my speed as 163 kilobits per second. I rang ihug who said this is normal and that if I change to the 256k plan then my speed will go down. ??????? Surely 163 is less than 256 so it is the maximum plan I require. Have I got the maths wrong or have they? Anyone interested in checking their ADSL speed on the ihug website (www.ihug.co.nz) so I can get a feeling for comparisons? |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 382878 | 2005-08-22 06:10:00 | It might be quite correct . It all depends on what is being measured . People have a lot of problems with the units . bits and Bytes are often carelessly confused . If you have a 2Mb/sec service, that could well give you 163 kB/sec of data transfer . The 2 is megabits; the 163 might be kilobytes, if your line is not quite up to the standard required for the full bandwidth . At maximum, you might get a bit over 200 kB/s . If the plan is changed to 256 kb/s, the maximum possible data rate would be 32kB/s . So you would notice a slower service . ;) |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 382879 | 2005-08-22 06:10:00 | on a 2Mbt line i get 1779 Kilobits/sec (218 KiloBytes/sec) | robsonde (120) | ||
| 382880 | 2005-08-22 06:16:00 | Also on a 2 Mb/s connection and I got: Estimated speed: 1297 Kilobits/sec (159 KiloBytes/sec) If you got 163 Kilobits/sec, then that is very slow. |
Jen (38) | ||
| 382881 | 2005-08-22 06:44:00 | BITS AND BYTES 8 bits = 1 byte . Ihug show their plans, and the test, as follows in bits not bytes: PLANS: bliink 256k lite 256 kbps bliink 2 Mb lite 2 Mbps RESULTS (copied and pasted) FROM TEST PAGE: Test file size: 512 KiloBytes Download time: 25 . 344 seconds Estimated speed: 163 Kilobits/sec (20 KiloBytes/sec) Their suggestion that my speed would drop further if I changed to 256k (which is faster than I am getting now) seems to be a confusion ploy designed to convince me to part with an extra $10 or $20/month for a service I can't use . Does this sound correct? Rob and Jen seem to support this view with their results . |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 382882 | 2005-08-22 07:04:00 | That does look a bit "enhanced" to me, too. The only time you can be sure that a speed test gives the right units is when, as there, you are given both. You'd be amazed at the number of people who are sure they have accptable service at a millibit/sec rate. At that rate, the distinction between bits/sec and bytes/sec is blurred. ;) Obviously you will be better off if you ask for an RFC1149 (www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html) service, with the QOS (www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2549.html) option. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 382883 | 2005-08-22 07:14:00 | Hmm, thanks Graham! The alternative carrier source is duly noted. | Mercury (1316) | ||
| 382884 | 2005-08-22 07:59:00 | That's a worthy suggestion GL, considering Mercury appears to be getting only 40 odd kb/sec (a little under 4kB/sec) more than my 128kb/sec connection rather than the 10-12 times faster he ordered. A further positive is the greatly reduced spam and the only known virus' likely to affect human interfaces is yet to reach these shores. |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 382885 | 2005-08-22 12:05:00 | This is what I get, on a 2MB service. Your line speed is approximately 1933.6 Kbps or 237 K bytes/sec ( Where kb = kilobits and kB = kiloBytes ) |
cranneyt (4255) | ||
| 382886 | 2005-08-22 22:13:00 | Thanks everyone. I find it pays when someone tells you something that appears to be completely wrong is to say "Thank you" politely, research it to ensure you are sure of your facts, then go into battle. Unfortunately we have limited choices for high speed Internet here. We are 700' above sea level, in line of sight to the Sky Tower and the Waiatarua mast but a little too far from useful things like overnight couriers, pizza delivery and the telephone exchange. GASP are interested in coming out here but require 10 to 15 houses in line of sight to each other who want it. I can see about 10 houses spread over a kilometre but doubt that they all want it - but if Ihug annoy me too much more (it took them a couple of months to deliver the modem, they activated Blink before I had the hardware and charged me for it) I might go door knocking. Unfortunately they are all closer to the exchange so are probably getting slightly better results. Only other choice appears to be Telecom Wireless which carries a hefty price tag. At least what I am getting is a considerable improvement on dialup. Thanks for the help. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||