I went back and looked at it again: 100Mbps is what is displayed on connection properties. Ran a test: 1852 Kbps.

Wondering why this means anything, and wondering what a bandwidth test (which is what I just ran) means

Where are my brilliant internet wizards when I need them?

 

Ran the test again: 2777.4 Kbps

What does all this mean?

 

[QUOTE=valentine,Jan 15 2008, 04:31 PM] I went back and looked at it again:

 

For me the answer is easy, I have Direct TV and no cable.
Levi

 

Your computer is able to communicate with the internet at a rate of 2777.4 Kilo bytes per second (or 2.8mbs).

I am not sure how true this is, but DSL speed is subject to the proximity of the center the connection comes from. The further your house is from the provider location, the slower the connection. Cable speed was subject to the number of users, at one time people would report slower speeds when school let out.

Not sure if these are still true or if technology has 'fixed' them.

 

OK, so for fun (sort of) I just tried out a bandwidth test site. Came back with 1.2 megabits (or 146KB, which is more or less the type of number that I usually see on my ethernet monitor -- it occasionally gets as high as 170KB). I think the line is nominally rated at 1.5 megabits. Seems to be symmetric up and down, from what I can tell.

 

That's the same reason for me, Levi.

 

DSL tends to be less expensive. In my case I save $15-20 a month off of the cable rates. Plus, I hate the phone company a little less than I hate the cable company.

 

Jim,
I believe that you can keep your POTS, if you like. I will let you whether they take down the copper. I also heard that, but almost all of the telecom alternatives are VoIP based anyway.
I figured with cell phones that POTS might not be that big of a necessity.

 

Well, since I poked at her, I expect I should translate for poor Val a little (and I'm sorry if this is too elementary, but I'm going to start at the beginning).

First, K=1000 and M=1000K=1,000,000="mega"

Generally, bandwidth speeds are in bits per second, which I think most of us are using a "b" (lower case) to mean. Mike is using B=byte=8bits (I'm pretty sure), so 1 megabit/second = 125Kbytes/second (your numbers may vary).

Val, your 1852Kbps is 1.85Mbps=1.85 megabits per second. The 100Mb you're seeing in connection properties is what the computer is connected to the router at via the cable; and your wireless connection will show either 11Mb or 54Mb depending on whether it's old wireless or new wireless (which is "g"). But this isn't what the router is getting from the Internet.

If I screwed any of this up, I'm sure someone will stomp on me. HPH