speed test

The download files to be downloaded during speed check are listed as 1GB in size downwards, the suggested times to download are listed as Mbs/sec, I may be dumb but I find it confusing, are the files actually GB in size please

Yes, the 1GB file is 1,073,741,824 Bytes

And what is confusing? Data storage and file sizes are normally in Bytes or multiples so, kB, MB, GB and data rates in bits per second bps or b/s with appropriate multiples, kbps, Mbps, Gbps, Tbps and as most broadband services are sold as Mbps packages it is appropriate to use that for typical data rates.

In reply to a post by rieverjohn:

The download files to be downloaded during speed check are listed as 1GB in size downwards, the suggested times to download are listed as Mbs/sec, I may be dumb but I find it confusing, are the files actually GB in size please

As MHC points out it's the correct way to display the figures.

File sizes and storage are displayed in KB, MB and GB's (Bytes)

Data rates and broadband speeds are displayed in Kb, Mb and Gb/s (bits).

It's not common to see file transfer speeds listed as MB/s (MegaBytes per second).

Edited by j0hn83 (Sun 12-Jul-20 22:03:51)

It's not common to see file transfer speeds listed as MB/s (MegaBytes per second).

Except on Windows where if you transfer files or do downloads Windows does usually displays it an B/s rather than b/s (both Internet Explorer and File Explorer display in Bytes for transfer speed - it's nice of MS to go against convention and confuse people even more).

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

It's not common to see file transfer speeds listed as MB/s (MegaBytes per second).

The only tool I regularly use that does, is WinSCP.

I always found that speed tests reported (multiples of) bits per second, to align with connection speeds, and file transfer programs displayed multiples of Bytes per second to align with the size of the file being transferred.

In the first case the user wants to know how the speed compares with the expected, and in the second they want to know how long the job is going to take.

The only real exception being when the time to download multi-megabyte files is used to assess real life speed. People doing that are expected to know they need to allow for the 1000 v 1024 difference.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 13-Jul-20 19:43:02)