ahh i think im understanding now. Am i right in thinking that broadband is in Megabits rather than Megabytes? i think this is where i am getting confused so really 550KB/sec download is about right on a 5Mb speed or am i still not getting it?

You are being a tad too harsh!

m instead of M is excusable as there is no such thing as milli in computers.

But, yes, b instead of B, and v.v., is inexcusable by being confusing.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

for instance a 440mb file is taking 13 mins to download im sure it should be quicker

I think you mean a 440MB file in 13 mins. That's about 4600 Kbps which is about what you would expect on a 5700 Kbps connection.

To save by getting confused by units and the responsiveness of the download server, it would be more accurate to post the results of an actual speedtest, like TBB's.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

ahh i think im understanding now. Am i right in thinking that broadband is in Megabits rather than Megabytes? i think this is where i am getting confused so really 550KB/sec download is about right on a 5Mb speed or am i still not getting it?

Spot on .

As XRaySpeX reprimanded me re the m/M, yes he is right that "m" is excusable as there can't really be any confusion. I just included it as part of the whole small/capital issue, because with b/B it is very important. As you can now see .

The reason speed testers use Mb is because broadband is in Megabits connection speeds, yes.

But downloaders use KB (KiloBytes) because file sizes are measured in Bytes, can be KiloBytes, MegaBytes or GigaBytes. So that makes sense as well - when downloading 440MB you want to know how many KB per second you are getting, to help you guess whether you only have time to make a coffee, or can go out to the takeaway.

Does that help?

I hope all goes well for you now.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 07-Jun-11 23:03:15)