Hign Speed Broadband users?

[Ian]

Is anyone here on one of those really high speed broadband services, i.e over 2MB?

I'd be interested to know if normal browsing is any different with such a high speed connection, and if its worth upgrading in a few months I know there was a thread posted a few weeks ago about the new 8MB services that are rolling out, but has anyone had any experience?

 

[Adywebb]

As you know Ian, I have just been upgraded free to 4mb with Telewest Cable from 1mb - theres no doubt browsing is much quicker, particularly if the page has loads of images etc.
Also I'm getting file transfer speeds of around 480kb/sec when it used to be around 120kb/sec.

I think it really depends on what you use your broadband connection for when considering an upgrade, and the additional cost - although many of the faster speeds now are the same as or cheaper than the old ones.

 

[Ian]

That is a fantastic transfer speed for downloads, something like that would make backups etc... so its reassuring to know it does actually perform on large downloads!

I'm on 1MB now and find sites load quickly, however if you notice a difference when jumping up to 4MB I'll have to consider it I just wish Telewest were in my area

 

[Adywebb]

Yep, I'm really happy with Telewest - there maybe some cheaper ADSL ISPs out there, but I've only ever had one problem in 2 years and a quick call to their support got me going again within 10 minutes.
I just hope that the recent merger with NTL isn't going to drag them down to their level of customer service!

As an example of transfer speed - I recently downloaded a 35.7MB file in 1min 20secs which I think is pretty good - unless someone tells me otherwise!

 

[muckshifter]

I'm on 2mbit ... BT Yahoo, and they will probably be one of the last to 'offer' any speed hike and we'll be luck to get it free.

I'm downloading another Linux Distro ... it will take around 3-4 hours, well it is a DVD, BUT it is comming down @ 207kBit/s ... However, my 'browsing' is now quite slow, them seconds mount up when you have to wait.

I too miss NTL/Telewast or whatever, true 'cable' sure beats ADSL anyday.

£40 a month is way too dear (that does include BT line rental & phone), but I am not capped, you have to watch that little gotcha.

 

[Adywebb]

I too miss NTL/Telewast or whatever, true 'cable' sure beats ADSL anyday.

£40 a month is way too dear (that does include BT line rental & phone), but I am not capped, you have to watch that little gotcha.

I agree Mucks, I'm paying £25 for the Telewest 4MB service uncapped, and I'm happy with that as long as they continue to provide a good service...

 

[Adywebb]

Also remember to find out what the Upload speed is, particularly if you do alot of file sending/uploading, online gaming, webcam messaging etc.
Most ISPs shout about their latest superfast download speeds 8/12/24MB etc but fail to mention what the upload speeds are, you usually have to delve into the smallprint to find out. Often they don't increase it at all.

(For info Telewest have increased their upload speed for the 4MB service from 128k to 384k)

 

[Adywebb]

I'm no mathematician, and I don't know if this is being a bit simplistic, but it appears that you get just over 100KB/sec download speed per 1MB connection - as in my instance 120KB/sec for 1MB and 480KB/sec for 4MB - would that be right?
And does it mean if I got a 24MB connection then my download speed would be around 2800KB/sec?

 

[ChristopherP]

on 2Mb at the moment, will be upgraded automatically to 4Mb when it comes out.

240Kbps average download speed at the mo - hopefully doubled with 4Mb.

Just ordered an ADSL2+ modem for when thats mainstream too!

Plusnet have 2Mb unlimited usage broadband with free migration for under £15 a month (and free modem)... if your interested, PM me and i'll send you a referral link... Its a good deal.

At the moment we are on the premium connection, with a 30:1 contention.

 

[itsme]

I’m with NTL free upgrade from 1 to 3 MB January 2005 download speed 300>320 Kbs download lets say Roy Orbison "Crying" MP3 which is 2Min.43Sec playing time 2.56 Mb in size took 1Min 40 Secs

Another free upgrade due anytime now to 4>5 MB

The browsing experience is fantastic super duper fast, I check the speed in several ways but find the best way is search with google just done a search for fans and took 0.02 Sec>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> showing 154 million results, have been with NTL for um! Can’t remember but a long time with no problems whatsoever.

 

[Me__2001]

if you want to know the theoretical max download speed of a line you need to divide by 8 as 8 bits = 1byte

so down you get

1Mb = 128 KB/s
2Mb = 256 KB/s
4Mb = 512 KB/s

so 24Mb =24576 bits = 3072 = 3MB/s and yes thats megabytes a second

unfortunately the chance of the line hitting max speed is very unlikely, but still thats damn fast. upstreams are usually get a 1/4 of the down speed

 

[Adywebb]

I’m with NTL free upgrade from 1 to 3 MB January 2005 download speed 300>320 Kbs download lets say Roy Orbison "Crying" MP3 which is 2Min.43Sec playing time 2.56 Mb in size took 1Min 40 Secs

itsme, my 35.7Mb download with a 480Kbs download speed took 1min 20secs with a 4MB connection, surely with a 300Kbs download speed your 2.56Mb download should only have taken around 10secs? Or am I getting totally confused about these figures now???

 

[Ian]

Kbps and K/s are different things and it does get a bit confusing. There is some info on Wikipedia which explains it better than I can : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kbps

512kbps is roughly equal to 60k/s - so 4Mbps is around 480k/s

 

[itsme]

itsme, my 35.7Mb download with a 480Kbs download speed took 1min 20secs with a 4MB connection, surely with a 300Kbs download speed your 2.56Mb download should only have taken around 10secs? Or am I getting totally confused about these figures now???

Thats ok I am confused also everything is speed>speed>speed these days so I just go with the flow, now if I Download oh B**ls will do one in a minute and get back to you

 

[itsme]

Right Andywebb
just downloaded


Adobe acrobat 7 size 521.97Kb

Download speed 380 Kbs

Download time 1.4 secs



Now regarding the song I assume it depends on what the speed of the file sharer is not sure how that works, but going by the stats above it seems to be correct

 

[floppybootstomp]

I think I'm looking quite antiquated, lol

I've been with Zen two and a half years now, very happy with them, but it costs me £25.00 for 512 d/l and 256Mb upload.

To go to 1Mb would cost me £30.00 a month and an upgrade fee of £15.00.

My service is uncapped, has good support, I haven't had a single problem and I get a Gig of webspace.

Online gaming is fine, which is the main reason I went Broadband in the first place.

And the biggest plus of all, to my mind, is there's no minimum contract, I don't have to sign up for twelve months, just go along one month at a time. That means a lot to me.

But I'm only getting, at best, 60kb d/l speeds

I recently d/l Mandrake 10.1 for DVD and it took nine hours.

Uploading using ftp is quite good though, gotta say

I dunno, Plusnet does look interesting, do they have a minimum contract time?

 

[itsme]

Flops!

Can you not get NTL £25 month free upgrades.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Flops!

Can you not get NTL £25 month free upgrades.

Um, we've been down this path before, haven't we?

And no, NTL isn't in my area.

 

[itsme]

Um, we've been down this path before, haven't we?

And no, NTL isn't in my area.

Taken my meds ah now I remember silly me

 

[Adywebb]

Right Andywebb
just downloaded


Adobe acrobat 7 size 521.97Kb

Download speed 380 Kbs

Download time 1.4 secs



Now regarding the song I assume it depends on what the speed of the file sharer is not sure how that works, but going by the stats above it seems to be correct

That sounds better with the Adobe download!! - as you say with fileshare downloads you are often limited by the sharer so its going to take alot longer...