Download speed vs. transfer rate???

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jdibiase

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#33105 29-Apr-2009 21:26

Hey guys -

Myself & neighbour are both with Xtra, both use Thompson wireless modems. Only difference is I'm on Explorer Plan (10GB) and she's on Go Large Plan (unlimited)

Why is it that she can have a Download speed of 8-9Mbps (800Mb movie should download in around 12 mins) but a transfer rate of only 10-20Kbps (giving a download time of around 10 hours plus!)?

At my house I'll get same download speed but much faster transfer rate (norrmal movie download around 20 mins)

Any ideas?

Batman

Mad Scientist
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#210695 29-Apr-2009 21:34

couple of things
1) 8 mega bits per second (Mbps) is not 8 mega bytes per second, but 1 mega bytes (MBps) per second

2) capping - your broadband is not capped by telecom. your broadband goes as fast as your line and other concurrent line traffic and the server you're talking to's speed allows. your neighbour's broadband is capped. the line speed is fast but telecom puts a squeeze on how fast data can travel through the line. think of it as a dam. lots of potential speed but nearly zero travel rate. they need to change plans to an uncapped plan like yours.

Ragnor

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#210956 30-Apr-2009 17:34

Imagine a toll bridge with 4 lanes.

Go Large users can only use the left lane not the other three, they don't have to pay per crossing so it's always congested. Regular users pay (traffic gets deducted from their cap) the toll each time they cross the bridge but they can use any of the 3 lanes meaning they get across faster.

Also the speed your adsl modem/router connects to your exchange at will almost never get the actual speed you get downloading something. A lot of other factors come into that eg: network congestion, the speed of the server at the other end etc etc.

jdibiase

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#212197 4-May-2009 18:58

Thanks heaps for that mate :)

cheers for analogy aswell!

jfnz

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#213455 8-May-2009 14:18

Ragnor: Imagine a toll bridge with 4 lanes.

Go Large users can only use the left lane not the other three, they don't have to pay per crossing so it's always congested. Regular users pay (traffic gets deducted from their cap) the toll each time they cross the bridge but they can use any of the 3 lanes meaning they get across faster.

Also the speed your adsl modem/router connects to your exchange at will almost never get the actual speed you get downloading something. A lot of other factors come into that eg: network congestion, the speed of the server at the other end etc etc.

Nice analogy. Might borrow that one!

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