Why is it that...

[Wakeboy1337]

Speed tests for my connection speed on any website, say that I have a WAY faster connection than I really am getting.
I'm on a fastaccess DSL bellsouth connection in south Florida and i get no fast than 153 kb/per sec down and for upstream I coulnt even tell you how slow it is. But if I goto a a speedtest site, I get numbers like this.

Downstream Rate
1495 (Kbits/Sec)


Upstream Rate
252 (Kbits/Sec)


I can download a file, lets say...Itunes from apple.com and get 153 kb/s
If I do the same thing at a friend's house and even if he is on the same plan with the same modem he or she can get from 880 to 1202 kb/s

We keep calling customer service and they give us stupid shit like "unplug your modem and let it cool off and call back in 2 hours when you plug it back in" <--- No fucking lie.

Sorry about the rant but this is pissing me the hell off. I cant even play a game online.

[dydo]

Well 1495 Kilobits is 186 Kilobytes. KB (Kilobytes) and Kb (Kilobits) are completely different. According to your speedtest.net result, you should be getting 30 more Kilobytes. I don't know why your internet is slower than your friends but you can try to connect your internet to a clean computer and run speedtest.net and see if the speed changes. If it does, it's your PC. Otherwise, it's your internet connection.

Also, http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/ <---- Bit Calculator.

[Wakeboy1337]

Shit your right about the bytes vs bits. My eyes didn't even catch that. But it happens on any computer, linux, mac, or pc. And my ipod. It's not the computers. And we pay for 1.5mb/ps according to my dad.

[Limited]

And we pay for 1.5mb/ps according to my dad.
Yes, you pay for 1.5 Mega Bits. Divide that by 8 and you get bytes (8 bits per byte) Therefore thats the maximum speed, because download rate is usually given in bytes, whereas speedtests are bits.

Also, you are very lucky to get speed you actually paid for. We pay for 8 mbp/s but we get like 2

[Wakeboy1337]

Sons of bitchs, Bellsouth is sneaky.

[Limited]

Also, it probably matters what time of day you download stuff. Usually at night is the time when you get the highest speeds.

[Cortexian]

Most ISP's advertise their speeds in bits per second, it's rather sneaky.

[NullZero]

It's quite annoying, but if you do a little homework, you'll see straight through the marketing ploy.