Confused about my internet speed

DarwinsFavoriteTortoise

Pretty simple question here.

I have an 8Mb/s plan here, in Las Vegas, with Cox Cable.

I just went to speedtest.net, and chose a server that was in Las Vegas.

I got 17Mb/s download speed. Wtf?

I then chose a server on the other side of the globe (in New Zealand), and my download speed was 25Mb/s.

Isn't there some sort of cap on the speed? Why are my download speeds so fast? And why is it 25Mb/s from the other side of the planet, but 17Mb/s from a server a few miles away?

As you can see, I don't know much about internet stuff.

Thanks.

RUNN1NGMAN

Do they have something similar to Comcast's Speedboost? It basically jacks up your download rate for small files or the first part of large files. You'll see abnormally high download speeds if your provider uses a system like that.

DrFrylock

That is likely the answer. It's tough to see if that's what's going on or not, but load up a 10 minute video on YouTube and see how the loading bar moves at the bottom. If it goes real fast for the first 10-20% and then slower for the rest, you're likely getting a speed boost.

FyreWulff

You are probably getting ReadyBoost'd, where they up your speed for short terms to get files downloaded faster.

You could also be extremely lucky and have a low number of people on your node

Topweasel

FyreWulff wrote: »

You are probably getting ReadyBoost'd, where they up your speed for short terms to get files downloaded faster.

You could also be extremely lucky and have a low number of people on your node

They stuck a Thumb drive in his Vista computer without telling him?

FyreWulff

Fuck if I can remember their marketing name for it, but every ISP does it now.

rockmonkey

alternately you could download something large from, say, Microsoft where you know the speed shouldn't be limited by their end of things. I can't think of anything suitably large save for maybe the Windows 7 RC iso.

GPIA7R

Megabits and Megabytes - You sure both said the same? That's one misleading thing that bugged me when I first found it out.

rockmonkey

GPIA7R wrote: »

Megabits and Megabytes - You sure both said the same? That's one misleading thing that bugged me when I first found it out.

This.


8 bits to make 1 byte.

So 1 megabyte is 8 megabits. Bits aren't used often in sizes which is what most people are used to dealing with on computers, but bits have traditionally been the default for transfer speeds.

Erandus

FyreWulff wrote: »

You could also be extremely lucky and have a low number of people on your node

Shouldn't allow him to overstep his advertised speed allowance in a sustained download. They cap your download rate no mater what the utilization on your node is. As stated, most ISPs let you burst well above that cap for a brief period. Most people just don't download things bigger than 4 or 5 meg (mp3s), so letting you have basically uncapped transfer for the first meg or two can make your connection seem much faster than it really is.

The suggestion to download a huge file is probably the best, especially from someplace like Microsoft that generally has a lot of bandwidth available. Download the Windows 7 RC at like 3am and see what speeds you sustain after the first 5 or 10 minutes. I held a steady 900k a second when I downloaded it.