Internet Question

[barnacles]

So I recently upgraded to Comcasts powerboost, the 16 meg. Its wireless throughout the house through a Linksys N Router. When I test my speeds i get these results...
Your connection is: 6940 Kbps or 6.9 Mbps
You downloaded at: 847 kB/s
You are running: 121 times faster than 56K and can download 1 megabyte in 1.21 second(s)
Member Ident: CompID:698441785331
Test Time:: 2008/08/24 - 4:54pm
Test Browser and OS info: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Test ID: AXQWO6B7S (if this is a screenshot go to testmy.net to see if this is fake)
Diagnosis ^info^: Looks Great : 11.38 % faster than the average for host (comcast.net)
This was tested from a 12280 kB file and took 14.496 seconds to complete

If im reading that correctly im only pullin 7 megs? Anybody?

[Gaz]

Your speed is dependent on how far away you are from the exchange and the quality of the line, that is of course if comcast does cable connection and not fiber optics, i wouldn't know.

[barnacles]

ok but my question then is if they offer an 8 meg service why shouldnt I just buy that if thats all im pulling. Or is 8 meg expected to pull like 4?

[pparks1]

Even though you are buying 16 megabits of service...your ability to actually download at that speed is completely dependent upon who you are pulling data from. For example, if I put a file on my FTP server and only have a T1 (1.5megabits per second) to the Internet...you aren't going to be able to pull any faster than I can deliver the file to you.

So, with some sites...you may pull 16 megabits per second. However, from other sites you may only see the 7 megabits per second that you are seeing.

Whether you really need that fast of service depends upon the types of things that you download. My home service is 6.5 megabits per second...and that's perfectly fine for everything that I do, including multi-gig linux distro downloads.

[barnacles]

Originally Posted by pparks1

Even though you are buying 16 megabits of service...your ability to actually download at that speed is completely dependent upon who you are pulling data from. For example, if I put a file on my FTP server and only have a T1 (1.5megabits per second) to the Internet...you aren't going to be able to pull any faster than I can deliver the file to you.

So, with some sites...you may pull 16 megabits per second. However, from other sites you may only see the 7 megabits per second that you are seeing.

Whether you really need that fast of service depends upon the types of things that you download. My home service is 6.5 megabits per second...and that's perfectly fine for everything that I do, including multi-gig linux distro downloads.

oh well yes, i am very happy with the speeds. I had just assumed that a site designated to test your connection speed would be able to push out enough quick enough to test to full potential. But thats not that case? And if thats not the case is a 16 meg speed really worth it in comparison with lets say an 8 meg? Assuming that majority that I download from isn't going to push data at the speeds I can accept? BTW thanks for all the helpful replies.

[pparks1]

Most of the speed tests do have adequate bandwidth to test your speeds....but even a small routing problem between and host and the ISP could be routing you through a less than ideal route for your tests as any one time.

Only you can tell for sure whether it's worth the price difference. If you are the type to download tons of music and movies from the web...you probably want the speed. If you are just a typical web surfer, you play some XboxLive and send e-mails here and there.....it's very unlikely you really "need" 16 megabits of bandwidth. Let's just say that I am currently at 6.5 and if my provider offered me 16 megabits for $5 a month..I would do it. if it was $15 a month, I would say NO.

[barnacles]

ok thanks for the help. i appreciate it