How come my ISP claims 3000kbps and I only get 200kBps?

Richard S. · By: **Richard S.** On: Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:33 am

The key here is the letters following the numbers. A lowercase b denotes kilobits, a uppercase b denotes bytes. There are 8 kilobits in a kilobyte. ISP's always use the higher kilobit because it looks good for marketing but the average user associates the b with B especially since windows uses KB as the standard for measuring download speeds of a file which leads to the confusion. So........

8kb's = 1KB -or- 3000kbps = 375KBps

That accounts for the major difference in measured speeds but why are you still only getting 200KBps when you download? How fast you can download a file depends on a few factors, the network activity and the server your downloading from at the moment are the major two. If your connected to a ISP that is being heavily used you will see a decrease in perfomance. The server your downloadfing from can have the biggest affect. Just like you they have a limited amount of bandwidth to pass around so do they. Servers limit the amount they give to each user so everyone gets a bite of the pie. How much they give to each user depends on there bandwidth available and how much the server is used. FYI 200KBps is an excellent download speed for any public server.

Rich · By: **Rich** On: Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:22 pm

Go here http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/Bandwidth.asp
& run test. Write down results. Then run there Optimize scanner & follow instructions. Reboot & re-run test to see if your any faster. Also you may want to upgrade your modem to the new DOCSIS 2.0 standard. Cable companies have been upgrading & this will affect Up & download speeds.

This modem is Highly reccomended :shock:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6825112104

If you don't have cable & are running DSL or Dial -up I feel for you.