Bits to bytes

I thought I was being ripped off with my 512 kbps adsl connection when my download speed was only 51.2 kilobytes per sec.

Enquiring to my ISP I was told that 512 kbps is kilobits not kilobytes per second.

So a 1 meg connection actually only gives a download speed of around a 100 kilobytes per sec.

Is this correct and is this the case in other countries.From Australia by the way.

 

I have a 6.1 Mbps connection which gives me about 630 KBs which is around 5Mbps. Dividing by ten looks reasonable as 1 byte=8 bits and there is overhead also, housekeeping as it were.

 

You can easily work it out yourself.

There are 8 bits to a byte, regardless of country.


This is why a 56Kbps (KiloBits a second) dial-up modem for example, will never download faster than 7KB/s (KiloBytes a second).

 

Which is why with a 9Mbps connection, I can only download at 1.2 megabytes per second.

 

OK, thanks for the info fellas.

So 512 kilobits divided by 8 equates to 64 kilobytes.

I think that's right.Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If so and I'm only getting 51.2 kilobytes a sec do you think I should have a go at my ISP and ask for a 64 kilobyte speed (512kbps) as advertised.

It seems they are dividing by 10 instead of 8.

 

People rarely get 100% of advertised speed. You have take account for overhead.


For an ISP to give 100% advertised speed, they have to actually give you MORE than you are rated for.

 

Yes 64 is correct, but that's the maximum possible.

A lot of factors can degrade that.

51 is the norm and acceptable.