Calculating DSL download speed

This is probably a dumb question, but after spending a month trying to deal with A T & T about my DSL malfunctions, I'm more than confused about how to determine the actual time I should expect doing a file download.

Yesterday, I downloaded two audio files (an audio book from Audible.com) and timed both with a clock. One file was just under 84 Mb and the other just over 84 Mb. Each file took about 105 minutes to download.

I calculated that my download "speed" was 0.8 Mb/Minute (84/105).

According to some speed tests I ran using two different speed test web sites, my DSL download speed was .65 Mb/Second.

A T & T is providing me their lowest DSL offering which is rated at .7 Mb/second (for $30/month) which compared to the speed test results, is probably reasonable.

But, I don't understand why my measured calculation (.8 Mb/Minute) is so dramatically different. .8 Mb/Minute is 48 Mb/Second (.8 X 60).

The difference is absurd, so it must be my calculation and/or a misunderstanding of DSL rated speed vs. measured speed. :confused

Can some one set me straight?

Thanks.

 

After posting and doing a little thinking about this, I wondered if I was mixing "bits" with "bytes".

It's been 50 years since I learned how to program in Autocoder, but I recall that a "byte" consisted of 8 bits (+ a check bit). If the 84 Mb files were 84 MegaBytes and the download speed test was .65 MegaBits, then my calculation should have been adjusted by a factor of 8 (or 9).

Is that the problem?

 

You might want to try something like http://www.speedtest.net/ to test your up and down speeds. You can select servers around the world. This should give you a decent baseline, but like Tim said, it also depends on the site you are downloading from. The slowest device sets the speed.

 

Yes, you're confusing the two. Download and upload speeds are usually measured in Mbps = Megabits per second. Downloading 84 MB in 105 minutes equates to a download speed of 0.1 Mbps.

Download NetWorx. It's free and will show you all your network activity, including upload and download speeds.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/networx.html

Open Settings > Graph and select the transfer rate, Bytes/s or Bits/s, you prefer to see.