4Mbps spike to 800KB/s.. HOW?

[nakedpeanut]

So i'm downloading Dirt 2 from steam on my PC and after about an hour i notice a spike of 700KB/s then a later a spike of 821KB/s.
I was downloading another large file with DownThemAll! Concurrently on my laptop and it to spike at 700+... (not at the same time) but shortly afterwards. This was at about 2:30 in the morning.

I've checked. And not part of any 10Mbit trials. and my router is syncing at the correct line speed.
So how is this possible? btw on Mweb 4Mb uncapped.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4397/steamdl.png

 

[Uli]

So i'm downloading Dirt 2 from steam on my PC and after about an hour i notice a spike of 700KB/s then a later a spike of 821KB/s.
I was downloading another large file with DownThemAll! Concurrently on my laptop and it to spike at 700+... (not at the same time) but shortly afterwards. This was at about 2:30 in the morning.

I've checked. And not part of any 10Mbit trials. and my router is syncing at the correct line speed.
So how is this possible? btw on Mweb 4Mb uncapped.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4397/steamdl.png

Dont worry its nothing.
I once had a spike on my nokia 6260 for about 1-2min and got 8mb on virgin mobile.
So I dont know if it meens much anyway but in the end it doesnt...lol

 

[Rudimental]

That's nothing, Steam once told me I had a peak d/l rate of 2.6MB/s on my 384 line. It's just the program misreporting stuff, afaik.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Its a software thing, it has nothing to do with the actual speed, if you had a hardware system monitoring it it would not have registered any spike. What you experiencing is the same like what happens when you save a file using internet explorer, then choose a file location, and after that your download speed being displayed on the download window will be artificially high for a few seconds.

 

[nakedpeanut]

Ya sometimes when i download a smallish file (2MB) or so. As i hit save in Firefox the download manager pops up and it's dl'd half the file already!.. Weird.

 

[HapticSimian]

Ya sometimes when i download a smallish file (2MB) or so. As i hit save in Firefox the download manager pops up and it's dl'd half the file already!.. Weird.

Not so weird... if you download a file in Firefox, it starts downloading once the dialogue that asks you what you want to do with the file opens up. So, whilst you're merrily clicking about, trying to find the folder you want to save your file to, it's downloading in the background. However, it only starts reporting download speed once you click 'Save'.

 

[ToAsTeD]

Its a software thing, it has nothing to do with the actual speed, if you had a hardware system monitoring it it would not have registered any spike. What you experiencing is the same like what happens when you save a file using internet explorer, then choose a file location, and after that your download speed being displayed on the download window will be artificially high for a few seconds.

+1 well said

 

[Droolmonster]

ive also been downloading at crazy speeds with mweb uncapped (600-700 KBs on steam at night time's)

 

[ToAsTeD]

Steam's traffic speed indicator is incorrect, if you monitor your traffic on your router or through an app like netlimiter you will see its not actually 600 or 700 Kbps.

 

[PeterCH]

Its a software thing, it has nothing to do with the actual speed, if you had a hardware system monitoring it it would not have registered any spike. What you experiencing is the same like what happens when you save a file using internet explorer, then choose a file location, and after that your download speed being displayed on the download window will be artificially high for a few seconds.

Exploiter downloads stuff as soon as you click on it and not when you select the file save location, so if you delay long enough with the File Save location you will get the full thing downloaded instantanously.

 

[DCBloodHound]

isn't 4mbps 4000kb/s?

 

[nakedpeanut]

There is a difference between KB/s and kb/s...
4Mb = 4 * 1024Kb = 4096Kb
4096kb/8 =512KB (8 bits in a Byte)