Explain 10mb/s line

Dracos13

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Jun 24, 2011
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Hi

I am not up to speed on all the lingo, can someone please help me understand.

If I have a 10 mb/s line, does that mean I get a top download speed of 10mb/s or less or is it possible to get better speeds than 10mb/s?
 
I could be wrong but the way the line speed is marketed in SA is max possible speed which is what you'll get on a good day. In other countries ISP have to advertise based on average speed.
 
Its probably UP TO 10mb, which means it can be that speed but probably less, yes you do get loads faster than 10, on fiber especially.
 
First thing you have to note is that speed is measured in megabits (Mb) and not megabytes (MB).
10Mb = +- 1.25MB so your actual download speed would be around 1 megabyte (MB) per second.

Then you need to take into consideration that it's always "Best effort"
Might be a bit slower, and might sometimes be a bit faster.
My 20Mbps line gives me 19-25Mbps.
 
Hi

I am not up to speed on all the lingo, can someone please help me understand.

If I have a 10 mb/s line, does that mean I get a top download speed of 10mb/s or less or is it possible to get better speeds than 10mb/s?

A 10 megabit line (mbps) amounts to a 1 megabyte (MB/s) line give or take.

You'll never get better than the limit of the line speed and usually nowhere near the exact top speeds due to overheads.

Especially on DSL.

Speedtest = Megabits (mbps)

Windows/Linux/MacOS = Megabytes (MB/s)

To answer the question of your actual line speed you would need to log into your router to see what speed it is syncing at and then compare that with speedtest to discover if you have a problem of some kind.
 
Thanks...I was totally off on my understanding of mbps lol

It all makes more sense now thanks.
 
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