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How fast is 30 MBPS internet in terms of download speeds?

3,772 479 January 17, 2009 at 08:11 AM
My cable company just started offering 30 MBPS internet.

Right now I have 1 MBPS. I've had 8 MBPS through them as well.

The thing is, I've never gotten more than 115 kbs a second download speeds on all the computers I had that had direct wired connections with the modem, using no router. With a router it's the same thing. 115 kb's wired, about 35 kb's on my laptop.

So basically, my download speeds didn't change between 1 mbps and 8 mbps internet from them and I'm very skeptical of getting the 30 MBPS.

My question is, what download speeds should I expect when having 30 MBPS. I'm sure some of you have it and can tell me your download speeds.

Many people told me on here before when I posted my download speeds that I should be getting faster, especially when I had the 8 mbps.

My computers aren't slow either. My aunt has a computer that's 5 years old and she gets 400 kb's a second with her internet
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Joined Oct 2005
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> bubble2 3,601 Posts
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JoshPowell
01-17-2009 at 08:15 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:15 AM.
30 Mbps = 3.75 megabytes/s

115 is about the max you'd be able to get with 1Mbps (it's megabit not megabye)... if you didn't get much faster than that with 8, you might need to get a new modem.
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> bubble2 51,125 Posts
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dzap
01-17-2009 at 08:18 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:18 AM.
wow..that's um...a huge problem. Hmm...have you tried speedtest.net? What does your speed show up at that site?
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> bubble2 51,125 Posts
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dzap
01-17-2009 at 08:20 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:20 AM.
Quote from JoshPowell :
30 Mbps = 3.75 megabytes/s

115 is about the max you'd be able to get with 1Mbps (it's megabit not megabye)... if you didn't get much faster than that with 8, you might need to get a new modem.
yeah but still...that's some real throttling right there..I even get more than what my cable company advertises...supposedly 8Mbps but I'm getting 12MBps right now according to speedtest.net..
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Persuit of Knowledge
> bubble2 282 Posts
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lightsycle
01-17-2009 at 08:35 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:35 AM.
You divide Mbps by 8 and it will give you MB/s. i.e. My connection is 10Mbps which is 1.25MB/s.
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> bubble2 6,012 Posts
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R1Budha
01-17-2009 at 08:36 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:36 AM.
Quote from dzap :
yeah but still...that's some real throttling right there..I even get more than what my cable company advertises...supposedly 8Mbps but I'm getting 12MBps right now according to speedtest.net..
almost every cable isp in the US has a burst mode for their connections that makes the initial download faster than the average so that they look good for speedtests and can download small files quicker.


the only way to get a real idea of your true speed is to download a very large file and see how the speed looks over the entire time.
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> bubble2 6,012 Posts
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R1Budha
01-17-2009 at 08:46 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:46 AM.
you may also be running into a couple of other issues as well.

1. Cable ISP's are neighborhood node based. Meaning that they run a line to the neighborhood that can support X amount of total bandwidth.
The more people in the neighborhood that have digital cable, internet, and VOIP systems, the more of that bandwidth is used.

They aren't running a line that can support 30Mb/s for every house in the neighborhood, as that would be cost prohibitive. Instead the make a guess on how much they think they need, and then put the lines and equipment in place. Once they exceed this, the total amount of bandwidth available to you starts to decline (which doesn't take long) the more people are online and watching tv and using the phone.

2. You Cable ISP has a set amount of TOTAL bandwidth they pay for.
Once this amount is used, they have no more to give out in the area they cover. This is because you don't expect someone to be utilizing their max internet connection download speed 24/7x365, so instead you plan for an average amount, and when that amount gets used up during peak times, too bad, it averages out.

3. The older modem may not be compatible with the newer standard that allows for more total "neighborhood" speed over the existing lines.

4. The sites you are downloading from may not allow you to use your full bandwidth.
Just because you can download at 30Mb/s doesn't mean that the site you are trying to download from is going to upload to you at 30Mb/s. In fact. most won't let you have anywhere near that. Depending on the site, they may only have 5Mb/s total upload or less. Larger sites of course have more, but then again, they also have more customers. Think of it as the reverse of the neighborhood node.
What kind of Bandwidth would someone like Amazon, or Apple, or Microsoft need if they wanted to provide the ability for people to download at 30Mb/s. The answer is It's more than the current infrastructure can support.
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> bubble2 51,125 Posts
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dzap
01-17-2009 at 08:57 AM.
01-17-2009 at 08:57 AM.
Quote from R1Budha :
almost every cable isp in the US has a burst mode for their connections that makes the initial download faster than the average so that they look good for speedtests and can download small files quicker.


the only way to get a real idea of your true speed is to download a very large file and see how the speed looks over the entire time.
agreed...but I just wanted an estimation from OP...and I believe the closest server to me doesn't rely much on my provider's burst mode (or very little) as it's always in the same general range of what I said..haha..just look at what I got when I tested it with the LA server..
[speedtest.net]
I was going to ask OP to try
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/(their servers are pretty consistent) or something from amazon's servers or some company that uses amazon's servers (they always seem to maximize my connection) but couldn't find something that would be pretty large and free..
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> bubble2 3,772 Posts
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boourns84
01-17-2009 at 09:23 AM.
01-17-2009 at 09:23 AM.
I'm going to call them and see how much it costs.

Right now I pay $34.95 a month for 1 MBPS, as I don't have cable tv from them and it costs a lot more.

I wonder how much they will charge for 30 MBPS.

I'll pay at max 70 bucks a month
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> bubble2 51,125 Posts
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dzap
01-17-2009 at 09:39 AM.
01-17-2009 at 09:39 AM.
Quote from boourns84 :
I'm going to call them and see how much it costs.

Right now I pay $34.95 a month for 1 MBPS, as I don't have cable tv from them and it costs a lot more.

I wonder how much they will charge for 30 MBPS.

I'll pay at max 70 bucks a month
ohhhhh...
"My cable company just started offering 30 MBPS internet."
...see by that..I thought they bumped you up or something...and that you were still experiencing 115kb at 30Mbps yeah is you have 1Mbps....then everyone else is right...that's pretty much what you should expect..
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> bubble2 3,772 Posts
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boourns84
01-17-2009 at 09:50 AM.
01-17-2009 at 09:50 AM.
My bad, I should have been more clear.

I could see getting 115 kb's now, but when I first signed up I had 8 mbps and I was still only getting 115 kb's a sec.
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> bubble2 6,012 Posts
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R1Budha
01-17-2009 at 08:44 PM.
01-17-2009 at 08:44 PM.
Quote from dzap :
agreed...but I just wanted an estimation from OP...and I believe the closest server to me doesn't rely much on my provider's burst mode (or very little) as it's always in the same general range of what I said..haha..just look at what I got when I tested it with the LA server..
[speedtest.net]
I was going to ask OP to try
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/(their servers are pretty consistent) or something from amazon's servers or some company that uses amazon's servers (they always seem to maximize my connection) but couldn't find something that would be pretty large and free..
download the windows 7 beta....

or any linux distro......

both are several gigabytes
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