Mbps to Kb Question

SciNeT · 26 Nov 2012 at 15:49

Have tried to look this up but can't be 100% - I have just tested broadband download speed on speedtest.net and had a result of 2.30Mbps, what is this in continuous Kb download speed? Do I divide by 8? (is it "bits"? bits and bytes are both abbreviated "b" by the looks of things :mad:

) Is it 280Kb per second in real terms?

GhostlyPea · 26 Nov 2012 at 15:54

Other way round. 2.3Mbps is around 2300kbps, give or take.

Bits are "b" and bytes are "B" by the way

- GP

Jjustme · 26 Nov 2012 at 15:56

Bits is b
Bytes is B
One byte is 8 bits.

So 2.3Mbps is 287.5kB like you said.

The files sizes you see on websites you download from are almost always in bytes, megabytes gigabytes etc.
Windows also displays file size in bytes.
Speedtest gives you the speed in bits, megabits etc.

passey89 · 26 Nov 2012 at 15:58

8 bits in a byte.

so your 2.3Mbps / 8 = .287MB/s which is 287KB/s.

Broadband companies like to make it look fast

bremen1874 · 26 Nov 2012 at 16:08

passey89 said:
Broadband companies like to make it look fast

Probably partially true, but network speeds have always been quoted in bits rather than bytes.

SciNeT · 26 Nov 2012 at 18:02

That's that sorted then, thanks!

passey89 · 26 Nov 2012 at 19:27

bremen1874 said:
Probably partially true, but network speeds have always been quoted in bits rather than bytes.

on the adverts do u ever hear them say megabit?

Its always super fast "60meg" broadband.

Normal none "techie" people assume its megabytes as they have no idea what a bit is in computer terms.