So a 2Mbps DSL line would be expected to provide a maximum download speed of 232KB/s.īy the way, speed testing sites generally just measure the usable data rate over TCP and then multiply by eight. TCP over DSL has a maximum efficiency of about 95%, so multiply by 0.95 to get 232KB/s. You can then divide by 1,024 to get kilobytes per second, or 244KB/s. You divide by 8 to get bytes per second, or 250,000. So if you have a '2Mbps DSL' service, that means your line carries 2,000,000 bits per second. This download time calculator will help you determine the time it will take to download a file at a given internet bandwidth. The overhead of the line encoding is already figured in, but the overhead of control and address information is not. Also, the line doesn't just carry data, it has to carry address and control information as well. Data transfer rates are measured in binary units and bytes per second. Line speeds are measured in decimal units and in bits per second. If you require an exact calculation, and you're unclear what units the result is in, you need to ask the developers how the math was implemented in the program or operating system. Download files from thinkbroadband to test your download speeds from their servers. Note that kilobyte is a common misnomer for kibibyte, but the difference is neglegible for most purposes (as you can see above, both results are fairly close to eachother). Test files are specially designed dummy files that allow you to download the file to measure the speed and performance of your internet connection. download and upload speeds you would experience during a web-based file download. What your browser/download tool uses depends on how the developers implemented the math, but in the case they do use mebibytes/kibibytes, your theoretical maximum speed would simply be:ĢMb/s = 2Mb/s * 1Mb/8MiB = 0.25MiB/s -> 0.25MiB/s * 1024 kiB/MiB = 256 kiB/s Your download speed and your upload speed. The convention for unit steps of 1024 is used for mebibyte (MiB), which consists of 1024 kibibytes (kiB). In order to find your Internet download speed what you need to do is basically grab a file from a remote site or from your ISP’s support site, and monitor the speed in which the file is. Note that I have used megabyte here, which assumes 1000 kilobytes per megabyte. So you can theoretically cap out at just under 250 kilobytes per second. To convert to mega bytes (MB), you simply divide by 8, since there are 8 bits in a byte:ĢMb/s = 2Mb/s * 1Mb/8MB = 0.25MB/s = 250 kB/s

File download speed test