Internet speed?

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
08/14/2014 at 14:44 • Filed to: None

My wife got an email from Time Warner saying that we are now getting "3 times faster Internet" for free. I have no idea what these numbers mean. Is this good? Bad? Average?

DISCUSSION (30)

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 14:46

50 is GOOD.

I'm on 15

ttyymmnn > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
08/14/2014 at 14:47

I see now where it says, "Faster than 70% of US". Well, there you go.

mcseanerson > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 14:49

That's great for cable but crap compared to fiber.

trmoore09 > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 14:50

50mb/s download speed is DAMN good. Ours is 15mb/s download and 1mb/s upload. Looks like I need to call and bug TWC for faster internets. Tell me your secrets?!?

ttyymmnn > mcseanerson
08/14/2014 at 14:50

Austin will be getting Google Fiber at some point.

All Motor Is Best Motor > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 14:52

That's good. Here's a little help:

Internet providers rate upload and download speeds in terms of "Megs", but what they mean is "mega bits ". The proper abbreviation for mega bit is Mb. Notice the lowercase "b". A single mega bit equals 1/8 of one mega byte , or rather there are 8 mega bits in one mega byte . A mega byte is abbreviated with MB. Notice the UPPERCASE "B". So if you have a 64 Mb/s (mega bits per second) download speed then the maximum rate of data you can download is 8 MB/s (mega bytes per second).

You can figure your download speed in the more useful MB/s by dividing your speed rating in Mb/s by eight. So your download speed is about 6.41 MB/s (mega bytes per second). That is a good, fast speed. Your upload speed is only about 0.65 MB/s. This is a totally normal upload. For most home internet users, they have a fast download speed and a very slow upload speed. Business class internet usually has a much higher upload speed. Internet providers use the more confusing mega bits per second because it's a bigger number and sounds faster.

That "Ping" that is listed is a measurement of how quickly information is sent to an internet server and then received back by your computer. 21 ms (milliseconds) is a good short time.

Your download speed is the amount of bandwidth (imagine larger diameter water pipes to let more water flow through faster) that you can download from the internet. The upload speed is the same thing, but instead it's for how fast you can send information TO the internet.

TLDR: You have fast internet.

trmoore09 > mcseanerson
08/14/2014 at 14:54

I'm SO ready for fiber to come to Raleigh. I want it NOWWWWW

ttyymmnn > All Motor Is Best Motor
08/14/2014 at 14:56

Image: Ted Stevens "a series of tubes" (God, I miss images)

Thanks.

ttyymmnn > trmoore09
08/14/2014 at 14:57

I wish I knew my secrets. My guess is that Google Fiber is slated to come to Austin soon, and TW realizes that they need to compete to stay in business.

spanfucker retire bitch > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 14:58

Kinja'd!!!

I really hate how shitty cable upload speed is. Fuck the DOCSIS standard and every dinosaur ISP that still uses it over FTTH.

I'm moving out of my apartment in 3 months and I'm going to miss the hell out of my FIOS internet. Especially since they upgraded us from 50/25 to 50/50 last month.

trmoore09 > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 14:59

Could be the case. Maybe TWC will do the same here too since Google Fiber is supposed to be coming here as well. That being said, I'm ditching TWC as soon as that happens. 1000mb/s vs 50mb/s? no brainer!

crown victor victoria > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 15:00

That is good. For reference, this is the fiber-optic network we use at work:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3689669…

My hovercraft is full of eels > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 15:06

That's pretty good.

My ISP has also just boosted the speed from 85 mbps to 200 for download and from 25 mbps to 50 for upload. And that's for the equivalent of about 20 USD/month.

One of the few advantages of living here...

Before you get jealous: one gallon of gas goes for aorund 7 USD. :-S

PS9 > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 15:12

http://www.speedtest.net/result/3689662…

I Hate you. That's what it means.

For real though, Mb = Megabits Per second. 30Mb/s would be 60% faster than the national average, so I'd say 50Mb is pretty shitty. Oh, did I say shitty? I mean to say totally awesome, but I'm jealous of your totally awesome almost-double-the-national-average-internet service and took a cheap shot to try to make you feel bad about having it. Sorry about that.

To perspectivize these numbers, consider yourself a big steam gamer who just purchased 150GB worth of game downloads (that sounds like a lot but it's not anymore. a lot of games are bumping up against the 15GB celing, and some can be even twenty GB a piece now...)

Anyway, 8 Mb/s 1 MB/s, so at my speed, the national average (18Mb/s) and your speed, that download would take respectively; 47 HOURS (cries), 18 Hours, and finally 6 Hours. Actually, the data cap my ISP imposes on us is exactly 150GB, so for me it's more like 5-6 months to trickle in all those steam games from behind the cap. Here's the part where I stop complaining about my shitty ISP, as they are getting das boot at the end of this month.

tl;dr those numbers mean that you have awesome internet, and I with my shitty internet hate you for it.

ttyymmnn > PS9
08/14/2014 at 15:14

/you mad bro?

Sorry. I don't do anything but pay TWC an exorbitant monthly sum for these speeds. And, they make me rent my modem. I know I could have bought three by now in rental fees, but I'm lazy.

E92M3 > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 15:30

That's VERY good!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 15:31

its actually the highest setting my cable provider offers. I wish it was free to go that fast!

mcseanerson > trmoore09
08/14/2014 at 15:37

I live in Chillicothe, Ohio. I'm thankful just for Time Warner for now.

lonestranger > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 15:44

Ugh. no HTML tab anymore, I guess. The formatting is borked:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Conan > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 16:10

Not bad at all. The B is pretty accurate.

Garrett Davis > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 16:52

It's far more than you'll likely ever be able to use. One thing most people forget about download speeds is that you're also relying on the server you're transmitting from's upload speed, which is regulated to conserve bandwidth.

So yes, that is an excellent speed and latency (which is important for gaming especially), but unless you have a lot of people on the same LAN downloading stuff or streaming Netflix, it's not really worth it. If you can save money and go down to 20 or even 15mbps, you shouldn't notice a difference in a smallish household.

Jonathan Harper > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 16:56

http://i.imgur.com/fRY3b5n.png

heh, there's a reason I only upload from work now (144mb upload speed) YA BUDDY

Jonathan Harper > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
08/14/2014 at 16:57

My new workplace has the best internets I've ever used. 75 down and 144 up. It's bliss, but I am now unable to upload or download anything at home because it takes so damn long and I have no patience.

user314 > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 17:07

95 down, 11.68 up, on Comcast.

Sally O'Broder > ttyymmnn
08/14/2014 at 23:12

This is fantastic, with perhaps the exception of the upload speed which is clearly and obviously gimped.

What's happening is that other services have probably moved into your area, forcing the companies to flip the switches necessary to increase your speeds. A lot of technology has been in place for a while that allows them to get you a higher speed with existing infrastructure, so there you go.

It's also possible that this is just a ploy to look good so they can get that merger that's going to happen when Hel warms over.

phenotyp > ttyymmnn
08/15/2014 at 00:01

TW in Austin suuuucks, but they've tried to get better since google arrived, Every couple months they drop my connection to next to nothing. So I get to spend some time on the phone with them. http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/hey-time-warne…

It just takes a phone call to get what you pay for.... But you have to make that phone call.

ttyymmnn > phenotyp
08/15/2014 at 08:32

I've had TW for almost 15 years, and have actually had little issues with them, aside from the random long hold time. I've found that it's better to go by their offices if I have a problem. Fortunately, I have the time to do that.

ttyymmnn > Sally O'Broder
08/15/2014 at 08:33

AT&T UVerse is gaining traction here, and Google Fiber is coming. I think TW is starting to be concerned about the competition.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jonathan Harper
08/15/2014 at 09:16

oh yeah it's rough at home on that 15.

I just ran a test at work:

90 down

48 up

The funniest was when I got my new phone on 4G LTE 2 years ago and it was faster than my home internet. I had to upgrade. You can't have your wireless cell service be faster than your wired connection. That's messed up

Sally O'Broder > ttyymmnn
08/15/2014 at 13:43

There's your answer, then. They've had the technology and everything else in place to give you increased speeds for a while now. They're only doing this because there is competition.

This is a magnificent illustration of the backwards, stagnant, and anti-competitive miasma that is the US telecom industry. Imagine if they merged with Comcast - they'd almost never compete with anyone! Hell, given their "gentleman's agreement" with Comcast both of them should be brought up on antitrust charges...