Question for the experts: Choosing an ISP, what do the numbers actually mean ?

[DaveB]

inside the house it's a wired network

you mean that the wifi link to the house won't be the speed
they say it is ?

Milan.

They very rarely are, even for wired services. The numbers quoted are the theoretical optimum speeds possible. The actual speed will probably be around 10-50% of that depending on the time of day, contention ratios, distance from the exchange/transmission source etc.

I'm on a 512kb wired connection and the best speeds I get are around 50kbps, and thats in the wee small hours when no other bugger is using the service.

[milanbenes]

sh1t

Milan.

[DaveB]

It's not that bad unless you have a demanding service running on it.

I have 4 PC's on the home network and can have multiple online games, surfing, email etc all running ok with no noticable lag.

If you wanted to host a busy website or one that needed a very fast response you;d be in trouble, otherwise you should be ok.

[milanbenes]

ok thanks

but if I'm working from home and downloading software sources for example 1.5gb cd's then it's gonna take forever isn't it ?

Milan.

[DaveB]

Yep. Hours not minutes. Best solution is to leave them running overnight.

[threaded]

ok thanks

but if I'm working from home and downloading software sources for example 1.5gb cd's then it's gonna take forever isn't it ?

Milan.

Oh yes

[kramer]

ok thanks

but if I'm working from home and downloading software sources for example 1.5gb cd's then it's gonna take forever isn't it ?

Milan.

do you work in computing milan?

Have you ever thought what megabits a second actually means?

Have you thought about a night class? Might help you get out of tape changing!

[milanbenes]

oh well have to strart doing some planning then
get the sources ready before working from home

still, if it takes longer could bill more hours, nice

Milan.