Why is it that on speedtest.net I am getting 20mb/s but whenI download something I get about 400kb/s?

[Cbeeman]

I'm even running the soeedtest whille I'm downloading.

[jameshumphries47]

this happens because the server that you are downloading from / people seeding are slow or doing a few people at one time, I think!

sorry if thi is wrong but that's what I think!!!

~james

[azrituba]

speed is in bits while download speed is in bytes. its a different values. maybe its limited by the download sites too

[jonasa97]

If you are getting 20 megabit download rate you should get around 2.5MB/S but as people above have stated that is only when the server is under low load and when it's very close.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Your only as fast as the weakest link.,

 

You could be the fastest reciever in the world, but if the sender is slow as fuck,,,,,.......well,,.. you get the point

Not all pipes are laid equal, not are all as fast as another,

first world problems...

[brownninja97]

bits and bytes are different things, speedtest measures in bits and you download in bytes.

[Kayn]

Speedtest.net often shows your download speeds higher than what they really are. I like testmy.net a lot better, it is also more accurate.

[Guest Kefuren]

Speedtest.net measures your connection speed in megabits per second (Mb/s), whereas downloads usually indicate the speed as megabytes per seconds (MB/s).

 

One megabyte is eight megabits, so an optimal scenario with your connection would then be 20Mb/s / 8 = 2.5MB/s, but there are also other factors that come into play, such as the protocol (TCP is slower than UDP), capacity and speed of the server, the physical distance between you and the server, and so on.

 

Yes, 400kb/s is waaay slower than what you should be getting, I'd say your download speed to a nearby server, let's say the Steam server in your country should be around 2MB/s.

[99vw]

Try this test file and see what your result is.

 

http://test.atl.ramnode.com/100MB.test

 

At 20Mb/s a second it should theoretically be 2.5MB/s but it will probably be a slightly lower due to overhead.

[Guest]

SpeedTest is going to the nearest server that it can to check the connection speed which is not an accurate measure. If you're downloading a file from a US or Euro host and you're in Oceania, SpeedTest results are useless. 

[cyb0rg]

Yes, speedtest.net results arent really reliable because the testing files of speedtest are fairly small and most isp's give your download speed a boost that slopes down over time so with this boost and the small testing files this results in the speedtest being done before the boost has sloped down. I would recommend test.my for serious tests

[rmac52]

Look at it this way.  I have a home server and my upload speed is 5 Mbps.  My friend has an internet speed of 25 Mbps down.  If I give him access to my server and he tries to download something he is limited by my upload speed.  Like someone above me said, you are limited by the slowest part of the connection.