Download speed is lying to me

[bloopiyas]

Yo, so whenever I go to speedtest.net or smth, it always says my download speed is smth like 33 mbps, but when im actually downloading something, the download thing says its like 3 - 4 mbps, anyone know why???

[Hinjima]

1 minute ago, bloopskiz said:

Yo, so whenever I go to speedtest.net or smth, it always says my download speed is smth like 33 mbps, but when im actually downloading something, the download thing says its like 3 - 4 mbps, anyone know why???

Because torrents are unreliable when it comes to download speed. It has nothing to do with your internet and more to do where its being downloaded from and how many people have been seeding that file.
Whats your download speed in steam?

[bloopiyas]

Just now, Hinjima said:

Because torrents are unreliable when it comes to download speed. It has nothing to do with your internet and more to do where its being downloaded from and how many people have been seeding that file.
Whats your download speed in steam?

like 29 - 35 mbps, it also happens for like free download manager and opera

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, bloopskiz said:

anyone know why???

Servers. Speedtest.net will connect to the best possible speedtest server to give the best-case throughput on your connection. When actually downloading something, you'll be connecting to whatever server they have, so download speed will vary a lot. Depends on how fast that computer is, how far away it is from you, their throughput to the ISP on their end, whether they throttle download speeds, etc. 

[MSMSMSM]

Interesting choice of data point aside, it's because of a variety of reasons:

• ISPs can be engaging in traffic shaping and prioritizing speed tests (or throttling P2P connections)
• The speed test server can be geographically proximate to your current location (versus your P2P peer)
• As a general rule of thumb, speed is determined by the slowest link in the chain (i.e. the bottleneck), if your ISP-to-local machine link doesn't have the bottleneck, then it can be limited by elsewhere in the chain

Also, make sure you're comparing equivalent units, MB/s =/= Mb/s, 1 MB (megabyte) = 8 Mb (megabit)

[Hinjima]

1 minute ago, bloopskiz said:

like 29 - 35 mbps, it also happens for like free download manager and opera

So you are getting the speed you pay for from legit download / game stores.
Welcome to torrenting, it can take 2 hours or 37 days, its not up to you or your download speed.

[tikker]

8 minutes ago, bloopskiz said:

Yo, so whenever I go to speedtest.net or smth, it always says my download speed is smth like 33 mbps, but when im actually downloading something, the download thing says its like 3 - 4 mbps, anyone know why???

One byte (uppercase B) is 8 bits (lowercase b). Network speeds are often reported in bits per second, or Mbps, while other programs may prefer to report bytes per second, or MBps. If you divide your 33 megabits per second (Mbps) by 8 you get about 4.125 megaBytes  per second. Your download speed seems about consitent with the speed test if you take that into account.

[Kilrah]

Speed test gives you Mbps,your downloads give you MBps. Capital B matters, 1MByte = 8Mbit.

[bloopiyas]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Speed test gives you Mbps,your downloads give you MBps. Capital B matters, 1MByte = 8Mbit.

didnt know that, thanks for the info

[Senzelian]

4 minutes ago, MSMSMSM said:

Also, make sure you're comparing equivalent units, MB/s =/= Mb/s, 1 MB (megabyte) = 8 Mb (megabit)

This!

mbps and MiB/s are entirely different units!

 

3,2 MiB/s (Mebibit per second) = 27 mbps (Mb/s, Megabit per second) = 3,3 MB/s (Megabyte per second)

[bloopiyas]

1 minute ago, Senzelian said:

This!

mbps and MiB/s are entirely different units!

 

3,2 MiB/s (Mebibit per second) = 27 mbps (Mb/s, Megabit per second) = 3,3 MB/s (Megabyte per second)

so if i have 3.2 mib/s is my speed still gon be my speed that i got in speedtest?

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, bloopskiz said:

so if i have 3.2 mib/s is my speed still gon be my speed that i got in speedtest?

Not exactly, but close.

 

It's kinda like km/h and mp/h. Just two different ways of measuring the speed.

[bloopiyas]

1 minute ago, Senzelian said:

Not exactly, but close.

 

It's kinda like km/h and mp/h. Just two different ways of measuring the speed.

aight, thanks for the help brother

[Guest]

Mega bits are for measuring data that is being transferred. Mega bytes are for stored data.     

[Blue4130]

4 hours ago, billorwill said:

Mega bits are for measuring data that is being transferred. Mega bytes are for stored data.     

Except for when it's not. Steam uses Mega BYTES, not bits. I am sure there are other exceptions also.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Except for when it's not. Steam uses Mega BYTES, not bits. I am sure there are other exceptions also.

What are megabits per second (Mbps)?

Megabits per second (Mbps) are units of measurement for network bandwidth and throughput. They are used to show how fast a network or internet connection is. Each Mbps represents the capacity to transfer 1 million bits each second, or roughly one small photo per second. It may also be expressed as Mbit/s or Mb/s.

[Blue4130]

47 minutes ago, billorwill said:

What are megabits per second (Mbps)?

Megabits per second (Mbps) are units of measurement for network bandwidth and throughput. They are used to show how fast a network or internet connection is. Each Mbps represents the capacity to transfer 1 million bits each second, or roughly one small photo per second. It may also be expressed as Mbit/s or Mb/s.

Are you a bot? Yes, i know what it is. What I am saying is that steam shows MB/s (megabytes per second) not mb/s.

 

Not all download speeds are megabits per second as you stated.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Are you a bot? Yes, i know what it is. What I am saying is that steam shows MB/s (megabytes per second) not mb/s.

 

Not all download speeds are megabits per second as you stated.

Yes they are. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Are you a bot? Yes, i know what it is. What I am saying is that steam shows MB/s (megabytes per second) not mb/s.

 

Not all download speeds are megabits per second as you stated.

megabits per second (Mbps)

 

The internet industry measures speed in megabits per second (Mbps). So the greater the megabits per second, the speedier your internet is.

[Needfuldoer]

7 minutes ago, billorwill said:

Yes they are. 

They're also megabytes per second, kilobits per second, kilobytes per second, kibibytes per second, mebibytes per second...

 

It's all the same speed, displayed in different units of measure.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

They're also megabytes per second, kilobits per second, kilobytes per second, kibibytes per second, mebibytes per second...

 

It's all the same speed, displayed in different units of measure.

It would all be in bits. People confuse data storage transfer speed with bandwidth. 

[Blue4130]

5 minutes ago, billorwill said:

megabits per second (Mbps)

 

The internet industry measures speed in megabits per second (Mbps). So the greater the megabits per second, the speedier your internet is.

I understand that, but that is not the measurement that steam uses. They use MB/s, note the capital B denoting BYTE, not bit.

[Needfuldoer]

3 minutes ago, billorwill said:

It would all be in bits 

And that measurement can be converted and expressed in different units. It's still the same speed regardless of how nonstandard or uncommon said units are.

 

The Golden Gate Bridge is 8,981 feet long. Is it not also 1,608.537 Smoots long?

[Guest]

Steam is misleading people then. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

The actual data transfer is the same regardless of the units it's being expressed in.

 

The Golden Gate Bridge is 8,981 feet long. Is it not also 1608.537 Smoots long?

Data transfer from disk is not the same a bandwidth.