How fast exactly is a 360mb broadband internet?

[DGaming]

Hey guys, I'm getting a 360mb broadband and I know thats really fast, but how fast exactly is it? For example if I'm downloading 30 gigs, around how much time will it take to download? Im asking because Im not really a network guy, so I dont understand from internet speeds much

 

Thanks a lot ^^

[Zyndo]

would take about 11 minutes (unless I mathed wrong)

[Oshino Shinobu]

If you're actually getting 360Mbps downloads, then 30 Gigabytes would take around 11.1 minutes (666 seconds - seriously) 

 

However, it's unlikely you'll actually get full 360Mbps, so take those numbers with a pinch of salt. 

[HPWebcamAble]

The actual download speed will probably be less than the theoretical speed, since your ISP and router don't instantly give you the full potential of your connection. It'll get faster the longer that a file is downloading, up to a point. It won't let one thing take up all of your bandwidth either.

 

In theory it would be about 11 minutes to download an 16 gig file on that speed

Edited June 1, 2016 by HPWebcamAble
math correction

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, HPWebcamAble said:

The actual download speed will probably be less than the theoretical speed, since your ISP and router don't instantly give you the full potential of your connection. It'll get faster the longer that a file is downloading, up to a point. It won't let one thing take up all of your bandwidth either.

 

There's 1000 megabytes in a gigabyte so that's about 80 seconds (in theory) to download a 30 gig file

360 Megabits a second, not Megabytes. 360MB/s would be around 3Gbps broadband, which really isn't available for consumers. 

 

EDIT: At 3Gbps, the drive and SATA revision may start limiting speeds. 

[minibois]

360 megabit (Mb) download speed with a 30 Gigabyte (GB) file:

30 Gigabyte * 8 = 240 Gigabit * 1000 = 240.000 megabit / 360 megabit = 666 seconds = 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

 

That is assuming the server you are downloading from can give you the full 360 megabit (which shows up as 45MB in Steam by the way)

[Zyndo]

1 minute ago, HPWebcamAble said:

The actual download speed will probably be less than the theoretical speed, since your ISP and router don't instantly give you the full potential of your connection. It'll get faster the longer that a file is downloading, up to a point. It won't let one thing take up all of your bandwidth either.

 

There's 1000 megabytes in a gigabyte so that's about 80 seconds (in theory) to download a 30 gig file

Internet speeds are measured in Bits, here its Mbs (megabit per second) file size is measured in Bytes, here its GB (Gigabytes). there are 8 bits in a byte, so we can convert 360 Mbs into 45 MBs. there are 1024 MB in a GB, therefore it takes about 11 minutes..... not 80 seconds.

[DGaming]

Wow, thats really fast... Thanks for all the answers. Might I also ask, as u mentioned above, I probably wont get the full 360mb, but is there a way to know about how much Ill get?

-Thanks ^^

[iiNNeX]

I'm on Virgin Fibre internet, and I get 200mb as part of my package.. however I actually get 240-250mb depending on the time of day, so downloads usually peak at 24-25mbps according to Steam/Origin/Uplay. 

 

It's epic

[Windows7ge]

Well math:

360 megabits

8 bits is equal to 1 byte

so 360 / 8 = 45

so 45MB/s a 30 gigabyte file

1 gigabyte = 1024MB

30 x 1024 = 30,720 / 45 = 682 / 60 = 11

so a 30GB file downloading at 45MB/s would take around 11 minutes 22 seconds...if my math is correct.

[Oshino Shinobu]

3 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

there are 1024 MB in a GB

There are 1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte. It's a decimal system (base 10). 1024 is for the binary system using Mebibytes and Gibibytes. 

Not really an important distinction, but it is still a large source of confusion on drive and unit sizes. It's why 1TB drives show as 931GB in Windows, when really they are 931GiB and are still 1TB (1000GB). 

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, DGaming said:

Wow, thats really fast... Thanks for all the answers. Might I also ask, as u mentioned above, I probably wont get the full 360mb, but is there a way to know about how much Ill get?

-Thanks ^^

Not until you actually get the connection. The speeds you actually get can vary based on many factors, including cable quality, congestion, time of day etc. 

[LAwLz]

30 gigabytes is 240000 megabits.

240000 / 360 = 8000 seconds => 666 seconds = 11 minutes (and 6 seconds).

 

 

You most likely won't get exactly 360Mbps though. There will be overhead and losses. You will rarely be able to fully max out your connection for a single download either.

Your downloads will only be as fast as the slowest part of the chain (including all the stuff data has to pass though before reaching your computer).

[thekeemo]

1 minute ago, LAwLz said:

30 gigabytes is 240000 megabits.

240000 / 360 = 8000 seconds => 666 seconds = 11 minutes (and 6 seconds).

 

 

You most likely won't get exactly 360Mbps though. There will be overhead and losses. You will rarely be able to fully max out your connection for a single download either.

Your downloads will only be as fast as the slowest part of the chain (including all the stuff data has to pass though before reaching your computer).

another issue is the servers themselves cant support that

[GzeroD]

1 minute ago, thekeemo said:

another issue is the servers themselves cant support that

360 Mbps is not exactly a high load for a storage server.

[DGaming]

17 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Not until you actually get the connection. The speeds you actually get can vary based on many factors, including cable quality, congestion, time of day etc. 

Okay, and now I have a very important question. Whats the best way to test the speed of the internet, because tomorrow the technician from Virgin Media is coming to set up the router, cables..everything. And the guy from Virgin Media told me that when the technician is done I should test the speeds to make sure he did his job correctly. The thing is I dont really know how to test the speeds?

[Windows7ge]

Just now, thekeemo said:

another issue is the servers themselves cant support that

You're only as strong as the weakest link. Most definitely he won't see that speed on every website he uses.

[Zyndo]

5 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

There are 1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte. It's a decimal system (base 10). 1024 is for the binary system using Mebibytes and Gibibytes. 

Not really an important distinction, but it is still a large source of confusion on drive and unit sizes. It's why 1TB drives show as 931GB in Windows, when really they are 931GiB and are still 1TB (1000GB). 

I believe you may have this backwards.?
(see article https://www.quora.com/Is-1-GB-equal-to-1024-MB-or-1000-MB)

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, DGaming said:

Okay, and now I have a very important question. Whats the best way to test the speed of the internet, because tomorrow the technician from Virgin Media is coming to set up the router, cables..everything. And the guy from Virgin Media told me that when the technician is done I should test the speeds to make sure he did his job correctly. The thing is I dont really know how to test the speeds?

I've always been told speedtest.net, unless anybody has any objections.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, DGaming said:

Okay, and now I have a very important question. Whats the best way to test the speed of the internet, because tomorrow the technician from Virgin Media is coming to set up the router, cables..everything. And the guy from Virgin Media told me that when the technician is done I should test the speeds to make sure he did his job correctly. The thing is I dont really know how to test the speeds?

First thing to do: http://www.speedtest.net/

 

It can give you a good idea of the theoretical speed that you can get, though it is not always representative of your download speeds. For that, I'd advise downloading a large file(s) from a somewhat reliable source like Steam or Origin. I find torrents are often a good way to max out your connection if you have one with a good amount of seeders. 

[thekeemo]

7 minutes ago, GzeroD said:

360 Mbps is not exactly a high load for a storage server.

Since when are you a mod? Its not a high load but it is a relatively high load once you account that they need bandwidth for other users as well.

[DGaming]

17 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

First thing to do: http://www.speedtest.net/

 

It can give you a good idea of the theoretical speed that you can get, though it is not always representative of your download speeds. For that, I'd advise downloading a large file(s) from a somewhat reliable source like Steam or Origin. I find torrents are often a good way to max out your connection if you have one with a good amount of seeders. 

What is a torrent?...joking haha. But yeah Ill do that thanks, and what result would mean that he did his job well? Does it have to say 360mb or? Basically how do I know if he did everything correct?^^

[Oshino Shinobu]

3 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

I believe you may have this backwards.?
(see article https://www.quora.com/Is-1-GB-equal-to-1024-MB-or-1000-MB)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204829/labnotes_storage.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte  (yes, Wiki, not the most reliable source, but take a look at the table in the top right). 

 

Basically, mega, giga etc. are decimal prefixs that work in base 10. However, they're often used synonymously as binary prefixes, technically incorrectly. 

 

According to the International System of Units, the mega, giga etc. prefixes are all base 10, and therefore there are 1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html

 

There's confusion on the subject due to Gibi and Giga being used interchangeably in operating systems, as well as storage and RAM using different systems (storage uses them as Decimal and RAM uses them as Binary). 

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, DGaming said:

What is a torrent?...joking haha. But yeah Ill do that thanks, and what result would mean that he did his job well? Does it have to say 360mb or? Basically how do I know if he did everything correct?^^

Any speeds given on the data plan are "up to" speeds. Technically, anything up to 360Mbps could be correct. However, if you get around 40Mbps on a 360Mbps connection, there is definitely something wrong. 

 

Normally technicians can test the maximum speed of your line in and give you an estimate of the speed you can expect. If the line in speed is over your plan's maximum speed, then you should be looking for speeds near 360Mbps. 

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204829/labnotes_storage.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte  (yes, Wiki, not the most reliable source, but take a look at the table in the top right). 

 

Basically, mega, giga etc. are decimal prefixs that work in base 10. However, they're often used synonymously as binary prefixes, technically incorrectly. 

 

According to the International System of Units, the mega, giga etc. prefixes are all base 10, and therefore there are 1000 Megabytes in a Gigabyte. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html

 

There's confusion on the subject due to Gibi and Giga being used interchangeably in operating systems, as well as storage and RAM using different systems (storage uses them as Decimal and RAM uses them as Binary). 

The units were binary from the beginning, the change to introduce decimal units is more recent and not adopted by everyone. So a gigabyte can be either 1024 or 1000 megabytes depending on which system you use.