I’ve just had the technicians from 3BB at the house as my internet speed is slow but my question is this;

When doing a speed check on my computer I get the answer in Mbps. When the guys who came to fix the internet tested the speed on their computer it showed the result in Megabytes. Why is mine showing Mbps? They couldn’t understand this and neither can I. Can someone explain this in layman’s terms please?

Thanks.

ISP's almost always rate in mbps, which is mega BITs per second, as opposed to MB/s, which is mega BYTES per second.

A bit is a single numeric value, either '1' or '0', that encodes a single unit of digital information.

A byte is a sequence of bits; usually eight bits equal one byte.

For example, in Internet Protocol (IP) networking, IP addresses contain 32 bits or 4 bytes.

The bits encode the network address so that it can be shared on the network. The bytes divide the bits into groups.

The IP address 192.168.0.1, for instance, is encoded with the following bits and bytes:

11000000 10101000 00000000 00000001

Mbps = Mega Bit Per Second

MB = Mega Byte

1 byte = 8 bits

All of the speeds advertised for internet connections are in bits not bytes.

So if you have an 8Mbps connection you should, at best, get 1 Mega Byte per second.

However you will never quite get there maximum possible speed since there are overheads on the transport which use up some of the capacity.

General users not understanding the difference with bits and bytes is very common, but technicians from an internet provider...that is worrying! Glad I don't use 3BB!

Usually it will be in Mbps (Mega bits per second - note the lower case "b"). MBps would be Mega bytes per second, upper case "B". Some speedtest sites will display in kbps and do believe I've seen some that do MBps also so depends on which site is being used. Example from my Thailand university connection, two different test sites. The first is in Mbps (Mega bits per second) the 2nd in kbps (kilobits per second).

Usually it will be in Mbps (Mega bits per second - note the lower case "b"). MBps would be Mega bytes per second, upper case "B". Some speedtest sites will display in kbps and do believe I've seen some that do MBps also so depends on which site is being used. Example from my Thailand university connection, two different test sites. The first is in Mbps (Mega bits per second) the 2nd in kbps (kilobits per second).

Thanks guys. Here is what the internet speed is now;

Is this good or average.

Thanks guys. Here is what the internet speed is now;

Is this good or average.

Obviously a "fudged" number by the ISP or cached data as has been mentioned in other topics. Not possible for 3BB to get those speeds at a standard home installation. Need to run tests to other speedtest sites to find one not currently in the ISP "let's make it look faster" list.

Here is what the internet speed is now;

57 Megabits?

(Falls out of chair laughing.)

BTW, the theoretical maximum speed for ADSL is 12Mbps download and for ADSL2 is 24Mbps.

To the OP, were you and the technicians using the same speedtest program/website? I'm going to guess different progams/web sites were used; therefore, apples and oranges were being compared. Most speedtest programs/websites report their results in MegaBits (Mb), but a few do use MegaBytes (MB). Be sure to compare Apples to Apples and Oranges to Oranges.