Confusion with WiFi speeds- can someone clarify please? ...

[m654321]

I'm renewing my broadband package with my telecom provider and the issue of connection speeds came up - of course the faster the connection speed the more you pay.

I then had a look at my own connection speeds with LL: 
- the information for an active network connection shows 300Mb/s (iwlwifi driver) = 37.50MB/s

This is important as our broadband provider provides a cheaper package with speeds of up to 17MB/s, and a more expensive one with speeds up to 38MB/s. 

Then I had a look at the my actual download speeds e.g. downloading TV programmes, podcasts...
- the information shows actual download speeds to be only between 165kB/s and 450kB/s = 0.17MB/s to 0.45MB/s.

This means the actual speeds in MB/s are between 80 and 220 times slower than the active network connection information indicates.
This is confusing - can someone clarify this disparity ...

Many thanks
Mike
 

[trinidad]

The most important information in your broadband IP contract is the phrase "speeds of up to". A base horizon of 25Mb/s is more than adequate for most home and small office users with four year old or newer computers. I pay exorbitantly for speeds 100Mb/s to 150Mb/s, but connection speeds rarely exceed 72Mb/s. Also a particular connection speed is not the same as your IP's ceiling. As I write this I am only at 52Mb/s, however my signal is going ten thousand miles or so round trip. For comparison most US LTE's are between 7 and 17Mb/s, and TWC broadband IP base is around 17Mb/s. Go to your IP's homepage and check that connection speed. Chances are it will be what you pay for. Again, actual connection speeds involve a multiplicity of variables. With video, TV, etc. speeds slow because of bandwidth limitations which is entirely another issue involving both your computer, your IP's server, and any other connected servers, (why netflix, amazon, and you tube are sometimes dog slow). High traffic, high bandwidth usage, slower connection speeds.

TC 

[firenice03]

Just to tack onto Trinidad...

When you tested in LL you checked the Speed of the WiFi NIC and/or if you would be connected the internal NIC, only the speed of the card(s) in the computer.. You're provider is referring to your bandwidth think of it as "speed to the router"..
You can check your ISP up/down speed here:  http://openspeedtest.com/

The "speed at the router" is what allows multiple devices to access at the same time, a lower bandwidth would lag at high utilization. Streaming a movie to couple devices, play a game and download your favorite Linux distro simultaneously and the movie may buffer or the game may lag in play or possibly take longer to download (different effects depending which takes precedence).

Hope it helps clarify

[rokytnji]

Then I had a look at the my actual download speeds e.g. downloading TV programmes, podcasts...

Their servers effect download speeds also. Not your ISP speeds.

[m654321]

Just to tack onto Trinidad...

When you tested in LL you checked the Speed of the WiFi NIC and/or if you would be connected the internal NIC, only the speed of the card(s) in the computer.. You're provider is referring to your bandwidth think of it as "speed to the router"..
You can check your ISP up/down speed here:  http://openspeedtest.com/

The "speed at the router" is what allows multiple devices to access at the same time, a lower bandwidth would lag at high utilization. Streaming a movie to couple devices, play a game and download your favorite Linux distro simultaneously and the movie may buffer or the game may lag in play or possibly take longer to download (different effects depending which takes precedence).
Hope it helps clarify

Thanks firenice03 - I need to just go over what you said and check that I've understood.
I observed two different speeds because the speeds represent two different things as follows...

(1) the 37.5MB/s speed I observed on LL's  'Connection Information' (shown as 300Mb/s) represents the throughtput from the router to the PC - this speed is dictated by the WiFi card/driver being used

(2) the 0.17 to 0.45MB/s I observed, for downloading from the internet, represents the speed of throughput from the Internet Service Provider (which can be dictated by the server, as mentioned by rokytnji) to the router

Is what I've just said correct firenice03? Also, what does 'NIC' stand for, presumably 'Network something...' ?

Many thanks for the "speedtest" link you sent - that was really helpful.  I ran the test and got 3.5 Mb/s (download) & 0.28 Mb/s (upload) - the download speed broadly agrees with the figures I observed in (2) above, i.e. 3.5 Mb/s ÷ 8 = 0.44 MB/s.  I'll  run it on my other PC setups as well just to check.

@Trinidad... yes I'm well aware of the mischievous phrase "up to XX speeds" employed by internet service providers - the ideal that we rarely attain - the usual advertising ploy ...

Cheers
Mike

[firenice03]

Thanks firenice03 - I need to just go over what you said and check that I've understood.
I observed two different speeds because the speeds represent two different things as follows...

(1) the 37.5MB/s speed I observed on LL's  'Connection Information' (shown as 300Mb/s) represents the throughtput from the router to the PC - this speed is dictated by the WiFi card/driver being used

(2) the 0.17 to 0.45MB/s I observed, for downloading from the internet, represents the speed of throughput from the Internet Service Provider (which can be dictated by the server, as mentioned by rokytnji) to the router

Is what I've just said correct firenice03? Also, what does 'NIC' stand for, presumably 'Network something...' ?

Many thanks for the "speedtest" link you sent - that was really helpful.  I ran the test and got 3.5 Mb/s (download) & 0.28 Mb/s (upload) - the download speed broadly agrees with the figures I observed in (2) above, i.e. 3.5 Mb/s ÷ 8 = 0.44 MB/s.  I'll  run it on my other PC setups as well just to check.

NIC stands for Network Interface Card 

I'll try to keep it semi-brief as not to complicate but... Both 1 and 2 numbers are separate from each other but do factor together...
You have the speed between your PC's and Router how much info the pc can receive from the router and then the ISP speed; the pipeline from your router to the ISP, to where ever on the internet and back...

For 1 Focusing on the LAN (Local Area Network) Router to Laptop:
The 37.5MB/s you see is the current speed the WiFi is running, the 300MB/s is the max speed of the card.. The 300MB/s relates to a "N" wifi (802.11n); there are limitation in which 300MB/s will be hard to achieve - Although a max 150MB/s is more realistic; I see 144MB/s speed on my box...
With that in mind... "G" (802.11g) speeds are up to 54MB/s..
If you're router is a "G" router and your Laptop WiFi NIC is "N".. The Fastest you'll see is "G" on any device... If Router is an "N" and Laptop is "G"... "G" will be the highest speed available on that device.. The fastest you'll be is the slowest protocol in the given equation..
-- Matching Router and NIC's for optimum performance, not only to the internet but between PC's on the same LAN .

All that being said - For WiFi that's the ideal situation, close proximity and direct line of site..
- the farther away and more walls the signal passes through can diminish the speed.
If the router is on the 2nd floor and the PC is in the basement that signal has to pass through the walls and floor therefore performance takes a hit...

For the 2nd part (2) Focuses on the WAN; the speedtest should roughly equate to the providers speed, again in ideal situations and "up to".. If you have an advertised  30Mb/s download and the speedtest shows 28MB/s I'd say you're ok... If same 30 and seeing 10MB/s, you may want to note and compare other readings at different times; as there are other factors that come into play.. Time of day, service outages/upgrades, type of service/throttling or even weather - everything to and from the internet and ISP and the route to your router.. You may see different speeds on Saturday at 2:00pm vs. Wednesday at 1:00am, Saturday more ISP users accessing than on Wednesday...

Hope I didn't over explain  ;D

[m654321]

NIC stands for Network Interface Card 

I'll try to keep it semi-brief as not to complicate but... Both 1 and 2 numbers are separate from each other but do factor together...
You have the speed between your PC's and Router how much info the pc can receive from the router and then the ISP speed; the pipeline from your router to the ISP, to where ever on the internet and back...

For 1 Focusing on the LAN (Local Area Network) Router to Laptop:
The 37.5MB/s you see is the current speed the WiFi is running, the 300MB/s is the max speed of the card.. The 300MB/s relates to a "N" wifi (802.11n); there are limitation in which 300MB/s will be hard to achieve - Although a max 150MB/s is more realistic; I see 144MB/s speed on my box...
With that in mind... "G" (802.11g) speeds are up to 54MB/s..
If you're router is a "G" router and your Laptop WiFi NIC is "N".. The Fastest you'll see is "G" on any device... If Router is an "N" and Laptop is "G"... "G" will be the highest speed available on that device.. The fastest you'll be is the slowest protocol in the given equation..
-- Matching Router and NIC's for optimum performance, not only to the internet but between PC's on the same LAN .

All that being said - For WiFi that's the ideal situation, close proximity and direct line of site..
- the farther away and more walls the signal passes through can diminish the speed.
If the router is on the 2nd floor and the PC is in the basement that signal has to pass through the walls and floor therefore performance takes a hit...

For the 2nd part (2) Focuses on the WAN; the speedtest should roughly equate to the providers speed, again in ideal situations and "up to".. If you have an advertised  30Mb/s download and the speedtest shows 28MB/s I'd say you're ok... If same 30 and seeing 10MB/s, you may want to note and compare other readings at different times; as there are other factors that come into play.. Time of day, service outages/upgrades, type of service/throttling or even weather - everything to and from the internet and ISP and the route to your router.. You may see different speeds on Saturday at 2:00pm vs. Wednesday at 1:00am, Saturday more ISP users accessing than on Wednesday...

Hope I didn't over explain  ;D

@firenice03
I must say that these different connection speeds we discussed  do seem more complicated than I first though
I think sometimes it's good to over-explain, that is assume I have  no knowledge and then I've got all the bits I need & can just skim over what's known already.
I think at one stage you mixed up MB and Mb which can be a bit confusing - my ISP did this in their advertising and drew their attention to this - they were advertising "up to 17Mb" instead of 17MB..!  17Mb/s isn't a very good deal :-(

Many thanks again -  you're a champion !

Mike

[firenice03]

Yes looks like I typo'd the MB vs. Mbps... LOL  :'( Not the same

Googled info and an example for perspective: I didn't confirm the math but seems about right.
People often assume that a download speed of 1 Megabit per second (1 Mbps) will allow them to download a 1 Megabyte file in one second. This is not the case, a Megabit is 1/8 as big as a Megabyte, meaning that to download a 1MB file in 1 second you would need a connection of 8Mbps.
Example:
A 3.6 gigabytes (which is 3,686 megabytes) file. If one were truly downloading at 12 megabytes per second (MB/s), would take only 5 minutes and 7 seconds to download. However, a data plan with speeds of “up to” 12 megabits (Mb/s), which means at full throttle it should take about 40 minutes and 57 seconds to download.

[m654321]

@firenice03
8 bits = 1 Byte, even my ISP got muddled with this - it should be more careful before putting such important information out in print to customers...

Cheers
Mike