Does Steam have some sort of secret file compression?

[Barfo]

I was under the impression my connection's speed is 6 Mbit, but I'm downloading a game from Steam and my peak download rate is 1.1 MB/S, what gives?

 

[(sic)Klown12]

Just a reporting error. It happens on mine and my roommates computer. It stalls for a couple of second and reports the amount downloaded in that time as happening in only one second

 

[Barfo]

Just a reporting error. It happens on mine and my roommates computer. It stalls for a couple of second and reports the amount downloaded in that time as happening in only one second

I should have measured the time it took, cause it seemed to go faster than normal to me, even while accounting for these stalls you talk about. Then again it's probably my perception, your explanation is much more plausible.

 

[shortylickens]

If you have a 6 megabit connection then your sustained speed should be .875 megabytes, BUT, theres no reason you couldnt peak at 1.1 or 1.2 megabytes once in a while. Remember broadband internet isnt like dial up, you arent actually restricted by anything unless the ISP has a limiter installed. If the planets align right theres no reason you couldnt have sustained 10mbit speeds for a good chunk of the day.
Also, could just be bad info.

 

[Lonyo]

Steam download speed reporting isn't reliable, so freely ignore it.

 

[biostud]

maybe your ISP has givren you a secret upgrade?

 

[FuryofFive]

If you have a 6 megabit connection then your sustained speed should be .875 megabytes, BUT, theres no reason you couldnt peak at 1.1 or 1.2 megabytes once in a while. Remember broadband internet isnt like dial up, you arent actually restricted by anything unless the ISP has a limiter installed. If the planets align right theres no reason you couldnt have sustained 10mbit speeds for a good chunk of the day.
Also, could just be bad info.

+1
remember there are 8 bits in a byte

so in theory 6000(6mb) is roughly about .750 from the math i have. Not sure the accuracy of that though.

even with my supposed 12-20mb connection i get like 1.5mb down from steam. so no biggey

 

[Anteaus]

In addition, your connection is limited to the least common denominator. You can have the fastest internet connection in the world, but your only going to be able to go as fast as the server allows you. Steam has fast days and slow days. You should try downloading during the summer or winter mega sales when the servers are swamped. 😛

 

[ussfletcher]

+1
remember there are 8 bits in a byte

so in theory 6000(6mb) is roughly about .750 from the math i have. Not sure the accuracy of that though.

even with my supposed 12-20mb connection i get like 1.5mb down from steam. so no biggey

There are 1024 Bytes in a KB, 1024 KB in a MB, etc.. not 1000 like some suspect. Thus, in a megabit there are 131072 bytes, or 128 KB, six of those is 768KB so you are correct.