Is 3 Mbps "high speed" internet?

[zanejohnson]

that is what I have because I don't need TV and my cheapest (Read: only) option is 3mbs for like $40/month.

It's fucking horrible. Comcast, of course. Oh...and I pretty much only get 400k down if I'm lucky. I don't even understand how that is possible.


Right now, I'm downloading Borderlands 2 from Steam, that is it, nothing else sharing bandwidth, and damn AT is slow to load.

please tell me you understand the mBps conversion to mbps... jesus.

10 bits in in a byte, start bit, stop bit.. so actually, 8 bits in a byte

mB = megaBYTES
mb = megaBITS

10mbps = roughyly 1 megaBYTE per second, minus overhead (stop,start bits)

 

[Matthiasa]

10 bits is most certainly not a byte...
(for standard architectures)

 

[Leros]

10 bits is most certainly not a byte...

There is subtle difference between bandwidth and data transfer rate. In the example zane gave, every byte of data actually requires sending 10 bits. So if you have a 10Mbit link, your data transfer is actually 8Mbit. I know this applies to serial and some other low level protocols.

It doesn't apply to this discussion though. The conversion between Mbps and MBps in terms of internet speed is always a factor of 8 because you're measuring data transfer rates for both Mbps and MBps.

An internet connection with a speed of 8Mbps could also be measured as 1MBps. The underlying connection may actually be something like 10Mbps, but that's irrelevant.

 

[Ben90]

I'm pissed when sharing files through Fast Ethernet. Don't know why they decided to call it that.

 

[coldmeat]

Didn't have 3mbps till maybe 2004.

I had dial-up until 2007 when I moved into rez in uni. I had barely used high speed before then.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm pissed when sharing files through Fast Ethernet. Don't know why they decided to call it that.

Because it was faster than Ethernet, just like "Hi-Speed" USB 2.0 is faster than USB 1.1

Later, it seemed more sensible to refer to version numbers or bandwidth capabilities, then along came SATA...

SATA 3.0 aka SATA 6Gbps
SATA 2.0 aka SATA 3Gbps

Or how about DDR2 speeds?

PC2-6400 / DDR2 400MHz / DDR2-800
PC2-5300 / DDR2 667MHz / DDR2-667
PC2-4200 / DDR2 533MHz / DDR2-533
PC2-3200 / DDR2 400MHz / DDR2-400

I'm starting to think that I'd prefer "fast", "faster still", "really fast", "fastest yet", "supercalafragalisticly fast"...

 

[JimmiG]

3 Mbps is certainly not "high-speed". ComHem, a major cable company in Sweden recently dropped all tiers below 10Mbps, making it the lowest speed you can get.

I think 100Mbps is the "sweet spot" at the moment. Anything lower and you have to wait forever for anything over a few gigs to download, and at faster speeds, some servers can't keep up and you saturate Wifi. 200 Mbps will be pretty standard once 802.11ac becomes more widespread. Just not worth the extra $15-20 at the moment.

 

[Murloc]

meh I have 20 mbps and I don't feel limited at all, this is high speed for me.
Youtube streams instantly, no buffering at all, even with HD, and downloads at 2.1 MB/s means almost no waiting.

 

[silverpig]

please tell me you understand the mBps conversion to mbps... jesus.

10 bits in in a byte, start bit, stop bit.. so actually, 8 bits in a byte

mB = megaBYTES
mb = megaBITS

10mbps = roughyly 1 megaBYTE per second, minus overhead (stop,start bits)

mb = millibits
mB = millibytes

Mb = megabits
MB = megabytes

 

[Sheep221]

Internet connection 64kbps and faster is considered broadband and therefore high-speed.
3Mbps it not that bad.

 

[MrDudeMan]

mb = millibits
mB = millibytes

Mb = megabits
MB = megabytes

lol. You stole my post.

Also, start/stop bits? hahaha... ethernet isn't RS232. If you want to talk about protocol overhead, you're going to have to do a little more research.

 

[Ichinisan]

mb = millibits
mB = millibytes

Mb = megabits
MB = megabytes

How can you have a fraction of a bit?

 

[CZroe]

Rare cable co competition brought broadband to my area pretty early. It was $35 a month for one-way service, 512kbps down, dial-up up (yes, my cable Internet still used my phone line for the first year).

 

[lamedude]

Internet connection 64kbps and faster is considered broadband and therefore high-speed.

Is 144Kbps narrowband ISDN considered broadband? I hate when marketers redefine words.

 

[Fenixgoon]

high is relative.

relative to 56k, yes.

 

[yhelothar]

i pay 60$ a month for 3 mpbs, which is advertised as high speed

where i live, it is either that... or 56k

also - you have a backup line? for business, or for, um, business?

I had to check the date of this post after reading it. Where the heck do you live?
Montana?

 

[Spacehead]

i pay 60$ a month for 3 mpbs, which is advertised as high speed

where i live, it is either that... or 56k

also - you have a backup line? for business, or for, um, business?

I had to check the date of this post after reading it. Where the heck do you live?
Montana?

I pay $35 for my 3 Mbps DSL. Just got that option at the beginning of 2012. Lately it's close to advertised speed but for a long time was only getting 1.5 Mbps downloads.
NW Pa

 

[PingSpike]

I got DSL at my house in the summer of 2011. Before that I suffered with dial up. If you thought dial up was bad in the 1990s try dial up in the age of flash.

 

[techs]

I got DSL at my house in the summer of 2011. Before that I suffered with dial up. If you thought dial up was bad in the 1990s try dial up in the age of flash.

I just set up a new Windows 8 computer for a customer with dial up.

Fortunately they took my advice and got a lappy so they can go to town every so often and jump on the wireless. Its crazy trying to keep up with updates on 56k. Especially when they only get 28.8 connections where they live.

 

[zinfamous]

I had to check the date of this post after reading it. Where the heck do you live?
Montana?

I live in the Bay Area and "Comcast High Speed" starts at 3mbs and at $40/month.

It's spectacular, I know. Just North of Berkeley/Albany, there are no other options for my zip code.

 

[lxskllr]

I got DSL at my house in the summer of 2011. Before that I suffered with dial up. If you thought dial up was bad in the 1990s try dial up in the age of flash.

I had dialup until 2006. The only reason I got cable was Verizon was pissing me off. I had a line issue, and they were saying it was in the house(my dime). It was clearly on their end because I tested the wires where they came into the house, and the voltage was too low.

Dialup was ok. I played UT2k4 on it without problem, and web browsing with compression trickery made it tolerable. That said, I'd have a hard time going back. Using dialup is like getting half the web. I wouldn't like having half the web taken from me.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

If you're not getting at least 50 mbps, your'e not high speed.

 

[Murloc]

How can you have a fraction of a bit?

You can't.
You can't have 1/1000 of a byte either, that's why the "m" being upper or lower case is irrelevant and people sometimes write mbps. For autism's sake, you better write it correctly in formal communication.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

3mpbs is good enough for a sub 100 ping on a few servers

I don't think you can feed HD content though

Bandwith isn't completely related to ping. Satellite may be 20Mbps, but will have 500ms latency. It all depends on the infrastructure/method of transmission.

In order to get max download speed take the Bit rating and divide by 8.

In your case:

3/8=.375

375KBps down max.

I have T1 (1.5/1.5)at a couple of our offices and they complain about the speed sometimes, but they are able to watch youtube and surf alright apparently.

 

[Genx87]

3Mbps is high speed 5-6 years ago. Today it would be entry level and not comparatively highspeed in most locales.

I am on a 50Mbps plan with comcast that tests out at 100Mbps.