Internet Speed Question

Hey guys, I live down in Costa Rica and I recently got a service with a speed of 2 mbps. So far everything has been ok but I noticed that according to speedtest.net I usually get between 1.5-2 mbps (which is normal) but when I download things from Steam. I can only get a maximum of like 300 kbps - .5 mbps. Is this because I'm so far away from the servers, do I possibly have a setting incorrect or could it be a problem with my isp? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Your ISP might be throttling steam or you need to set the server to a closer location in steam. You can set the server in steam settings.

Also, are you certain it is 300kbps and not KB/s?

 

Actually now that you mention it it does say KB/s in utorrent.

 

than times that by 8 and you get 2400Kbps which is far better than 2Mbps (1024x2=2048Kbps)

 

So whatever is it in KB/s you multiply that x 8? This is new information for me. I figured that kbps meant kilobytes per second which would be like only 15% of 2mbps right? I didn't know there was a difference between kbps and KB/s. Why do you multiply that by 8?

 

As HopelesslyFaithful stated, if you ISP provides you internet @ 1.5Mbps-2.0Mbps that equates to ~ 250KBps.
B -> Bytes
b -> bits

2Mbps = approx 250KBps

There are 8 bits in every Byte. Consequently, the speeds you are seeing concur with what your ISP states it is offering you.

Hope that clears it up.

 

What ren3g7ade said, this is all a marketing gimmick, the higher numbers sound so much better and technically, they aren't lying about the connection speed. People expect it to be in bytes and not in bits though so you aren't the first confused by this and you'll hardly be the last.

 

Thanks a lot guys. I guess you learning something new every day. I gave you guys all rep. Thanks again!