No more Comcast at Casa NewMexiKen. I have installed Qwest high-speed internet (fiber optic) and it seems at least as fast, even much faster. (How does one tell for sure? And how much does it matter anyway?)
It’s definitely cheaper!
DirecTV delayed until Wednesday due to installation limitations. (That pesky HOA.) Guess I can continue to blog, as potatoing on the couch not much fun with only 10 channels.
I’ve used internetfrog to check upload and download connection speeds.
How fast? You can check your speed at:
http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html
http://www.dslreports.com/stest
http://www.speedtest.net/ (this one has the coolest graphics)
Testing via internetfrog, I get download speeds of around 4.75 Mbps ±. (That’s over my house wireless network to the MacBook Pro and the iMac.)
Is that good?
I live about 20 miles from you. My ISP is comcast.
bps (lower case b) is bits per second. To get bytes per second divide by 8 because data on the web is organized as 8 bit bytes. Overhead and control bits will modify this number slightly but this number (8) is a good first approximation.
Your number corresponds to 593,000 bytes per second for large (ie. low overhead) files.
My number here is just slightly larger. Approximately 610,000 bytes per second.
BTW google ‘download speed’ for MANY different speed tests.
I put the Comcast modem back online to test spped and got over 10Mbps using ethernet to the laptop. Qwest advertised “up to” 12Mbps, but I’m getting less than 5. I can’t notice much difference in actual practice, but I fear I need to call tech support. I selected a faster rated package intentionally.
Update if anyone cares: I am now getting about the same speed with Qwest I got with Comcast (for less money). About 9.25 Mbps, or 1.2 MB a second.