Download speed and times, (Arguement at work)

[JamieLee2k]

The title might not explain much so I will do my best here.

Last week I was at work and a friend of mine asked me where I get my downloads from, well I said Newsgroups, then he asked me how long it takes to download 4.6gb, well I said "I have about 6mb connection and that it takes me about 2hrs 15 mins, (give or take a few mins), my work coliege told me he had a 2mb connection and that he can download a 4.6gb file in less than 2 hours.

I was arguing with him for a while and I started to ask my other work friends and they also say it's possible, (each person with an answer just as bad as the other ones, I will touch on that in a moment.)

Now I worked it out I can download at 624kb/s and it takes me around about 2 hrs 15 mins
A 2mb line works out to be a max connection of 250kb/s (if I am correct) so thats about 5 hrs 15 mins

Can someone please explain to me on how someone can say they download a 4.6gb file in less than 2 hours if even I can't do it on a connection twice as big?

Touching on the above, some of the things I have been told:

It depends on where the source of the file is located, the near the quicker
Wired or Wireless
It depends if you are downloading from a source which isn't shared
I have a degree in CISCO so I know it is possible.


End of the day I have come up with proof, screenshots in which I will post if need be and they have so far given me just there word on this subject.

What I really need is proof that it is physically impossible to download a 4.6gb file in less than 2 hours on a 2mb (250kb/s) line

Thanks
JamieLee2k

[YARDofSTUF]

A connection capped at 2mbps can only DL at 2mbps.

[JamieLee2k]

A connection capped at 2mbps can only DL at 2mbps.

Wrong, I am on about a 2mb Line which is about 250kb/s

[Tech Manager]

Your type of connection, whether Synchronous or Asynchronous is only one aspect of your download speeds. Bandwidth/trasnfer data can be affected by your OS, NIC, firewall, router, cable/dsl modem, ISP issues, latency issues along the route, load balancing, the volume of traffic on the server you are connecting to, load balancing, bandwidth management, RAM, Processing speed and many other variables.

You could have a 1 gig fiber-optic synchronous connection and still only experience 250kb traffic if that is all the traffic the route will allow.

You cannot accurately compare the download speeds of two different machines unless they are both downloading the same file during the same conditions.

[YARDofSTUF]

Wrong, I am on about a 2mb Line which is about 250kb/s

2mbps(megabits per second) = 250KB/sec(Kilobytes per second)

So a 2mbps/250KB a sec capped connection can download at 2mbps/250KB a sec.

Its not wrong.

[JamieLee2k]

so back to the story

[YARDofSTUF]

The story is simple, 2mbps connection at full speed would download 4.7 gigabytes in just less than 5 1/2 hours, and a 6mbps connection would do it in just over 1.8 hours if both were at their full speed for the entire download.

[JamieLee2k]

Where might I find some facts or figures that I can use to show all the muppets at work they are wrong?

[YARDofSTUF]

4.7 gigabytes is 4,928,307.2 kilobytes

2mbps = 250 kilobytes a second
6mbps = 750 kilobytes a second

Do the math.

They are either stupid, dont know what their actual connection speed is, or dont realize how much time passes while they download.

[trogers]

I think there was a mis-communication. He may have meant he has a 12 mbps or a 2 MB/s (16 mbps)connection line.

[JamieLee2k]

I wish that was the case but it seems to me as if they are either dumb or stupid.