Can only d/l at 1.4 MB/sec…help?

I pay for cable, 10mbps. I do a speed test at speedtest.net or dslreports and it says 10mbps average. No matter where I download from IN THE WORLD, it will not go above 1.4mbps. I have tried using Internet Download Manager and same results. Is there something I don’t know about that is limiting my speed? I hate thinking that the speed tests are ‘special’ and that I’ll never achieve above 1.4mbps. Also, I take the same laptop to work and get much higher downloads from the same sites.
Any help or explanation with this would be appreciated!
WireWolf
Answer #1
Your connection speed is measured in Megabits, while you download in MegaBytes. (8bits=1Byte), so your download speed should be around 10/8 MegaBytes per sec = 1.25MegaBytes per sec.
Answer #2
As rajnusker stated, you are comparing different measurement units. 1Megabyte = 8megabits. So if you’re getting 1.4MB, you’re actually getting more than you’re guaranteed bandwidth.
Answer #3
10/8 = 1.25
Answer #4
Thank you all very much. I did not notice the units were different. Your explanation was very helpful.
Answer #5
Actually, you’re doing very well – there’s alwasy a little overhead in the system, so a solid 10Mbit is not the same as a 1.25Mbyte, it’s more like 1.1Mbyte.
If you’re getting 1.4, you’re probably connecting at 12.0 or so, not the 11.2 it works out at.