by a Thinker, Sailor, Blogger, Irreverent Guy from Madras

Byte me, Bit me: the difference between bits and bytes


Nah!  I am not posting a review of Virgil Flowers novel.  This is about the dsl (broadband) speeds and the confusion about the kBps and kbps

Often I am faced with this query :

Q:  I have a 256 kbps dsl connection.  But my download speed is slow - my download window shows only 31kB/sec speed.  Where is the rest of the ~225 kb?




A: This is due to the way the modem / networking / transmission industry counts versus the way the data storage industry counts them.

The networking industry counts in 256 kilo-"bits"-per-second - which is 256 x 1000* bits.

Whereas the data storage / OS industry - especially Windows, counts them in 256 kilo-"bytes"-per-second - which is 256 x 1000* / 8 bits.

Remember the 8th standard formula 1 byte = 8 bits ?

[Note: The multiple is actually 1024 and not 1000 for the 'k', but that is another story.  Let us just stick to the basics]

Well that is why my download shows 31kB/sec - note the big "B" in this.  Whereas my DSL provider has given me a contract for 256 kbps adsl connection - note the "b" in here.

So dividing 256 / 8, I should get ~32 kB/sec.  Since my PC is located ~ 60 feet / 18 m from the dsl junction box (more if I count the bends in the cable), that should be the best I can get.



But WTF ?!? once downloaded why does the file show as 35,074,836 bytes  instead of 33.4 MB?
A difference of 1,674,836 bytes!
LOL
On that later.
;-)

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