Earl Truss quotes you:

>>and get a speed check on my modem. It reported for a file size of
1,335,032
>>(1.33k) [ZIP compressed]
>>with a speed of "1.38Kbytes/sec". The modem is a "generic" Davicom
>>Voice/Data/Fax 33.6". Is this a
>>good speed reported or am I at least close to having optimum speed?

And Earl says:
>This sounds quite slow.  A typical "average" transfer rate is about
>one-tenth of the modem's rating.  That is, a 33.6Kbps (thousand bits
per
>second) modem should be able to handle a transfer rate of about
3.36KB/sec
>(thousand bytes per second).  I usually connect to my ISP at 26.4Kbps
and
>get transfer rates of around 2.4KB/sec on most transfers.


"about one-tenth of the modem's rating" is true; but, correct me if
I'm
wrong, exactly one-eighth. A bit is a 'bi(nary  digi)t.' A binary
digit is simply
a 1 or a 0 (in electrical terms an OFF or an ON, though more
frequently
a HIGH or a LOW voltage). Eight of these together are called a 'byte.'
A byte=8 bits. (Incidentally, 4 bits=1/2 byte=a 'nibble'. No kidding.)
Everything in computer-land is measured in bits and bytes.(The big B
stands for bytes, the little b stands for bits.)  When I connect at
3.52KB per second (the best I do), this equals 3.52 X 1000 bytes per
second (3520 bytes) and THAT = 3520 X 8 (=28,160) bits per second. So
I'm getting 28.16kbs per second.
If you're getting 1.38KB per sec you're getting 1.38 X 8 = 11.04kbs
per sec. I often do no better. The main difference I can see has to do
with the
site I'm downloading from. Within minutes of each other I can get my
best
speed of about 28k from one site and a really bad less-than-10k from
another.

jonathan gold
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