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 [log in to unmask] ----- **Need help with PCBUILD mailing list? Send an Email to:** Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]> or Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>