NTL Speed Increase info request

redtom

man, I must be dyslexic or something coz I find it all extremely confusing

what's the difference between a Kilobit and a Megabit? (and by extension, a Kilobyte and a Megabyte?) I thought Kilo meant 1,000, so if a Kilobit is 1,000 bits why is it labelled as 1000 Kb - is that not a 1,000,000 bits?

Gettin a sore head now...

joolsveer

Quote from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte

Definition

Because of inconsistencies in the use of SI-derived prefixes such as kilo- and mega-, the exact number can be any one of the following:

1. 1,000,000 bytes (10002, 106): This is the definition recommended by IEC. It is used primarily in networking contexts and most storage media, particularly hard drives and DVDs. This definition of 'mega-' as a "binary prefix is consistent with the other SI prefixes, and with many other uses of the prefix in computing, such as CPU clock speeds or measures of performance.
2. 1,048,576 bytes (1,0242, 220): This definition is used for nearly all discussions of computer memory (as computer addresses are naturally powers of two, and memory is most easily manufactured in power-of-two capacities) and file storage. As of 2005, most software uses this definition to express storage capacity (e.g. file size).
3. 1,024,000 bytes (1,024×1,000): This definition occurs rarely. It was used in a small number of storage contexts, most notably the "1.44 MB" (actually 1,474,560 bytes) "3.5-inch" (actually 90 mm) high-density floppy diskette.

Several attempts to resolve these inconsistencies have been proposed, most notably the standard created by the IEC to redefine 1,048,576 bytes as a "mebibyte". This standard has been adopted by several organizations, such as the NIST and IEEE. See Binary prefix for more information.


Megabit
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Multiples of bits
Decimal prefixes
(SI) Binary prefixes
(IEC 60027-2)
Name Symbol Multiple Name Symbol Multiple
kilobit kbit 103 kibibit Kibit 210
megabit Mbit 106 mebibit Mibit 220
gigabit Gbit 109 gibibit Gibit 230
terabit Tbit 1012 tebibit Tibit 240
petabit Pbit 1015 pebibit Pibit 250
exabit Ebit 1018 exbibit Eibit 260
zettabit Zbit 1021 zebibit Zibit 270
yottabit Ybit 1024 yobibit Yibit 280

The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb.

1 megabit = 106 = 1,000,000 bits which is equal to 125 kilobytes or 125,000 bytes.

The megabit is most commonly used when referring to data transfer rates in network speeds, e.g. a 100 Mbit/s Fast Ethernet connection. In this context, like elsewhere in telecommunications, it always equals 106 bits.

A binary counterpart of megabit, useful for measuring RAM and ROM chip capacity, is mebibit.

paulm17781

redtom, just to confuse you more. You are correct that kilo = 1,000 and mega = 1,000,000.

However

Due to computers using Base2 number system (Binary) a computer says kilo (in terms of bits) = 1,024.

Binary goes 1,2,4,8,16 .... 512, 1024 ....etc.

redtom

Thanks for the crash course folks - I stand enlightened (not)...

Anyhoo, lookin forward to any speed increases on NTL - got the 1mb (Mb? MB?... ) broadband but it still took about 11 mins for a hi-def trailer to come down from apple's site - grand for xbox live tho, unless my crap performances are down to lag and not my general uselessness at playing games....

bk

redtom wrote:

Anyhoo, lookin forward to any speed increases on NTL - got the 1mb (Mb? MB?... ) broadband but it still took about 11 mins for a hi-def trailer to come down from apple's site - grand for xbox live tho, unless my crap performances are down to lag and not my general uselessness at playing games....

mb, Mb and Mbit are all the same they are all mega bit. It is the second letter that is important, MB would be mega byte (8 bits in a byte).

kb, Kb and Kbit are all kilo bit. KB would be kilo byte.

So you have 1Mbit (megabit) downsteam and 100 Kbit (kilobits) upstream.

so just to confuse you some more:
100 Kbit is actually 102,400 bits
1Mbit is actually 1,048,576 bits

This is all because computers are really dumb and can only count two numbers, 0 and 1

redtom

feel a migraine coming on......

keyran

redtom wrote:

still took about 11 mins for a hi-def trailer to come down from apple's site

The apple site has gone fairly crap for down loads of late everything has a really bad download rate from it

LFCFan

small b = bit, big B = Byte yet a lot of the broadband providers still advertise their speeds in MB's which is wrong. A 3 MB connection is actually a 24Mb connection.

redtom

yeh, this small b, big B carry on is what confuses me

zuma

Smart quote their connection as 3MBytes only...i.e. a quantity of data!

Its a similar blooper as saying Im travelling at 100Km....no mention at how long it takes to travel such a distance!
m or ms^-0 = Length
ms^-1 = Velocity
ms^-2 = Acceleration

That annoys me no end!!!

Drapper

well the end of Feb has come and gone and also the 1st week in March nearly there ! all rumours on this BOard have been proved false...................

think this upgrade is never goona happen................ NLT falling behind

Liquid Gold

redtom wrote:

feel a migraine coming on......

roflle

PixelTrawler

Drapper wrote:

think this upgrade is never goona happen................ NLT falling behind

patience....
they know that as well as you do. Their fastest offering is now the same as smarts slowest... im sure they are aware of this and are not changing over all the modems for nothing...

it will happen... better for them to roll it out properly too and not rush it and mess it up as happened in parts of the uk ( different companies i know but the situation is still very similar )

Freddie59

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

patience....
they know that as well as you do. Their fastest offering is now the same as smarts slowest... im sure they are aware of this and are not changing over all the modems for nothing...

it will happen... better for them to roll it out properly too and not rush it and mess it up as happened in parts of the uk ( different companies i know but the situation is still very similar )

Did they fcuk it up over in the UK?

PixelTrawler

didnt go to too smoothly at all in parts....
not sure if it was infrastructure itself or the fact that people went silly with the speeds but check out the 10meg forum on ntlhell.co.uk... good few people were complaining about it

hopefully the same situation doesnt happen here. They should only roll out to a speed they are sure they can consistently deliver and not go for a headline grabbing 10meg when no-one is really getting that.

This by the way is from a UK ntl employee
"the 10mb upgrade has hardly gone according to plan. Loads of areas have massive over-utilisation and contention issues that are seriously affecting the downstream performance"

... so careful what you wish for...

bk

I don't think that the reason we are still waiting is technical, rather it is organisational. UPC only completed the purchase of NTL a few months ago and only two weeks ago they said goodbye to some execs from Chorus and NTL.
I believe they are getting ready to merge andrebrand the two companies. I'm sure that they think it would be a great idea to advertise big speed increases at the same time as new advertise the new brand name.

I'm sure they will have a big national advertising campaign for the new UPC brand, with TV, radio and billboard ads and I'm sure that the new speeds will be a great thing to have in the ads. However it takes time to organise such advertising campaigns and rebranding.

Remember the rumours always said end of February/start of March.

Freddie59

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

They should only roll out to a speed they are sure they can consistently deliver and not go for a headline grabbing 10meg when no-one is really getting that.

Dead right. I'd rather have 5 or 6 megs functioning correctly than 10 malfunctioning.:)

mang87

Freddie59 wrote:

See attached snapshot of the 3 Meg ( when I used to have it - on 1 Meg now).:D

Holy crap! that's AMAZING! Evnen when I was getting properish speeds, I was only getting 2.39mbps.... God damn! So an NTL cable connection at 10Mb will probablygive me 1.2 MEGABYTES A SECOND!? Sweet devine Jesus I'm salavating. It's a nerds wet dream. GIMME!:D

PixelTrawler

a mate of mine had NTL MMDS tv installed on friday. The installer didnt know about the planned upgrades but he did say NTL were looking at offering wireless broadband too ( to reach MMDS areas ) as well as launching a phone service

paulm17781

My brothers NTL went down today, as did my parents (opposite side of the city) went down today. I expected the upgrades were happening but nothing seems to have changed.

PixelTrawler

ours was out twice this week. yesterday and friday or thursday.
back today but no upgrade

lotas

my sisters connection, which was 1mb, has been upgraded to 3mb. that was as of Saturday night. my 3mb is still the same.

PixelTrawler

so perhaps they are starting bottom to top rather then top to bottom

paulm17781

lotas wrote:

my sisters connection, which was 1mb, has been upgraded to 3mb. that was as of Saturday night. my 3mb is still the same.

That is odd. I wonder if it is some upgrade the lowest users to see how the network handles it. How do you know it went to 3? Did you check the modem stats page?

Drapper

paulm17781 wrote:

That is odd. I wonder if it is some upgrade the lowest users to see how the network handles it. How do you know it went to 3? Did you check the modem stats page?

Have to admit did notice allot of data burst to 7 - 8 megs in the d15 area on the starting of downloading a file over the weekend, and it then drops back to 3meg, but I did notice lots of resets on Saturday!!

lotas

i went to the modem stats page after realizing her downloads where very fast (360k compaired to about 120, or so). it says 3,072,000bits/s download and 300000 bits upload. same as on my 3mb cable modem. also, of note, they are in the same house.

Drapper

lotas wrote:

i went to the modem stats page after realizing her downloads where very fast (360k compaired to about 120, or so). it says 3,072,000bits/s download and 300000 bits upload. same as on my 3mb cable modem. also, of note, they are in the same house.

Hey, try the root of the modem settings:- 192.168.100.1 (root / root ) check the setting there !!

also where in Dublin are yeah ?

paulm17781

lotas wrote:

i went to the modem stats page after realizing her downloads where very fast (360k compaired to about 120, or so). it says 3,072,000bits/s download and 300000 bits upload. same as on my 3mb cable modem. also, of note, they are in the same house.

Is it not more likely since they are in the same houses they are the same speed? Surely if it is coming through the same cable.....

lotas

paulm17781 wrote:

Is it not more likely since they are in the same houses they are the same speed? Surely if it is coming through the same cable.....

Nope. thats not the case. she has had her seperate internet connection for the last 10 or so months, and has always been slower then my connection, untill now that is. Also, i am in D24

Drapper

lotas wrote:

Nope. thats not the case. she has had her seperate internet connection for the last 10 or so months, and has always been slower then my connection, untill now that is. Also, i am in D24

whats in the root of her modem ?