Slow download speeds

[Theadrox]

I have the superfast boradband, which should give speeds of 32-37mbps. However, when I try to download anything I get a download speed of 3 or 4 mbps. This happens when connected by wifi and ethernet. But whenever I run the speed checks on the sky site, it says I'm running at 37. Even when there is a download ongoing which visibly has a speed of 3mbps. Is there an issue with my sky, or is this something I can solve?

[jamesn123]

Hi @Theadrox 

Please post a screenshot of a speedtest taken on speedtest.net using an ethernet connected device.

[Theadrox]

This is the result of my Speedtest.net test. Yet, when I download the installer for Zoom, on the exact same device, 10 seconds later. It takes 40 seconds to download something that is 137MB. This should take no more than 5 seconds even if I was getting the lowest speed of 32mbps. 

[daveNOS]

@Theadrox A 137mb file would take around 27 seconds to download on a 40mbps connection(which you appear to have based on the speed test result).

Most if not all downloads are reported in speeds of MBps which is 8 times slower than your reported broadband speed, this is due to there being 8 bits in every byte and your broadband speed is measured in megabits per second(a 40mbps connection will show a true download speed of around 4.2MBps on an ethernet connection). 

[jamesn123]

@Theadrox 

You are confusing two different metrics. Mbps is how ISPs measure your internet speed, this is what you are seeing in your speedtest. The Zoom file you downloaded is in MBs. 8Mbps = 1MB/s so to download that Zoom file it would take you 30 seconds on a 36Mbps connection.

[Theadrox]

Ah okay thanks both of you for clearing that up. So I'm getting the speeds I should. Should I be able to intall a large file and stream a film at the same time? Currently I can only do one or the other. 

[jamesn123]

@Theadrox 

Not really no, if your downloading a large file then this will use all your bandwidth and there will be nothing left to use for a stream. You would either need to upgrade to a high speed connection (FTTP) or purchase a 3rd party router so you can configure proper QoS so that installs can be throttled slightly to allow for simultaneous tasks like streaming. 

[Theadrox]

Would that also be the case for streaming on multiple devices? Or is that the same principle? 

[jamesn123]

@Theadrox 

Same principle, a 4K stream often uses about 15-25mbps so it would be very tight to have two streams running at the same time. If they were in lower quality like 720p or 1080p then you should be able to run 2-3 streams.