# Our IT guy is claiming that our internet is 50 MBS **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930 "2015-01-26T16:39:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/21 "2015-01-27T04:19:29Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Was his first modem 300 bytes per second (wait for it …) Nah, he knew the units were baud. Short for “Bytes And Uther Data”. ---
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/22 "2015-01-27T14:11:07Z")
It is easy to check your true Internet speed with webtraffic utilities like Ookla Speedtest. 6/6 Mbps (around 720 KBps) here, if target server is near and half of that if it is across the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/23 "2015-01-27T16:17:30Z")
**boffking** , true that LAN speeds are often faster, but I don’t know of any setup that would be 400 Mbps…10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, and 10Gbps are pretty much your standard options these days. Way back in the day I worked with a network that was 14Mbps (some kind of token-ring setup). And an online speed test will give your speed to your machine, but in a non-home setup this is unlikely to be the speed of the “network.” It depends on the speed of your network card, any switches you’re routed through, any QoS or traffic shaping profiles applied, etc. To put it simply, if the company has 400Mbps coming in, but you only have a 10/100Mbps network card, the MAX your speed test can show is \<100Mbps no matter what. It _might_ show ~400Mbps IF: 1) you have a 1Gbps network card (not unlikely) 2) all switches and routers on the network are Gigabit (not terribly unlikely these days) 3) no one has configured any traffic shaping or Quality of Service rules on the router(s) to ensure everybody can get a slice of that bandwidth (depends on the competency of your IT guy/group and the configuration parameters) and 4) nobody else is trying to do anything on the network (unlikely). Again, 50MBps would be a _really_ weird way to express capacity. Nobody does that. All this discussion, and the most likely explanation is that this is a small business with a 50Mbps “business” cable (or fiber) connection through the local cable company, and the “IT guy” only kinda-sorta knows what he’s talking about. (I _have_ seen MBps used as a measure of throughput, but only in Ghost or whatever other tool(s) I was using to image hard drives, back when I used to do that) ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/24 "2015-01-27T16:58:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Wow.Seems like 50 Mbps through Comcast is as fast as I can find here in my Chicago neighborhood. You’re saying that like you’ve looked for higher rates. Is that right? Why? Last year I upgrade my household (with four people) from 3 Mb/s to 20 Mb/s. Three was occasionally annoying, I think five or six would have been plenty, but I can’t imagine wanting more than 20. With 20 Mb/s, we can all four be watching our own Netflix stream plus all be on a phone call plus all be surfing YouTube. Why would any single residence need more? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/25 "2015-01-27T17:19:30Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > You’re saying that like you’ve looked for higher rates. Is that right? Why? > > Last year I upgrade my household (with four people) from 3 Mb/s to 20 Mb/s. Three was occasionally annoying, I think five or six would have been plenty, but I can’t imagine wanting more than 20. With 20 Mb/s, we can all four be watching our own Netflix stream plus all be on a phone call plus all be surfing YouTube. > > Why would any single residence need more? I do a lot of file transferring for my business (gigs of data at a time–up to about 70 or 80 GB.) So it’s not exactly normal personal usage. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/26 "2015-01-27T17:21:02Z")
Well, I’ll just say that sounds very much like the cable companies’ “[customers don’t want fast internet](http://bgr.com/2013/02/28/google-fiber-time-warner-cable-347728/)” argument against why they should be made to be competitive. Streaming is fine, and 20 Mbps is probably plenty to handle multiple streams for most people. I do _ok_ with 6Mbps. What sucks is if I’m downloading a DVD image for a new operating system, or a new video game via a legal online distribution network (I use Steam, but even console games nowadays often have large downloads before you can play them)…I still have to wait _hours_ for that download to finish. Depending on the server capacity, of course, or if it’s a torrent or similar technology, it would certainly be nice to have that in a fraction of the time. Especially since when I’m downloading a new game on Steam, it usually maxes out my 6Mbps; meaning those hours when that download happens, no Netflix, YouTube, or Spotify for anybody. There are web developers, video editors, musicians…all kinds of people uploading/downloading large amounts of data on a regular basis who could certainly stand for it to be a bit (or a LOT) faster. The YouTube videos _you’re_ watching don’t get up there by magic. Jeez, even uploading 50 or 100 high-quality pictures of my baby to Flickr once a month is a task I dread, let alone uploading videos my family might like to see. Sure, I could upgrade my plan, but I feel I’m already being raped at the current price, and the only competitor is known for advertising low rates that are introductory and _simply will not tell you what the “regular” price will be when the intro rate expires_. /end rant. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/27 "2015-01-27T18:07:14Z")
The problem for now with gigabit speeds is that you probably can’t use it even if you have the need. There are too many other restrictions: your NIC or wireless network, your hard drive, and the sites you are downloading from. Copying that 70 GB file probably won’t be faster on a 1 Gbps vs 50 Mbps line. You might see a difference copying multiple large files from different sites at the same time, but that’s a pretty specific use case. At 6 Mpbs, you’ll certainly run into contention when copying files and trying to stream as **troub** says. [Here’s an article](http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/11/what_to_do_with_a_gigabit_toyi.html) with one guy’s experience with a gigabit line. > [@](#): > > As the neighborhood’s network manager, Klauer can see how much bandwidth he and the [296] homes around him are collectively using. Usage tops out around 10 p.m. – prime Netflix time – at roughly 350 megabits…just one-third of the bandwidth allocated for Klauer’s townhome by itself. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/28 "2015-01-27T18:16:48Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > The problem for now with gigabit speeds is that you probably can’t use it even if you have the need. There are too many other restrictions: your NIC or wireless network, your hard drive, and the sites you are downloading from. Copying that 70 GB file probably won’t be faster on a 1 Gbps vs 50 Mbps line. You might see a difference copying multiple large files from different sites at the same time, but that’s a pretty specific use case. I’d still like to see. As Comcast has upped its speed (I believe I started around 10 Mbps, and they’ve gradually increased it to 50 Mbps over the years), I’ve seen marked and drastic improvements each step of the way. Is there a reason 50 Mbps would cap these performance increases? Is that about as fast as my network and hard drive can handle it? (I have SSD drives, and my connection is wired for my desktop.) If not, what is the practical limit right now for a standard residential set up? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/29 "2015-01-27T18:30:19Z")
**Troub** has a good summary in post #23. It’s tough to say what a “standard residential set up” would be. Most likely your network card is 100 Mbps, which would be the immediate limiting factor. A wireless network would probably be slower. The next factor might be your modem/router. Your hard drive probably wouldn’t limit you until you got well above those speeds. As of today, the main limit would be the sites on the other side of the connection. They aren’t typically going to stream out at 100 Mbps to everyone. This will change in the future as high-speed connections become more common. There certainly are people out there who can use a lot of bandwidth. If you are copying those 70+ GB files with any regularity, you are one of them. But for someone who does little more than movie streaming, it’s overkill today. ---
**Author:** ![facebookbusiness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c77e96/32.png) [@facebookbusiness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/facebookbusiness)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/30 "2015-01-27T18:50:46Z")
of course 50 megabits per second is possible, my home service has been 100 megabits per second for years ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/31 "2015-01-27T18:54:00Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > I call BS. It’s possible you are getting 50 MBps (bytes), but in that case he’d have said it was 400 Mbps (bits). No one expresses bandwidth in bytes. Well, if by “no one” you mean “no network professionals.” Plenty of everyday home users talk in bytes when they discuss download speeds, because basically the only numerical expression they see of their download speed is when they’re downloading a large file and the download dialog box pops up. This box gives download speeds in kilobytes and megabytes per second. Not only that, but even when they see number in bits, plenty of inexperienced users don’t understand the difference between bits and bytes. A guy i know was complaining that his download speed didn’t match the advertised speed of his connection. He had a 20 megabit connection, but the fastest he ever saw on his downloads was about 2 megabytes. I had to explain the difference to him, and tell him that the speeds he was getting were pretty much right for a 20 megabit connection. > [@CurtC](#): > > You’re saying that like you’ve looked for higher rates. Is that right? Why? > > Last year I upgrade my household (with four people) from 3 Mb/s to 20 Mb/s. Three was occasionally annoying, I think five or six would have been plenty, but I can’t imagine wanting more than 20. With 20 Mb/s, we can all four be watching our own Netflix stream plus all be on a phone call plus all be surfing YouTube. > > Why would any single residence need more? Admittedly we only have two people (no kids) in our home, but my experience matches yours. We have a 50 megabit connection now, but even when we had 20, my wife could be downstairs browsing eBay and watching a high-def Netflix movie, and i could be upstairs downloading a large file while watching a high-def stream of Major League Baseball, and we had no bandwidth problems whatsoever. In my experience, when downloading large files, the biggest bottleneck is often on the other end, at the site i’m downloading from. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/32 "2015-01-27T22:51:19Z")
> [@cornopean](#): > > As I said above, our IT guy claims that our internet speed is 50 mbs. I asked him what MBS means. He said “megabytes per second”. Can it seriously be possible that we have such a thing. I’ve never heard of an internet this fast. Fibre… obviously gigabit is easily done. Cable ? DOCSIS 3.1 Released October 2013, plans support capacities of at least 10 Gbit/s downstream and 1 Gbit/s upstream using 4096 QAM. The new specs will do away with 6 MHz and 8 MHz wide channel spacing and instead use smaller (20 kHz to 50 kHz wide) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers; these can be bonded inside a block spectrum that could end up being about 200 MHz wide.[5] ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/33 "2015-01-28T02:05:34Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > The problem for now with gigabit speeds is that you probably can’t use it even if you have the need. There’s a chicken and egg problem, though. Today, 50 Mb/s is enough for streaming, but only because streamed video quality sucks. A Blu-Ray disc runs at about 50 Mb/s, and even that isn’t really enough for solid 4k video. In comparison, Netflix HD only uses 5 Mb/s and even their “Ultra HD” titles peak at 25 Mb/s. If everyone had gigabit connections, there would be fewer reasons to have such low quality streaming. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/34 "2015-01-28T03:44:03Z")
> [@troub](#): > > Well, I’ll just say that sounds very much like the cable companies’ “[customers don’t want fast internet](http://bgr.com/2013/02/28/google-fiber-time-warner-cable-347728/)” argument against why they should be made to be competitive. Next on the hit parade: Ford with “Customers Don’t Want Safe Cars (Pinto in Reverse Remix)” and Chevrolet with “Customers Don’t Want Reliability (feat. Suburban Serpentine Belt, vocals by Wiper Unit)”. Later on tonight, we’ll have the sounds of the “Please Don’t Nationalize Us Polka” as performed by the We’re Not A Utility Outfit! ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/35 "2015-01-28T07:35:46Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > The problem for now with gigabit speeds is that you probably can’t use it even if you have the need. There are too many other restrictions: your NIC or wireless network, your hard drive, and the sites you are downloading from. Copying that 70 GB file probably won’t be faster on a 1 Gbps vs 50 Mbps line. You might see a difference copying multiple large files from different sites at the same time, but that’s a pretty specific use case. At 6 Mpbs, you’ll certainly run into contention when copying files and trying to stream as **troub** says. > > [Here’s an article](http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/11/what_to_do_with_a_gigabit_toyi.html) with one guy’s experience with a gigabit line. True enough for one computer, though if you have a large family with many devices (cell phones, tablets, multiple internet media players streaming at the same time, neighbors hacked into your wireless, etc), that gigabit begins to look real nice. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/36 "2015-01-28T16:53:23Z")
> [@sweepkick](#): > > True enough for one computer, though if you have a large family with many devices (cell phones, tablets, multiple internet media players streaming at the same time, neighbors hacked into your wireless, etc), that gigabit begins to look real nice. Yes and no. You’re right that you can start to push the limits with large families (are squatters still a thing? Does anyone still have an unsecured wireless network?). But the limit is higher than most people think. From my linked article, peak usage for a neighborhood of 300 homes was 350 Mbps. Maybe your large family is all streaming Blu-Ray quality at the same, in which case you’re the exceptional use case that needs the extra bandwidth. As I mentioned and Dr. Strangelove described much better, it’s a temporary thing because streaming quality currently sucks. A few years from now someone will post a thread wondering if there really is a thing as fast as gigabit speed and the rest of us will chuckle behind our 10+ gigabit connections. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930/38 "2015-01-29T23:34:00Z")
The FCC [announced today](http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7932653/fcc-changed-definition-broadband-25mbps) that they are bumping the definition of broadband to a minimum of 25 Mbps, up from 4 Mbps. It’s a positive step on the chicken-and-egg problem **Dr. Strangelove** mentioned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-it-guy-is-claiming-that-our-internet-is-50-mbs/710930.md?page=1)