# What was going on here? Cable internet getting spikes of over 3,900KB/s

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-going-on-here-cable-internet-getting-spikes-of-over-3-900kb-s/171069>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-going-on-here-cable-internet-getting-spikes-of-over-3-900kb-s/171069 "2003-04-25T07:56:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-going-on-here-cable-internet-getting-spikes-of-over-3-900kb-s/171069/21 "2003-04-26T04:50:59Z")

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If you use Internet Explorer, the file will actually start downloading before you enter the “location” information. Thus, if you are particularly tardy in deciding where to place the file, it will display ridiculously fast download speed.

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-going-on-here-cable-internet-getting-spikes-of-over-3-900kb-s/171069/22 "2003-04-26T05:01:06Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by starman \*  
> \*\*Slight hijack, but I once experienced a similar phenomenon on a 56k dialup connection, which I do not believe should be possible. For a few seconds, my download was displaying speeds of over seven megabytes per second. Downloaded a 16Mb file in just over three seconds. Still have no clue how that happened. \*\*

“MB” refers to megabytes, “Mb” refers to megabits. A bit is 8 bytes, so, 3.5 Mb (3.5 million bits) is .4375 MB (3,500,000 / 8 = 437,500 bytes per second).

So, figuring in overhead and all, you’re getting a good speed near your rated max.

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**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-going-on-here-cable-internet-getting-spikes-of-over-3-900kb-s/171069/23 "2003-04-26T06:03:40Z")

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SenorBeef: 16Mb = 2MB

56Kb/s = 7KB/s or roughly 168Kb in 3 seconds.

Quite a longshot from 16Mb or 2MB, no matter which way you look at it.

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-going-on-here-cable-internet-getting-spikes-of-over-3-900kb-s/171069/24 "2003-04-26T07:25:59Z")

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Woops, I selected the wrong post to quote.

I meant that as a reply to this post:

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Waddle \*  
> \*\*With my cable (insight) all of the bandwidth testers say that I have 3.5 mbit downloads. However, I’ve never been able to get more than 400k a sec before. It’s nice being the only one in your city with a cable modem. \*\*

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