If possible, choose a server close to your location.īroadband networks can slow down during peak hours (typically 8am to midnight). Sometimes a slow download is caused by the server sending you the file rather than your broadband connection, so try getting the file from another site. Switch off anything you don’t need to free up more bandwidth for your download. Other devices sharing your broadband may be impacting the speed by reducing the available bandwidth. Switch off other devices and software on your Wi-Fi If your downloads are slower than expected, here are a few things you can do to improve the speed.
If a server is very busy, you will find that speeds are reduced as a result, even if your broadband connection appears to be working normally. The speed can also be restricted by the connection of the server that is sending or receiving data. Speeds can fluctuate even during a transfer, and the performance of your broadband will change throughout the day depending on network traffic. The calculator shows the time it will take to transfer files at any given speed, but your connection will not continuously move data at the same rate. Why are my downloads and uploads taking longer than calculated? Use our broadband speed test to find out your current upload speed. Some broadband is symmetrical, which means it has the same download and upload speed, but this is rarer. Most broadband services have a slower upload speed in favour of quicker downloads (this is known as asymmetrical broadband). How can I calculate upload time speed?Ĭalculating the time of an upload (where files are sent from your device to the internet) is the same as working out a download time, except you’ll most likely have to change the speed. And there are plenty of cheap fibre optic deals available, so it’s not much more expensive than ADSL. With this speed, you can easily stream HD video and download files in a reasonable time. However, we recommend a minimum of 35Mb fibre optic broadband for everyone, even if you’re the only person using the internet.
As a rough guide, allow a speed of 10Mb per person, plus another 10Mb for every person who is likely to be using it for things like file downloads and video streaming. The other factor to consider is how many people will be sharing the connection because every person (or device) you add will reduce the available bandwidth.ĪDSL broadband (which has an average speed of just 10Mb) can struggle to cope even with fairly light usage if more than one person is online at the same time.įibre optic internet is essential for shared or family homes. Without it, you may find viewing is often interrupted by buffering. Video streaming also benefits from faster broadband speeds as it will let you stream in high-quality HD and ultra HD. File sizeĪs you can see, even a cheap entry-level fibre optic deal with an average speed of 35Mb will significantly reduce download times compared to a 10Mb ADSL service. Your broadband speed requirements will depend on what you plan to do with the broadband and how many people share the connection.įrequent large file downloads or uploads are much easier with fast internet the table below shows how long files of various sizes can take to download and illustrates how much of a difference fibre broadband makes. Upper and lower case is used to differentiate between them small b for bits (Kb, Mb, Gb), big B for bytes (KB, MB, GB). So a 1 megabit internet connection can transfer 1 megabyte every 8 seconds. Most broadband speeds will be shown as megabits per second (Mbps, Mb/s, or Mb), though kilobits (Kbps, Kb/s, or Kb) and gigabits (Gbps, Gb/s, Gb) are also common.īytes are used to indicate data size or capacity, like the size of a file or a hard drive's storage space. What's the difference between bits and bytes?īits and bytes are both units of data, but they’re used in different ways for broadband.ĭata transfer speed is measured in bps - bits per second. Of course, it’s much simpler to use the calculator above, especially when you get into the hundreds or thousands of megabytes. File Size in bytes / (Download Speed in bits / 8) = Time.The equation for calculating download time is: You can also enter a time and file size to estimate the speed of a broadband connection, or a time and speed to get a file size. Use our free speed test to find out your broadband speed.
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