How to Find the Upload and Download Speed on Your PC

Understanding the Terminology

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   Learn the way connection speeds are measured. Connection speeds are measured in Mbps. This stands for Megabits Per Second. Mbps is the standard method of calculating transfer speeds. The most important thing to note is that a megabit (Mb) is different than a megabyte (MB).

   1. File sizes are typically measured in MBs.
   2. A megabit is 1000000 bits, which translates to about 125 kilobytes. A megabyte is made of 1024 kilobytes.
   3. This means that a 10 Mbps connection will deliver download speeds up to 1.25 MBps.
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   Understand the basics of connecting to a server. Connections are made to servers. A server is the location where you are retrieving data from. Servers are physical objects, and their relative distance to your computer will affect the speed at which you connect to them.

   1. All things being equal, you will download a file faster from a server that is 10 miles (16 km) away as opposed to a server that is 500 miles (800 km) away.
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   Know the difference between uploading versus downloading. When you download something, you are retrieving a file from a server. When you upload, you are sending a file to a server. Internet connections are typically significantly faster downloading than uploading.
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   Understand ping. Ping measures time to connect. The ping is a measurement of how long a message takes to reach one end of the connection to the other. This affects how long a download may take to get started, but does not affect overall transfer rate.