Sorry Seymour, I should have been more clear. I was kind of referring to the difference between megabits and megabytes. Internet connections (and network connections in general) are measured in kilobits or megabits per second. But software like browsers, bittorrent software etc. report file download speeds in kilobytes or megabytes per second.

8 megabit = 1 megabyte. So with an 8 megabit net connection, you'd be lucky to see as much as 1 megabyte per second reported by your browser when downloading a large file. It's just something that can cause confusion.

Ah, thanks Jon. I understand better now - I think! Anyway, I've just sent an 'irritated' email again to support. We'll see what happens.

In fact, the 8 Megabit = 1 Megabyte conversion is very optimistic, as a lot of bits get used in the protocol handling (packet headers, addressing etc). So the delivered data speed can't match the 8/1 ratio. Sorry - from an Internet engineer (of sorts).

Thanks MM. And the 'overheads' would explain why I get just over 1 megabyte peak with a 9 or 10 meg connection (and I tend to only see that through Bittorrent rather than a HTTP or FTP download) but trying not to get too complicated ;)

jonuk: that 1 Megabyte peak would be about par for the course on that speed of connection. And you're quite right, the protocol used will make a difference too.

And early this morning, I'm getting between 5 and 6 Mb/s =:-0

Wassat all about??? At least I know it can be achieved.

just to say I have found plusnet to be good on customer service - unlike talk talk. good luck.

I think it is more complicated than that. There are start and stop bits per byte plus 4 bits for crc in each packet of say 64 bytes and so on. There is a formula, but you may be lucky with an overall conversion of worse than 10 bits per bytes.

Thanks Kernow - that was the reason for choosing them, and they have been very approachable and helpful. Back to the slow speeds last night, fast again this morning, so looks like it's a contention issue.

Seymour, I have been with Plusnet for a few years and generally have found them helpful when problems, which have been few, arise. I occasionally have dropped speed problems which usually sort themselves out when I restart my router and run speed tests, though I have no idea why that should resolve the matter! I had a power surge last year which blew my antisurge plugs and my router. I bought a replacement Belkin router and could not get any speed out of it. Plusnet suggested that, because I had been offline it would take a few days for the speed to build up again. They sent me one of their own routers, a Thomson, to try. The result was the same but over the course of a few days, for whatever reason the speed gradually built up to the max I can get here which is 5 to 6Mb.

There is probably an internet god out there making these strange things happen!!

Thanks also Kim - that's good to know.

Moved to the correct thread!

Ahem, skinny, wrong thread!!!!

Harry :-)

Anyone had this problem today

Everytime I use Hotmail and want to reply or type a new message, it crashes the web browser how do i fix it?

update, just uninstalled silverlight which was updated 16th feb and that seems to work

hope this helps anyone with the same problem ;-)

Ever heard of the word 'please'?

And also

the other two words 'thank you'?

I've just had an email from the people who wrote my FTP upload software and they are promoting this:-

http://www.tappin.com/

Has anyone tried it? I can see the dangers of losing a cellphone that has access to one's home PC but presumably they've thought of that one.

TP

Anyone that has a problem with Java not working or download part fail and lost files or registry key not found. Use this free site, fixed my prob in seconds and allowed me to install java properly.

Look through forum pages for your needs here.

I'm looking for a cheap option for a secondary machine capable of supporting 2 monitors.

Any views on buying something like a refurbished DELL OPTIPLEX 745 for £100 and installing something like a Radeon 6450 - I realise its windows xp.

Probably won't support a full height card - I have a similar s/h machine and the internals are very "compact". In fact, I would say there is very little room for any extra cards. I'll try and have a look in mine when I get home at lunchtime - if I don't reply it will be Monday evening before I can respond as I'm away for the w/e.