what's a reasonable 1gb download time?

[Ombligo]

what would be a reasonable length of time for a 1gb file to download via cable?

(I'm on roadrunner, if that matters)

[GGD]

Depends on what your speed is, but if it's something like 8 megabits/second, that 1 megabyte a second so a gigabyte would be about 16-17 minutes.

[Ombligo]

Speedtest.com routinely gives me a 6-7mb/s speed rating but the best I ever see on any download is in the 40kb/s range (and often lower.

That can be from itunes, audible or my work server (which is a T1). I can't stream video from anywhere - hulu, youtube, netflix, where ever. A movie download of 800mb yesterday took 12 hrs!

any ideas why tested and actual download speeds are so far apart? Where could the problem be and what would be a fix?

[Filliam H. Muffman]

It might depend a little on what city you are in and how many people in your neighborhood are downloading at the same time.

This site used to be one of the fastest years ago but it is in Southern California, it might be slower in the center and East Coast. 5 MB file should take 6 to 8 seconds. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/movpics/anim/anim.html

[modelamac]

Your d/l time is dependent on at least 2 elements outside your control:

1. the source's upload speed

2. the distance from the source to you - how many pass through points there are and the traffic on them at the time.

You usually try to test your speed with the nearest test site. Your downloads are rarely from that site.

[btfc]

Router? Wireless? Other users?

[Ombligo]

Lynksys G wireless router
no other users

[btfc]

Lots of good info on this site including tweaking your router for max speed. Are you sure nobody else is sucking your bandwidth? You can who has accessed the router in the Linksys web utility.

http://www.dslreports.com/tools

[btfc]

You could also connect directly to the modem and test speed again.