Why does an 1.5 MBps internet speed translate to a ~200 KBps down?

[Elforia]

I have Century link and I pay for 1.5 MBps down and an 896 KBps up and I used Speedtest.com and my down was ok but my up was only half of what I'm paying for but I'm using a wireless connection so I don't know if that affects my up.

Back to the original question "Why does an 1.5 MBps internet speed translate to a ~200 KBps down?" I have steam and when I download something my down is ~200 KBps but it sometimes goes up to around 400 KBps briefly but that has changed since I got my new Router connection is more stable and it stays around 200 KBps for 99%. But I was wondering why my 1.5 MBps internet speed gives me only 200 KBps down? I know that I have a cheap internet but I live with my parents and until I go to college in around 2 years I won't get better internet.
change all those MBs to Mbs sorry about that I know why... I feel so stupid... T_T I misread the Mb.... thought it said MB 1.5 Mb = 192 KB.... Capital and lowercase letters.... but I still need an answer to the up speed issue.
In case you guys didn't see I already figured out the problem about the MB and Mb all I need help on now is the up speed issue. Because I know for a fact that Speedtest.com and internet providers both use bits 896 kilobits is what I should be getting but I only get half of that based on Speedtest.com

[Syberious]

there's a lot of reasons................

the simplest being you can only download as fast as someone can upload.

but yeah a wireless router does have some impact on things. Plug directly into the router see if it speeds up

[Ram]

thats how the protocall or rule. 1.5 mpbs is the bandwidth you get. 1/8th of the bandwidth is the speed you get for download. thats your 200.

[DeMoNsLaYeR575]

sounds like you got got MBps and Mbps mixed up... MBps is megabytes per second and Mbps is megabits per second

1.5 Mbps is about 200KB/s which is what you are getting....

its as simple as that...

[tumbleweed_biff]

The bandwidth you purchase is sold by (mega)Bits Per Second while your computer reporting the speed of download is giving it in (kilo/mega) Bytes Per Second.

There are 8 bits to the byte, so your download speed as reported by your computer will be 1/8th of the speed you buy from the ISP, less overhead for various things such as WiFi, packet loss, collisions, etc.

[Jay Be]

There are a few reasons. For one, you are sharing that speed with the people in your area. Also, you do not use all of the bandwidth for one download. Your software and router limit that process of things so all its bandwidth is not used for one thing. If you were downloading a 2 gigabyte game, you would be taking your and your neighbour's wifi (with the same ISP) for 5 and a half hours.

[roderick_young]

Think of bits as eggs. 1.5 Mb (small b means bits) is 1.5 million eggs per second.

A byte is like a carton of eggs, actually with about 10 eggs in it, 8 of the eggs are actual data, and 1-2 of them are used for protocol (not useful to you). So you divide the number of eggs per second by about 10 to get the number of cartons per second. 1.5 megabits per second is equivalent to 0.15 megabytes (0.15 MB, with a capital B) per second, or 150 kB per second.

That suggests that when you get 200 kB per second on download, you're actually getting much better than 1.5 Mb/sec speed, so your'e getting a good deal.

As for the upload speed on DSL, it's usually a maximum upload speed that's specified. It's not uncommon to have half that.

Note that anything below 4 Mbps is not considered broadband, nowadays. If the speed is insufficient for your needs, you can probably get much more speed for not much more money.