Feature - Internet Download Times

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Internet download times
Published on 4/27/97

Do you often wonder how long it's going to take to download that new browser update? Sometimes it's hard to tell. Will you be waiting for ten minutes or sixty? This Netpanel special feature will show you just how long your downloads will take. So before you start planning your time around a download, take a quick look at this page.

The bulk of this special feature is a handy reference table. Find your Internet connection speed along the left-hand side, and the approximate file size along the top. The connection speeds are referred to in bps (bits per second), Kbps (kilobits per second), and Mbps (megabits per second), where applicable.

Don't confuse these bit per second rates with bytes per second. For example, a connection speed of 28.8 Kbps would actually download at a rate of 3.5 kilobytes per second in theory, not 28.8 kilobytes per second.

Also realize that the times shown in this table are only the theoretical download times. There are many other factors that can affect your rate of download. Keeping this in mind, you may want to use a little discretion when determining a download time.

Connection speed	File size
Connection speed	100K	500K	1 MB	1.5 MB	2 MB	5 MB
9600 bps 9.6 Kbps	1 min. 25 sec.	7 min. 7 sec.	14 min. 13 sec.	21 min. 20 sec.	28 min. 27 sec.	71 min. 7 sec.
14400 bps 14.4 Kbps	57 sec.	4 min. 44 sec.	9 min. 29 sec.	14 min. 13 sec.	18 min. 58 sec.	47 min. 24 sec.
28800 bps 28.8 Kbps	28 sec.	2 min. 22 sec.	4 min. 44 sec.	7 min. 7 sec.	9 min. 29 sec.	23 min. 42 sec.
33600 bps 33.6 Kbps	24 sec.	2 min. 2 sec.	4 min. 4 sec.	6 min. 6 sec.	8 min. 8 sec.	20 min. 19 sec.
56000 bps 56 Kbps	15 sec.	1 min. 13 sec.	2 min. 27 sec.	3 min. 39 sec.	4 min. 53 sec.	12 min. 11 sec.
128 Kbps (ISDN)	6 sec.	32 sec.	1 min. 4 sec.	1 min. 36 sec.	2 min. 8 sec.	5 min. 20 sec.
1.5 Mbps (T1)	<1 sec.	3 sec.	5 sec.	8 sec.	11 sec.	27 sec.
45 Mbps (T3)	<1 sec.	<1 sec.	<1 sec.	<1 sec.	<1 sec.	1 sec.

The times presented in this table are faster than they would be in real-world situations. The reason for this is simple: there are always delays between your modem and the targeted server. Even if you have a 28.8 modem, you'll likely receive slower performance. In some cases, you may only be getting 14.4 performance.