This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Does Firefox's Download Manager measure speeds in kilo-bits-per-second, or kilo-bytes-per-second?

more options

I am trying to figure out if my DSL provider is giving me anywhere near their advertised bandwidth. They claim I should be getting up to 768 kilo-bit-per-second download speeds. I am routinely getting 78 - 85 "KB/sec" in Firefox, but that is meaningless without knowing whether Firefox measures download speeds in bits or bytes.

Please advise!

I am trying to figure out if my DSL provider is giving me anywhere near their advertised bandwidth. They claim I should be getting up to 768 kilo-bit-per-second download speeds. I am routinely getting 78 - 85 "KB/sec" in Firefox, but that is meaningless without knowing whether Firefox measures download speeds in bits or bytes. Please advise!

All Replies (3)

more options

Depends if you are using Landline DSL or Mobile DSL, I live in Wollongong NSW Australia, during the day I get around 56-76kb/sec, at night after around 10 pm I get between 1.1 & 1.7gig/sec. Basic answer, depends how close you are to the mainframe, of your landline provider, more people between you an mainframe, the slower it gets,

An if you have mobile, the local mast can only handle so many signals then you are re-routed to the next one, as a mobile Broadband doesn't have the same power as a mobile, it slows down.

more options
more options

Firefox uses kilobyte as the measurement for downloads.

It's an 8 to 1 ratio
8 bits = 1 byte

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_rate_units#Suffix:_b_vs_B