When I have a local area connection, a computer icon appears to the left of the clock in Windows 2000. If you hover over the computer icon, you can see the speed of the Internet connection. At different locations, I see different speeds (10 MBPS or 100 MBPS). My question is what does this MBPS really mean? Surely you can’t download at a whopping speed of 100 MB per second, right?
No you can’t download at a speed of 100MB/s, but your ethernet card sure can handle 100Mb/s (ie transfer files over LAN) 
*note the difference between B and b - B is for bytes, b is for bit (8 bit = 1 byte)
well that’s what i think, anyway.
[edit]whoa wait a minute…hm…doesn’t that mean only 12.5MB/s ? weird. well my network this is showing 100.0Mbps too, so that’s normal.
Maybe I have mistaken. Now that I think of it, it was Mbps. How do you convert that to MBps?
seems like you posted while i was editing
take 100 divided by 8, you get 12.5MBps
hm despite what is said in your footer, here’s a link for you 
http://www.google.com/search?q=bit+byte+conversion&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
(the top result is pretty useful)
MB is MegaByte, Mb is MegaBit
One byte is 8 bits, so to go from Mb to MB divide by 8.
It’s OK. Posting a link (like you did) is useful but saying “google it” isn’t.
hah ok.
What’s the difference between LAN and regular Internet? So you say my LAN goes at 12.5 MBps. So how do you figure out the top Internet speed?
The LAN connection speed is entirely different than the internet speed you get. LAN is a local network, so obviously the speed is way higher than the speed at which you connect to the internet. To know your internet speed, contact your ISP. They’ll surely be able to tell you.
oops um, another google (firefox just makes googling easy, especially with tabbed-browsing)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=bandwidth+test&btnG=Search
you don’t really have to contact your ISP. there are many bandwidth tests out there
I tested one of them last time, it worked pretty good and showed a rather accurate report of my bandwidth. lost the link, though.
Yeah, but most of those bandwith tests are based on the speed at which you download a file from their servers. That’s not always very accurate. Your ISP has the accurate info.
Im sure if its a LAN Connection that the modem would have it on the front. It should be 100mbps.
Goto www.broadbandreports.com and find a speed test closest to you.
i have 56k thats going at 52k
wahoo?
wahoo, indeed! my 56k used to go at 48k only 
Yeah - 56k is the theoretical maximum. You’ll rarely ever make it to that speed.
I have only just a few hours been liberated from th eevel villian that is dialup aol!!!
it was not my choice to be on dialup… or aol (the devil)… merely the environment i was forced into bu tno longer… i am free! I am happily runited with my friend cable modem.
the problem is i cant get cable on the second floor of my house and i cant get earthlink, att, or verizon dsl. i can only get sprint, but my mom hates sprint
Why not get yourself a both wireless and cabled router, plug a wifi card in your comp upstairs and connect the computer downstairs using a regular UTP cable ? Works wonderfully.
like has been said the higher speeds of 10MBps per second and 100MBps are speeds to your local network only…those are speeds from say your living room computer to your bedroom computer…
now your connection to the outside world is a different story…that can only be measured my your ISP technically…however there is a free test on the internet, that I have used often that is quite accurate in detecting my actual speed…
here are some links to help explain the speeds:
http://www.homenethelp.com/web/explain/about-network-speeds.asp
http://www.linksys.com/edu/glossary.asp
