internet speed

[Hot_Milo23]

hi,
talking to a friend of mine, im wondering if my view on connection speeds are correct. (im in Australia so things may be different in America?)
i was under the impression that 128kb/s was the very bottom standard of broadband ranging up to 2048kb/s(2mb/s). (these being satelite broadband). then with adsl and adsl2+ and such speeds of 10-12mb/s + could be reached?
now im being told that its possible to have speeds of 100mb/s?
any takes on this?
maybe im completely wrong, but this sounds very exaggerated??
help?
thx

[TkTech]

No - those speed's aren't really exaggerated. I have 32mb/s down and 4mb/s up. One thing to note about your satellite connection is it has high latency - that is, you get a lot of data in one packet, but the delay between packets is relatively high - thats one reason satellite is pure garbage for gaming.

[Hot_Milo23]

can u explain latency for me?
high latency means you recieve bigger packets with higher delay?
and it is lower in non-satelite connections?

[TkTech]

Your satellite will send something much larger, but less frequently. Its cheaper and less intensive for it to do this, as its trying to give as much time as it can to multiple users. Part of the job of the box that likely came with your satellite internet is decoding these jumbo packets into the packets for your network devices (like your computer and router) to understand.

Latency is just the time in between the receiving of each packet.

[Hot_Milo23]

ok, thx for that.
much appreciated

[bbqroast]

Latency means the time beetwen things getting from a to B normally its fine but with satellites its a problem. It means while the video will donwload very fast it will take sometime before it starts downloading.