I dont know to do the exact calcualtion because all is a b/s... 6 MB/se is not 6,000,000 bit/sec and the rate you get reported about during the download is in the hundreds.... sometimes 600 kb/s, sometimes more like in the 900 kb/s, etc... So I do not know how should I interpret it... Well, first you have to be aware of some of the conventions used in describing communications rates and quantities.
M = Mega, which may be 1,000,000 or 1,048,576, depending on whether you're using decimal or binary conventions. m = milli, which is always 1/1000, or .001 K = Kilo, which may be 1,000 or 1,024, depending on whether you're using decimal or binary conventions. B = Bytes, which are always 8 bits long. b = bits, which are single bits. s = seconds, which are just seconds on this planet.
As you can see, letter case makes a substantial difference in unit size. So, we can immediately throw out the small "m", as there are no fractions of bits. Also, in communications there is always some overhead due to start/stop bits, parity, packetizing, etc., so a Byte may be longer than 8 bits, depending on how the programmer does his math on the incoming data stream. As a general rule of thumb, in communications a Byte is thought to be 10 bits long. Also, in communications the binary interpretation of quantity is usually the one taken for Mega and Kilo.
So, reducing this all to the least common denominator - bits - we get...
5MB/s = 5 x 1,048,576 x 10 bits per second, or 52,428,800 bits per second, while 5Mb/s = 5 x 1,048,576 x 1 bits per second, or 5,242,880 bits per second 5KB/s = 5 x 1024 x 10 bits per second, or 51,200 bits per second, while 5Kb/s = 5 x 1024 x 1 bits per second, or 5,120 bits per second.
Some pretty dramatic differences, yes?
So, when you say
So you call a 786 kb/s a "low end broadband connection"? if that is low what do you consider high end :) ? That is approx 6 MB/s dowload service. What you're actually saying there is 804,864 bits per second is the same as 62,914,560 bits per second. I know your ISP's package doesn't include that fat a pipe <grin>