Confused about "speed"

Hey guys, I'm a little confused about the values that should be used when discussing the "speed" on a wireless connection. For example, my family has a DSL connection at our home. If I check the wireless connection status through the Network and Sharing Center, it says that "Speed: 39.0 Mbps", or 70, 130, etc. Speedtest says that my download speed is 3007 kbps.

When companies are discussing the speeds of their services, is it the latter value? Time Warner had called today, offering packages at 1 mbps, 6 mbps, etc. which seems low when you compare it to the Network Center's value but very solid when compared to the download speed.

What/why the difference in values? If Speedtest measures the download speed, what "speed" is the Network Center measuring?

 

ISPs declared speeds are the maximum speed of your internet. Speedtest measures actual speed of your internet, and Network and Sharing center declares maximum speed of your home network.

 

Those are two different values you are looking at. One is the speed of your local area network (just inside your house). Thats is what your router tells you. The 2nd from speed test is your internet connection. If you got faster or slower internet, your local area network (router) would tell you that you have the same speed as before but speed test will be different.

Local area networks are used for sharing files, printers, etc in your house. Everything else goes across the internet.

 

The network center measures the speed between your router and your wireless connection with your computer. Yes, the speed between your router and the ISP (Time Warner) is the bottleneck, no matter how fast is your home wireless connection, the ISP's speed is much lower.

 

I see. Just to make sure I understand, if I was to transfer files between two laptops in my house, they would transfer at the speed the Network Center tells me. But if I'm downloading something from a website, say Megaupload, it would go at the speed Speednet's telling me. Is that correct?

 

That is correct.

 

Wow, 20 minutes and 3 great answers. Thanks so much for the help, everyone.

 

Yes, that's correct, and 20', let's see, is $100