Confused by Broadband speed

Hi,
I am using Tiscali Broadband at 256kbps which I am very pleased with.
The small icon on the right hand side of my screen states the speed to
be 589.8 kbps
If I do a Bandwidth test it states 149.3 kbps.

Is there something wrong or am I just being dim? Do these figures
seem OK?
Any advice would be gratefully received.
David

"DavidS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Hi,
> I am using Tiscali Broadband at 256kbps which I am very pleased with.
> The small icon on the right hand side of my screen states the speed to
> be 589.8 kbps
> If I do a Bandwidth test it states 149.3 kbps.
>
> Is there something wrong or am I just being dim? Do these figures
> seem OK?
> Any advice would be gratefully received.
> David
>

The line is connecting at 612kb but is capped at 256kb

and your only getting 150k of that 256k
"Morgoth" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42038766$0$29771$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "DavidS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>> Hi,
>> I am using Tiscali Broadband at 256kbps which I am very pleased with.
>> The small icon on the right hand side of my screen states the speed to
>> be 589.8 kbps
>> If I do a Bandwidth test it states 149.3 kbps.
>>
>> Is there something wrong or am I just being dim? Do these figures
>> seem OK?
>> Any advice would be gratefully received.
>> David
>>
>
> The line is connecting at 612kb but is capped at 256kb
>

"MagicUK" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4203a044$0$16589$(E-Mail Removed)...
> and your only getting 150k of that 256k

Which is not much faster than a couple of ISDN2 channels bonded together.

Real broadband starts at 512K from around £17 a month