Broadband Speed Liar's Poker

[Richard M. Kriss]

I know this has been discussed before but I am a new DSL user and very
confused on how to test my download speed. When I  do the speed test thing
at http://www.computers4sure.com/speed3.asp?Sp=1336 I get

Your Speed is: 1336 Kbps  to 1550 Kbps

When I watch the Safari download window it says

87.7 KB per sec

Maybe I am getting confused by Kbps (bits per second) vs KB (Bytes) per
second.

The new DSL setup seems much faster than the old 56K dialup connection but I
have no idea how good is good.  I have heard cable people say they are
getting 300 KB per sec.

What is the correct term for quoting speed KB per sec or Kbps?

What is a good figure for a DSL connection?  I don't care about comparing to
cable modems. I just want to know if my DSL is working okay.

I wonder if the speed is more influenced by the application (Safari,
Netscape, Explorer and the new Mozilla Firebird)