Why is my upload so slow?

Because most traffic flows from the Internet to you, broadband connections often have download speeds much faster than their upload capability. A typical "8 Meg" broadband connection would have an upload capability 20 times less than the advertised download speed, so more often than not - you are at the limit of your connection.

Remember that broadband speeds are measured in Megabits per second, and files are normally measured in Megabytes. There are 8 bits in a byte so you must divide your upload speed in Megabits by eight to derive the number of Megabytes you can upload each second.

Use the independent broadband speed testing service http://www.speedtest.net to establish your true upload speed. For example, a broadband connection with a measured upload speed of 400Kb/s means you can upload 400 killobits each second. Dividing this by eight gives us an upload capability of 50 kilobytes (KB) - you should see an upload rate in this region when uploading to your online storage. 30 megabytes of photos would take approximately 10 minutes to upload at that speed (30 * 1000 = 30,000 kilobytes divided by 50 = 600 seconds divided by 60 = 10 minutes.)

Tips for faster uploads

• Install humyo SmartDrive on your computer. You can then add files to your humyo account instantly. SmartDrive uploads files in the background while you work so you you won't have to wait around anymore.
• Ensure you're Internet connection is not being used for other demanding tasks such as file sharing and watching videos.