Why Am I Not Getting Expected Download Speeds Over Ethernet?

Be sure you understand the difference between MB/s and Mbps! Your connection sounds fine—1 Gbps translates roughly to 125 MB/s. If you're consistently seeing 150 MB/s, that doesn’t seem off, especially if your roommate is miscommunicating their speeds. It’s all about the correct units: bytes vs. bits. And if both of your systems are pulling differently, it can sometimes depend on the server load or congestion.

Definitely check how you’re measuring your speeds! If you're reading 150 MB/s, remember that's equivalent to about 1200 Mbps. On the flip side, your roommate at that speed might just be misunderstanding their own downloads. Plus, remember, different applications can report speeds differently, and Steam usually shows in bytes per second. I’d suggest running a test with a site like fast.com which gives you a clearer view in megabits.

It sounds like there might be some confusion around the units of measurement for speed. When your roommate says they’re getting 200-400 MB/s, maybe they’re actually referring to megabits per second (Mbps), which is different from megabytes per second (MB/s). Just to clarify, there are 8 bits in a byte, so 400 MB/s would equal about 3200 Mbps. Since your maximum is 150 MB/s, that translates to about 1200 Mbps, which is still high but not impossible if you’re getting good speeds on a gigabit connection. Always double-check that you’re both comparing speeds from the same server too!