What Is the Difference Between Internet Connecting Speeds?
When people refer to Internet connection speeds, they usually mean how fast their Internet can operate and how quickly they can download and view Web pages. However, there are many types of Internet speed, depending on the service the user has and what he is using the connection to accomplish.
Other People Are Reading
-
Units of Measurement
-
Internet speeds are usually measured by kilobits per second, or Kb/s, and kilobytes per second, or KB/s. There are eight bits in a byte, so kilobyte is a much large unit. Often, transfer speeds are shown in KB/s, and connect speeds are most often shown in Kb/s or sometimes MB/s (megabytes per second) if large data rates are being discussed. Connection speed is a general term for the overall speed of an Internet connection, including all data, while transfer speed pertains only to download rates.
Broadband Speed
-
Bandwidth is a general term that refers to overall Internet connection speed. Bandwidth is typically a two-part data rate. The computer and connection that the user connects with has a particular level of bandwidth, while the website server that is sending information to the user also has a level of bandwidth. Together, they decide the general Internet connection speed. If there is a lot of traffic on a particular site, the speed might be very slow, even if the user's bandwidth is very good.
-
Uploads and Downloads
-
Upload refers to how fast the Internet connection transfers information from the user's computer to another computer or server through an online connection, while download refers to how quickly a computer can download information from a server through the same connection. Some Internet speeds are symmetrical, and designed to have both the same upload and download speeds, while others are asymmetrical and have differing speeds. Download speeds are usually more important, because downloads occur much more frequently.
Variance
-
There is a lot of variance in Internet connection speed, due to a variety of factors, especially Internet traffic. The same connection will have many different speeds throughout the day. Users who want to test their connection speeds should test their connection as many as 10 times throughout the day to create a useful average.
Connection Options
-
Cable modem download speeds tend to be around 4-6 Mb/s, while upload speeds tend to stay around 600 Kb/s. DSL connections are usually less, around 1.4 Mb/s for download speeds and 400 Kb/s for uploading. Newer fiber optic systems have 15 Mb/s download speeds. Higher-end versions of these cables will transfer data more quickly but also be more expensive.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Technology - Graphics Card image by Rob Hill from Fotolia.com
