What Do Internet Speeds Mean?
When using the Internet, one of the most important parts of the experience is the speed of your Internet connection. Several factors play a part in determining how fast you can send and receive data, which determines what kinds of things you can experience, particularly high-quality video.
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Basics of Internet Speed
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If you're shopping for high-speed Internet, you'll see your service options broken down into speed tiers. For example, Tier 3 might be 5 megabits per second (Mb/s), Tier 2 might be 10Mb/s and Tier 3 might be 15Mb/s.
How Fast is a Megabit?
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There are 8 bits in a megabit, so the Tier 2 example connection would have a maximum theoretical speed of 1,280 kilobytes per second, or 1.28 megabytes per second. A standard compact disc holds up to about 700 megabytes of information.
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Theoretical Speeds
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The actual speed allotted to your connection is usually higher than its rated speed to account for traffic overhead. Traffic overhead is the part of your connection that determines where your data packets are coming from and where they're going and verifies that the packets have been successfully sent and received.
Downloading and Browsing Speeds
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A very busy website may load slowly in your browser, and downloads from that website may transfer slowly, as well. Other times, there's physical damage to the regional network (perhaps caused by a rainstorm or mudslide), and traffic has to be rerouted, which can cause congestion.
Wireless Internet Speeds
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Whether you're on a local network Wi-Fi connection or surfing the Internet from a cell phone in a coffee shop, signal interference and environmental obstacles, such as terrain or electrical storms, can affect the wireless signal. These issues can dramatically slow down your connection speed.
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