The terms denoting the speed of the Internet are extremely difficult to understand for a person who is far from this topic. For example, the provider offers the service of providing the Internet at a speed of 1 Mbps, but you do not know whether it is a lot or a little. Let's understand that this is mbps, and how Internet connection speed is generally measured.
Decoding abbreviations
The literal translation of "mbps" ( mbit per second ) is megabits per second. It is in these units that the connection speed is most often measured. All providers in their advertisements indicate the speed in megabits per second, so we should also deal with these values.
How much is 1 mbps?
First, note that 1 bit is the smallest unit for measuring the amount of information. Along with bits, people often use bytes, forgetting that these two concepts are completely different. Sometimes they say “byte”, meaning “bit,” and vice versa. Therefore, it is worth considering this issue in more detail.
So 1 bit is the smallest unit of measure. 8 bits equals one byte, 16 bits equals two bytes, etc. That is, you just need to remember that a byte is always 8 times the size of a bit.
Given that both units are very small, in most cases they use the prefixes "mega", "kilo" and "gigabyte". What these consoles mean, you should know from the school course. But if you forget, then it is worth recalling:
- "Kilo" - multiplication by 1,000. 1 kilobit is equal to 1,000 bits, 1 kilobyte is equal to 1024 bytes.
- Mega is a multiplication by 1,000,000. 1 megabyte is 1,000 kilobits (or 1,000,000 bits), 1 megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes.
- "Giga" is a multiplication by 1,000,000,000. 1 gigabyte is equal to 1,000 megabytes (or 1,000,000,000 bits), 1 gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabytes.
In simple words, the connection speed is the speed of information sent and received by the computer in one unit of time (per second). If your internet connection speed is 1 mbps, what does it mean? In this case, it means that your Internet speed is 1 megabit per second or 1,000 kilobits / second.
How much is this
Many users believe that mbps is a lot. This is actually not the case. Modern networks are so developed that, given their capabilities, 1 mbps is nothing at all. We give a calculation of this speed on the example of downloading files from the Internet.
We take into account that mbps are megabits per second. Divide the value 1 by 8 and get megabytes. Total 1/8 = 0.125 megabytes / second. If we want to download music from the Internet, provided that one track "weighs" 3 megabytes (usually tracks are so much and "weigh"), we can download it in 24 seconds. It’s easy to calculate: 3 mebagytes (the weight of one track) should be divided by 0.125 megabytes / second (our speed). The result is 24 seconds.
But this only applies to a regular song. And if you want to download some movie, the size of 1.5 GB? Let's count:
- 1500 (megabytes): 0.125 (megabytes per second) = 12,000 (seconds) .
We translate seconds into minutes:
- 12,000: 60 = 200 minutes or 3.33 hours .
Thus, with an Internet speed of 1 mbps, we can download a 1.5 GB movie in 3.33 hours. Here, judge for yourself whether it is long or not.
Given the fact that in large cities Internet providers offer Internet speeds of up to 100 mbps, we could download a movie with the same volume in just 2 minutes, not 200. That is, 100 times faster. If you start from this, then we can conclude that mbps is a low speed.
However, everything is relative. In some remote village, where it’s even difficult to catch even a GSM network, having the Internet at that speed is cool. However, in a large metropolis with huge competition between providers and mobile operators, such a weak Internet connection can not be.
Conclusion
Now you know how to determine the speed of the Internet, and you can understand a little these data units. Of course, getting lost in them is just a spit, but the main thing to remember is that a bit is an eighth of a byte. And the prefixes "kilo", "mega" and "gig" only add three, six or nine zeros, respectively. If this is understood, then everything falls into place.