Links Speeds on internet bandwitdh and hubs and switches
Greeting, I know this is OT but I am sure the results will benefit everyone in the dark as I am. When we talk about lan and internet speeds I am in the dark. You always hear IT guys talking in Megs and Gigs, but how many of us actually understand what that means when it comes to actually transfering data and how to calculate the required hardware and bandwith. So the questions I would like to ask are- 10mb hub - is that megabits or megabytes? there is a big difference, a byte is 8 bits so a 10 megabit link would really only equal to 1.25Kilobytes which seems fair considering the speed that I can transfer files between two PC's running 10Mbs cards. Where 100Mb card handles up to 11 Megabytes per second. The calculation how ever doesn't seem to make sense.. 10Mb / 8 = 1.25 Mega(what?) 100Mb /8 = 12.25 Megabytes the point here is we all ASSUME that when we purchase a 384k line from the local ISP that it is 0.384 Megabytes which is not what I am experiencing from my side, I did a sum and divided 384 by 8 and got 96 which seems more like the fastest I can get our internet connection to run. And therefore our international bandwith is 128k which works out to 16Kb and I can swear that my old 56k modem is faster. So who can explain all this..? :) Chadley
On Monday 24 Oct 2005 17:07, Chadley Wilson wrote: <SNIP>
10mb hub - is that megabits or megabytes? there is a big difference, a byte is 8 bits so a 10 megabit link would really only equal to 1.25Kilobytes
That's right.
which seems fair considering the speed that I can transfer files between two PC's running 10Mbs cards. Where 100Mb card handles up to 11 Megabytes per second. The calculation how ever doesn't seem to make sense.. 10Mb / 8 = 1.25 Mega(what?) 100Mb /8 = 12.25 Megabytes
the point here is we all ASSUME that when we purchase a 384k line from the local ISP that it is 0.384 Megabytes
Do we, I'd assume that was 384 kilo-bits per second. Network speeds are measured in bits per second. Also, the quoted speed is the maximum attainable in ideal conditions. It also includes the transmission overheads like packet headers and the like. As a result, the speed that KDE (say) would report in a download dialog will be somewhat lower. Lastly, when receiving data from the web you are unlikely to reach your full speed because of all the potential bottlenecks between you and the remote server. Dylan -- "The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out." (Chinese Proverb)
Chadley Wilson wrote:
Greeting, I know this is OT but I am sure the results will benefit everyone in the dark as I am.
When we talk about lan and internet speeds I am in the dark. You always hear IT guys talking in Megs and Gigs, but how many of us actually understand what that means when it comes to actually transfering data and how to calculate the required hardware and bandwith.
So the questions I would like to ask are-
10mb hub - is that megabits or megabytes? there is a big difference, a byte is 8 bits so a 10 megabit link would really only equal to 1.25Kilobytes Actually, 10 Mb = 1.25. MB b=bits B=bytes
which seems fair considering the speed that I can transfer files between two PC's running 10Mbs cards. Where 100Mb card handles up to 11 Megabytes per second. The calculation how ever doesn't seem to make sense.. 10Mb / 8 = 1.25 Mega(what?) bytes 100Mb /8 = 12.25 Megabytes
the point here is we all ASSUME that when we purchase a 384k line from the local ISP that it is 0.384 Megabytes which is not what I am experiencing from my side, I did a sum and divided 384 by 8 and got 96 which seems more like the fastest I can get our internet connection to run. And therefore our international bandwith is 128k which works out to 16Kb and I can swear that my old 56k modem is faster.
So who can explain all this..? :)
Connect speeds are normally expressed in bits per second i.e. 1 megabit/sec. Also, there will be some bandwidth lost to overhead, such as IP, PPPoE and ATM headers, CRC, framing etc.
Dylan wrote:
On Monday 24 Oct 2005 17:07, Chadley Wilson wrote: <SNIP>
10mb hub - is that megabits or megabytes? there is a big difference, a byte is 8 bits so a 10 megabit link would really only equal to 1.25Kilobytes
That's right.
My calculator must be busted. I could have sworn 10 millibits / 8 = 1.25 mB. ;-) Actually, I think he meant 10 Mb / 8 = 1.25 MB, not 1.25 KB. M = mega m = milli B = byte b = bit
participants (3)
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Chadley Wilson -
Dylan -
James Knott