The terms denoting the speed of the Internet are extremely difficult to understand for a person who is far from this topic. For example, a provider offers the service of providing Internet at a speed of 1 Mbps, and you don’t know whether it’s a lot or a little. Let's figure out what it is - mbps, and how the speed of an Internet connection is generally measured.

Abbreviation decoding

"mbps" ( mbit per second) is a megabit 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 deal with these values.

How much is 1 mbps?

To begin with, we note that 1 bit is the smallest unit for measuring the amount of information. Along with a bit, people often use a byte, forgetting that these two concepts are completely different. Sometimes they say "byte" when they mean "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, and so on. That is, you just need to remember that a byte is always 8 times larger than a bit.

Given that both units are very small, in most cases they use the prefixes "mega", "kilo" and "giga". What these prefixes mean, you should know from the school course. But if you forgot, then it is worth recalling:

1. "Kilo" is multiplication by 1000. 1 kilobit is equal to 1000 bits, 1 kilobyte is equal to 1024 bytes.
2. "Mega" - multiplication by 1,000,000. 1 megabit is equal to 1,000 kilobits (or 1,000,000 bits), 1 megabyte is equal to 1024 kilobytes.
3. "Giga" - multiplied by 1,000,000,000. equals 1,000 megabits (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 that mean? In this case, it says 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. Actually it is not. Modern networks are so advanced that, given their capabilities, 1 mbps is nothing at all. Let's give a calculation of this speed using the example of downloading files from the Internet.

We take into account that mbps is megabits per second. Divide the value of 1 by 8 and get megabytes. Total 1/8=0.125 megabytes/second. If we want to download music from the Internet, then, provided that one track "weighs" 3 megabytes (usually tracks "weigh" that much), we can download it in 24 seconds. It's easy to calculate: 3 megabytes (the weight of one track) must be divided by 0.125 megabytes / second (our speed). The result is 24 seconds.

But that only applies to normal songs. What if you want to download a 1.5 GB movie? Let's count:

• 1500 (megabytes) : 0.125 (megabytes per second) = 12,000 (seconds).

Convert seconds to 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. Based on this, we can conclude that mbps is a low speed.

However, everything is relative. In some remote village, where it is generally difficult to catch even a GSM network, having Internet at such a speed is cool. However, in a large metropolis with huge competition between providers and mobile operators, there cannot be such a weak Internet connection.

Conclusion

Now you know how to determine the speed of the Internet, and you can understand a little about these units of measurement. Of course, getting confused in them is a piece of cake, but the main thing to remember is that a bit is an eighth of a byte. And the prefixes "kilo", "mega" and "giga" only add three, six or nine zeros, respectively. If you understand this, then everything falls into place.

(B/c or Bps, from English. b ytes p er s econd ) equal to 8 bit/s.

In telecommunications

In telecommunications, decimal prefixes are accepted, for example, 1 kilobit \u003d 1000 bits. Similarly, 1 kilobyte = 1000 bytes, although in telecommunications it is not customary to measure the speed in bytes / s.

In computer systems architecture

In the modern world, computers based on binary logic are widely used, which has its limitations. There is a minimum transmitted (addressable) block of information. In most cases, this is 1 byte. Computers can only store (and address) the amount of information that is a multiple of 1 byte (see Machine word). The amount of data is usually measured in bytes. Therefore, 1 KB = 1024 bytes is used. This is due to optimization of computations (in memory and processor). Everything else depends on the size of memory pages - the size of the I / O block for file systems is usually a multiple of the size of the memory page, the size of the sector on the disk is selected so as to be a multiple of the block size of the file systems.

Many drive manufacturers (with the exception of CDs) list the size as 1 KB = 1000 bytes. There is an opinion that this is due to marketing reasons.

Standards

• The International Electrotechnical Commission in March 1999, in the second amendment to IEC 60027-2, introduced the binary prefixes " kibi» (abbreviated Ki-, Ki-), « mebi» (abbreviated Mi-, Mi-), etc. However, not everyone adheres to these terms.
• GOST 8.417-2002, September 1, 2003 - "Units of quantities"
• JEDEC 100B.01 en is the standard for marking digital memory, according to which kilo = 1024.
• RFC 2330, May 1998 - "Framework for IP Performance Metrics". The document is not an Internet standard, but can be used as a reference.

Practice

• In Cisco equipment, when setting the speed, it is considered that 1 kbps = 1000 bps.
• As of MAC OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard shows in SI units.
• Windows uses 1 KB = 1024 bytes to display stored information. [How is speed interpreted in the "resource monitor"?]
• Many builds of Linux, following the standards, use 1 kbit = 1000 bits, 1 kibit = 1024 bits.
• It is possible that some application programs, when calculating the speed, consider that 1 KB = 1024 bits.
• Different providers offer different tariff rates. For example, one provider may consider that 1Mb = 1024Kb, another that 1Mb = 1000Kb (despite the fact that in both cases 1Kb = 1000 bits) [ ] . Such a discrepancy is not always a misunderstanding, for example, if streams are used on the provider's network, the speeds will always be a multiple of 64. Some people and organizations avoid ambiguity by using the expressions "thousand bits" instead of "kilobits", etc.

An example of the correspondence of units in both approaches is given in the table:

Common mistakes

• Beginners are often confused kilobits c kilobytes, expecting 256 kb/s from a 256 kb/s channel.

It must be remembered that 1 byte contains 8 bits. In order to find out the data transfer rate in units commonly used to determine the amount of information stored (bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, etc.), you need to convert to bytes, divide the channel speed by 8, and get the speed in bytes. Examples:

The speed is 512 kbps 512 * 1000 = 512,000 bps 512,000 / 8 = 64,000 bytes/s 64,000 / 1024 = 62.5 KiB/s 64,000 / 1,000 = 64 kilobytes/s The speed is 16 Mbps s 16 * 1000 * 1000 = 16,000,000 bps 16,000,000 / 8 = 2,000,000 bytes/s 2,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 = 1.9 MiB/s 2,000,000 / 1000 / 1000 = 2 megabytes / s s Speed ​​is 4 Mbps = 4,000,000 bps = 500,000 bytes/s = 0.4768 MiB/s = 488.3 KiB/s = 0.5000 megabytes/s = 500.0 kilobytes/s

• Some hard disks do not have sufficient read/write speed to fully load the network channel (for example, 100 Mb/s). Tire saturation can also be a limiting factor. This must be taken into account before contacting the provider with a complaint about low speed.
• Bit/c and baud are often confused.

see also

Write a review on the article "Bits per second"

An excerpt characterizing Bits per second

“Ah, my friend, he is very unhappy,” she said. “If it’s true what we heard, it’s terrible. And did we think when we rejoiced so much at his happiness! And such a high, heavenly soul, this young Bezukhov! Yes, I feel sorry for him from the bottom of my heart and will try to give him the consolation that will depend on me.
- Yes, what is it? both Rostovs, the elder and the younger, asked.
Anna Mikhailovna sighed deeply: “Dolokhov, Marya Ivanovna’s son,” she said in a mysterious whisper, “they say he completely compromised her. He took him out, invited him to his house in St. Petersburg, and now ... She came here, and this rip off her head, ”said Anna Mikhailovna, wanting to express her sympathy for Pierre, but in involuntary intonations and with a half-smile showing sympathy, rip off her head, as she named Dolokhova. - They say that Pierre himself is completely killed by his grief.
- Well, all the same, tell him to come to the club - everything will dissipate. The feast will be a mountain.
The next day, March 3, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 250 members of the English Club and 50 guests were waiting for dinner for the dear guest and hero of the Austrian campaign, Prince Bagration. At first, upon receiving the news of the battle of Austerlitz, Moscow was perplexed. At that time, the Russians were so accustomed to victories that, having received the news of the defeat, some simply did not believe, others were looking for explanations for such a strange event in some unusual reasons. In the English Club, where everything that was noble, having the right information and weight, gathered, in the month of December, when the news began to arrive, nothing was said about the war and about the last battle, as if everyone had agreed to keep silent about it. People who gave direction to conversations, such as: Count Rostopchin, Prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky, Valuev, gr. Markov, Prince. Vyazemsky, did not show up at the club, but gathered at home, in their intimate circles, and the Muscovites, who spoke from other people's voices (to which Ilya Andreevich Rostov belonged), remained for a short time without a definite judgment on the cause of the war and without leaders. Muscovites felt that something was not good and that it was difficult to discuss these bad news, and therefore it was better to remain silent. But after a while, as the jurors were leaving the deliberation room, the aces also appeared, giving opinions in the club, and everything spoke clearly and definitely. Reasons were found for that incredible, unheard of and impossible event that the Russians were beaten, and everything became clear, and the same thing was said in all corners of Moscow. These reasons were: the treachery of the Austrians, the bad food of the troops, the treason of the Pole Pshebyshevsky and the French Langeron, the incapacity of Kutuzov, and (they spoke slowly) the youth and inexperience of the sovereign, who entrusted himself to bad and insignificant people. But the troops, Russian troops, everyone said, were extraordinary and performed miracles of courage. Soldiers, officers, generals were heroes. But the hero of the heroes was Prince Bagration, who became famous for his Shengraben affair and retreat from Austerlitz, where he alone led his column undisturbed and fought off twice as strong an enemy all day. The fact that Bagration was chosen as a hero in Moscow was also facilitated by the fact that he had no connections in Moscow and was a stranger. In his face, due honor was given to the fighting, simple, without connections and intrigues, Russian soldier, still associated with the memories of the Italian campaign with the name of Suvorov. In addition, in giving him such honors, the dislike and disapproval of Kutuzov was best shown.
- If there was no Bagration, il faudrait l "inventer, [it would be necessary to invent it.] - said the joker Shinshin, parodying the words of Voltaire. Nobody spoke about Kutuzov, and some scolded him in a whisper, calling him a court turntable and an old satyr. Throughout Moscow repeated the words of Prince Dolgorukov: “molding, sculpting and clinging”, who consoled himself in our defeat with the memory of previous victories, and Rostopchin’s words were repeated that the French soldiers should be excited to fight with high-flown phrases, that the Germans should be logically argued, convincing them that it's more dangerous to run than to go forward, but that Russian soldiers only need to be restrained and asked: be quiet! From all sides more and more stories were heard about individual examples of courage shown by our soldiers and officers at Austerlitz. He saved the banner, he killed 5 Frenchmen , that one loaded 5 guns. They also talked about Berg, who did not know him, that he, wounded in his right hand, took a sword in his left and went forward. Nothing was said about Bolkonsky, and only those who knew him closely regretted that he was early died, leaving a pregnant wife and an eccentric father.

On March 3, in all the rooms of the English Club there was a groan of talking voices and, like bees on a spring flight, scurried back and forth, sat, stood, converged and dispersed, in uniforms, tailcoats and some others in powder and caftans, members and guests of the club . Powder-coated, stockinged and clogged footmen in livery stood at every door and tried hard to catch every movement of the guests and members of the club in order to offer their services. Most of those present were old, respectable people with broad, self-confident faces, thick fingers, firm movements and voices. This kind of guests and members sat in well-known, familiar places and met in well-known, familiar circles. A small part of those present consisted of random guests - mostly young people, among whom were Denisov, Rostov and Dolokhov, who was again a Semenov officer. On the faces of young people, especially military ones, there was an expression of that feeling of contemptuous respect for the elderly, which seems to say to the old generation: we are ready to respect and honor you, but remember that the future is still behind us.
Nesvitsky was right there, like an old member of the club. Pierre, on the orders of his wife, let go of his hair, took off his glasses and dressed in fashion, but with a sad and dejected look, walked through the halls. He, as elsewhere, was surrounded by an atmosphere of people who bowed before his wealth, and he treated them with the habit of kingship and absent-minded contempt.
By age he should have been with the young, by wealth and connections he was a member of the circles of old, respected guests, and therefore he moved from one circle to another.
Among the most significant old men formed the center of the circles, to which even strangers respectfully approached to listen to famous people. Large circles were formed around Count Rostopchin, Valuev and Naryshkin. Rostopchin talked about how the Russians were crushed by the fleeing Austrians and had to make their way through the fugitives with a bayonet.
Valuev said in confidence that Uvarov was sent from St. Petersburg in order to find out the opinion of Muscovites about Austerlitz.

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1 megabit per second (metric) [Mbps] = 0.00643004115226337 Optical carrier 3

Initial value

Converted value

bits per second byte per second kilobits per second (metric) kilobytes per second (metric) kibibits per second kibibytes per second megabits per second (metric) megabytes per second (metric) mebibits per second mebibytes per second gigabits per second (metric) gigabytes second (metric) gibibits per second gibibits per second gibibytes per second terabytes per second (metric) terabytes per second (metric) tebibits per second tebibytes per second Ethernet 10BASE-T Ethernet 100BASE-TX (fast) Ethernet 1000BASE-T (gigabit) Optical carrier 1 Optical carrier 3 Optical carrier 12 Optical carrier 24 Optical carrier 48 Optical carrier 192 Optical carrier 768 ISDN (single channel) ISDN (dual channel) modem (110) modem (300) modem (1200) modem (2400) modem (9600) modem (14.4) k) modem (28.8k) modem (33.6k) modem (56k) SCSI (asynchronous mode) SCSI (synchronous mode) SCSI (Fast) SCSI (Fast Ultra) SCSI (Fast Wide) SCSI (Fast Ultra Wide) SCSI (Ultra- 2) SCSI (Ultra-3) SCSI (LVD Ultra80) SCSI (LVD Ultra160) IDE (PIO mode 0) ATA-1 (PIO mode 1) ATA-1 (PIO mode 2) ATA-2 (PIO mode 3) ATA- 2 (PIO mode 4) ATA/ATAPI-4 (DMA mode 0) ATA/ATAPI-4 (DMA mode 1) ATA/ATAPI-4 (DMA mode 2) ATA/ATAPI-4 (UDMA mode 0) ATA/ATAPI- 4 (UDMA mode 1) ATA/ATAPI-4 (UDMA mode 2) ATA/ATAPI-5 (UDMA mode 3) ATA/ATAPI-5 (UDMA mode 4) ATA/ATAPI-4 (UDMA-33) ATA/ATAPI- 5 (UDMA-66) USB 1.X FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394-1995) T0 (complete signal) T0 (B8ZS complete signal) T1 (desired signal) T1 (complete signal) T1Z (complete signal) T1C (desired signal) T1C (complete signal) T2 (desired signal) T3 (desired signal) T3 (complete signal) T3Z (complete signal) T4 (desired signal) Virtual Tributary 1 (desired signal) Virtual Tributary 1 (complete signal) Virtual Tributary 2 (desired signal) Virtual Tributary 2 (complete signal) Virtual Tributary 6 (desired signal) Virtual Tributary 6 (complete signal) STS1 (desired signal) STS1 (complete signal) STS3 (desired signal) STS3 (complete signal) STS3c (desired signal) STS3c (complete signal) ) STS12 (wanted signal) STS24 (wanted signal) STS48 (wanted signal) STS192 (wanted signal) STM-1 (wanted signal) STM-4 (wanted signal) STM-16 (wanted signal) STM-64 (wanted signal) USB 2.X USB 3.0 USB 3.1 FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b-2002) FireWire S1600 and S3200 (IEEE 1394-2008)

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More about data transfer and the Kotelnikov theorem

General information

Modern devices that record and process data, such as computers, mostly work with data in digital format. If the signal is analog, then in order for these devices to work with it, it is converted to digital. The analog signal is long and continuous, like the sound wave shown in pink in the illustration.

The conversion of the analog signal to digital takes place during the sampling process. At the same time, every certain period of time, the signal amplitude is measured, in other words, a discrete reading is taken, and on the basis of the information received, a model of this signal is built in digital format. In the illustration, orange color shows the intervals at which the reading was made.

If these intervals are small enough, then it is possible to quite accurately recreate an analog signal from a digital one. At the same time, the recreated signal practically does not differ from the original analog signal. However, the more samples, the more space is occupied by the digital file containing this signal, which increases the size of the memory required to store it, and the bandwidth of the communication channel required to transmit this file.

When converting a signal from analog to digital, some information is lost, but if these losses are small, then the human brain supplements the missing information. This means that there is no need to frequently take signal readings - they can be made no more often than necessary so that the signal seems continuous to a person. You can imagine these sampling rates using the example of a stroboscope. When it is set to a low frequency, such as 25 flashes per second (25 Hz), we notice that the light turns on and off. If you set the stroboscope to a higher frequency, for example, 72 flashes per second, then the blinks will be invisible, since at this frequency the human brain fills in the gaps in the signal. The cathode ray tubes used in computer monitors, which have recently been replaced by liquid crystal displays, refresh the image at a certain frequency, such as 72 Hz. If this frequency is lowered, for example to 60 Hz or lower, the screen will flash. This is due to the reason described above. Each pixel is momentarily dimmed as the image is updated, similar to a strobe light. LCD monitors don't do this, so they don't flicker, even at low refresh rates.

Undersampling and signal distortion

This distortion is called aliasing. One of the most common examples of such distortion is moire. It can be seen on images of repeating surfaces such as walls, hair, and clothing.

In some cases, due to an insufficient number of samples, two different analog signals can be converted to the same digital signal. In the top figure, the blue analog signal is different from the pink one, but when converted to digital, the same signal is obtained, depicted in blue.

This signal processing problem distorts the digital signal even at the high sampling rates typically used in audio recording. When recording audio, high frequency signals that are inaudible to the human ear are sometimes converted into a lower frequency digital signal (illustrated) that is audible to humans. This causes noise and sound distortion. One way to get rid of this problem is to filter all signal components above the threshold of hearing, that is, above 22 kHz. In this case, no signal distortion occurs.

Another solution to this problem is to increase the sample rate. The higher this frequency, the smoother the digital signal is, as shown in the illustration. Here is the digital signal derived from the analog signal in the graph above, it is depicted in blue. This digital signal is almost identical to, and overlaps with, the analog signal, so the pink signal is not visible at all in this illustration.

Kotelnikov's theorem

Since we are interested in keeping our digital signal file as small as possible, we need to determine how often samples should be taken so as not to degrade the quality of the signal. For these calculations, we use Kotelnikov's theorem, also known in English literature as the sampling theorem or the Nyquist-Shannon theorem. According to this theorem, the frequency at which samples are taken must be at least twice the highest frequency of the analog signal. Frequency determines how many complete oscillations occur in a given time. In our example, we used SI units, seconds, for time and hertz (Hz) for frequency. If you know the time for which one oscillation occurs, then you can calculate the frequency by dividing 1 by this time. In the illustration, the signal in the upper graph, indicated in pink, completes one oscillation in 6 seconds, so its frequency is 1/6 Hz. To convert this signal to digital and not lose quality, according to the Kotelnikov theorem, it is necessary to take samples twice as often, that is, at a frequency of 1/3 Hz, or every 3 seconds. In the illustration, the readings are taken with exactly this purity - each reading is indicated by an orange dot. In the bottom graph, the frequency of the signal shown in green above. It reaches 1 Hz, since one oscillation is completed in one second. To sample this signal, it is necessary to take samples at a frequency of 2 Hz or every 1/2 second, as shown in the illustration.

History of the theorem

The sampling theorem was deduced and proved almost simultaneously by a number of independent scientists around the world. In Russian it is known as Kotelnikov's theorem, but in other languages ​​it often includes the names of other scientists, such as Nyquist and Shannon in the English version. A list of other scientists who have contributed to this area include D. M. Whittaker and G. Raabe.

Sample rate selection examples

How often to take samples is usually decided using the Kotelnikov theorem, but the choice of the maximum frequency of the signal depends on what the digital signal will be used for. In some cases, the sample rate is greater than twice the signal frequency. Typically, such a high frequency is needed to improve the quality of the digital signal. In other cases, the frequency is limited to the audible spectrum, as, for example, in the case of compact discs, the sampling frequency of which is 44 & nbsp 100 Hz. This frequency allows you to transmit sounds up to the highest frequency that the human ear can hear, that is, up to 20 & nbsp000 Hz. Doubling this frequency to 44 & nbsp 100 Hz allows signal transmission without loss of quality.

It should be noted that the threshold of hearing depends on age. So, for example, children and young people hear sounds with a frequency of up to 18 000 Hz, but with age this threshold drops to 15 000 Hz and below. Manufacturers use this knowledge to create electronic devices and software especially for young people. For example, some smartphones can be set to ring at a frequency above 15-000 Hz - such a ring is not audible to most adults. The audio recording is also made taking into account the hearing threshold of young people and those with very good hearing. That is why an additional 50 Hz, multiplied by two for the sampling rate, was added to the threshold of hearing for most people. That is, they are guided by 22 & nbsp050 Hz, doubled - hence such a high sampling rate of 44 & nbsp100 Hz. The sampling rate in audio recordings for videos, such as those used in movies or TV shows, is even higher, up to 48 000 Hz.

Sometimes, on the contrary, the frequency interval for sound recording is narrowed. For example, if most of the sound is the human voice, then it is not necessary to recreate the digital signal with high quality. So, for example, in transmitting devices such as telephones, the sampling rate is only 8 000 Hz. This is sufficient for voice transmission, since few people will transmit recordings of a symphony orchestra by telephone.

Do you find it difficult to translate units of measurement from one language to another? Colleagues are ready to help you. Post a question to TCTerms and within a few minutes you will receive an answer.

What does the concept of “normal Internet speed” imply, what should it be for optimal work and leisure time on a personal computer. The same connection will seem to someone quite sufficient, and to someone - the inability to work effectively. What is normal for an Internet cafe, for the University of Moscow State University, for example, "will not be enough."

Using computers at home raises reasonable questions for users: what is considered normal Internet speed for a home and how to choose the right tariff plan.

If the finances of a PC owner are limited, when choosing a tariff for home Internet, he will definitely come across a number of offers from providers that prevent him from making the right decision. To avoid mistakes, you should know some parameters that determine the quality of the Internet at home.

To determine what the Internet speed rate is, you first need to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts.

Bits, kilobits, megabits

Data transfer speed is usually measured in bits / sec. But since a bit is a very small value, kilobits or megabits are used:

• Kilobits = 1024 bits.
• Megabit = 1024 kilobits.

With the advent of optical cables, Internet speeds have increased dramatically. If earlier 128 kbps was considered normal, today the parameter is measured in megabits and is 100 megabits per second (Mbps).

Therefore, megabits per second is the standard unit for measuring the speed of the modern Internet. The conditional classification of Internet communications is as follows:

• slow - 512 Kbps;
• low - 2 Mbps;
• medium - 10 Mbps;
• high - 50 Mbps;
• very high - 100 Mbps.

It must be understood that the lower the speed, the lower the tariff.

A byte is not a bit

Internet users are interested in working with files, their size is usually measured in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes, equal to:

• Byte - 8 bits.
• Kilobyte = 1024 bytes.
• Megabyte = 1024 kilobytes.
• Gigabyte = 1024 megabytes.

Inexperienced users confuse bytes with bits. And they get megabits (Mbps) instead of megabytes. This leads to a serious error, for example, when calculating the download time of files.

It is unrealistic to accurately determine the period for downloading a file, because:

• Providers indicate the maximum connection speed. The average (working) will be lower.
• The speed is reduced by interference, especially if a remote router is used.
• The remote FTP server restricts downloads so much that everything else becomes irrelevant.

But the approximate time, nevertheless, is possible to establish. Calculations will be easier if you round:

• byte = 10 bits;
• kilobyte = 1 thousand bytes.

But it's better to just start downloading and determine the download time using the program than to calculate the time theoretically.

What tasks affect the choice of speed

The lower the Internet connection speed, the smaller the range of available tasks, but the tariff is cheaper. The right choice allows you to feel comfortable without wasting money.

Outlining the circle of interests

The Internet is used to solve various problems:

• Surfing social networks, listening to music.
• Online games.
• Organization of streaming broadcasting (stream).
• video calls.
• Watching videos online.
• Downloading music, movies, other files.
• Uploading files to cloud storage.

Choose a connection

When the circle of interests is defined, we set ourselves tasks and choose the appropriate tariff.

Providers offer various types of connection, for example, 300 rubles per month for Internet access at a speed of 15 Mbps.

There are two numbers in the tariff descriptions:

the second is the transfer (Upload).

If the second number is missing, then the speeds are equal. If necessary, check with your internet service provider.

How much internet speed is enough

To determine this indicator, the user is helped by a number of tasks that he needs to work with a PC:

For social networks and music

You don't need high speed to surf social networks and listen to music. The user will feel quite comfortable with 2 Mbps. Even a speed of 512 Kbps will do, but the pages of the sites will open more slowly.

To watch videos online

The following speed indicators for watching videos online are considered normal, depending on the quality of videos and movies:

• SD Video (360p, 480p) - 2Mbps
• HD video (720p) - 5 Mbps
• Full-HD (1080p) - 8 Mbps
• Ultra-HD (2160 p) - 30 Mbps.

100 Mbps - this speed is more than enough to watch online video in any quality. Because browsing is buffered, small dips in speed do not affect browsing.

For streams

To organize streaming broadcasting, you need a stable Internet connection. For a quality stream, the speed should not fall below a critical level. For video stream:

• 480p - 5Mbps
• 720p - 10Mbps
• 1080p - 20Mbps

But these are risky values. The transmission is the most critical, since broadcasting is the uploading of data to the Internet, so we focus on it.

No matter how stable the Internet is, jumps are still possible. The tariff is chosen so as to level them.

We calculate the optimal speed for the Internet by multiplying the speed of a quality stream by 2.5. For example, let's calculate the speed for 480p: 5 x 2.5 = 12.5 Mbps.

Taking into account the fact that the boundary values ​​are risky, we select Upload not lower than 15 Mbps.

Online Games

Games are undemanding to speed parameters. For most popular games, 512 Kbps is sufficient. This value is suitable for:

• Dota 2.
• World of Warcraft.
• GTA.
• World of Tanks.

But downloading the game and downloading updates at 512 Kbps will be very slow, as you will have to download tens of gigabytes. In order not to wait for hours, it is better to provide speeds up to 70 Mbps.

For games, the determining factor is the quality of the communication channel, characterized by the parameter "ping" (ping). Ping is the time it takes for a signal (request) to reach the server and return back (response). Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms).

Ping is affected by:

• The reliability of the Internet provider, which consists in the ability to maintain the declared quality of communication.
• Distance from client to server. For example, the player is located in Sevastopol, and the World of Warcraft game server is in London.

Acceptable ping values:

A persistent ping value above 300ms on any servers is seen as a symptom of serious network connection problems. The reaction time is extremely low.

For smartphones and tablets

If the device is connected to the router via Wi-Fi, it will work in the same way as a computer. The difference is that advanced sites offer pages for gadgets with convenient placement of information on a small screen.

But smartphones and tablets are “sharpened” for mobile Internet. Cellular operators for working with the Internet offer:

• 3G standard - up to 4 Mbps;
• 4G standard - up to 80 Mbps.

The operator's website contains a coverage map with marked 3G and 4G zones. The relief of a particular area makes adjustments, then instead of 4G there will be 3G, and instead of 3G there will be 2G - the standard is too slow for the Internet.

4G communication is provided only by devices equipped with modern radio modules.

In the mobile Internet, the client pays for traffic, not for speed. The question of choosing a normal Internet speed for the device is not worth it. The user selects the appropriate amount of megabytes of traffic.

For video calls

• voice calls - 100 Kbps;
• video calls - 300 Kbps;
• video calls (HD standard) - 5 Mbps;
• voice video communication (five participants) - 4 Mbps (reception) 512 Kbps (transmission).

In practice, these values ​​are multiplied by 2.5 to compensate for spikes.

Factors affecting connection speed

The following factors affect the quality of the connection:

• Wi-Fi standard supported by devices.
• The frequency at which data is transmitted.
• Walls and partitions in the signal path.
• Computer and browser settings.
• VPN and proxy.
• Outdated drivers.
• Interference from other networks.
• Viruses and malware.

You can find out the current connection speed (it is better to check at night) using the SpeedTest service. If it is very different from the one declared by the provider, you need to find the reason.

When choosing a connection speed, the number of users connected to Wi-Fi, the speed characteristics of tasks used in parallel mode and taken into account when choosing a suitable tariff are taken into account.

Conclusion

You can use the Internet in different ways. It is difficult to enumerate all the tasks set. But among those considered, it is necessary to find a similar one and decide on the connection.

Today, the Internet is needed in every home no less than water or electricity. And in every city there are a lot of companies or small firms that can provide people with access to the Internet.

The user can choose any package for using the Internet from a maximum of 100 Mbps to a low speed, for example, 512 kbps. How to choose the right speed and the right Internet provider for yourself?

Of course, the Internet speed must be chosen based on what you do online and how much you are willing to pay per month for Internet access. From my own experience, I want to say that the speed of 15 Mbps suits me quite well as a person who works on the network. Working on the Internet, I have 2 browsers turned on, and each has 20-30 tabs open, while problems arise more from the computer side (to work with a large number of tabs, you need a lot of RAM and a powerful processor) than from the Internet speed. The only moment when you have to wait a bit is the moment the browser is first launched, when all tabs are loaded at the same time, but usually it takes no more than a minute.

1. What do internet speed values ​​mean

Many users confuse Internet speed values ​​​​thinking that 15Mb / s is 15 megabytes per second. In fact, 15Mb / s is 15 megabits per second, which is 8 times less than megabytes and at the output we will get about 2 megabytes of download speed for files and pages. If you usually download movies for viewing with a size of 1500 Mb, then at a speed of 15 Mbps the movie will be downloaded in 12-13 minutes.

We watch a lot or a little of your Internet speed

• The speed is 512 kbps 512 / 8 = 64 kbps (this speed is not enough to watch online video);
• The speed is 4 Mbps 4 / 8 = 0.5 MB / s or 512 kB / s (this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 480p);
• The speed is 6 Mbps 6 / 8 = 0.75 MB / s (this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 720p);
• The speed is 16 Mbps 16 / 8 = 2 MB / s (this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 2K);
• The speed is 30 Mbps 30 / 8 = 3.75 MB / s (this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 4K);
• The speed is 60 Mbps 60 / 8 = 7.5 MB / s (this speed is enough to watch online video in any quality);
• The speed is 70 Mbps 60 / 8 = 8.75 MB / s (this speed is enough to watch online video in any quality);
• The speed is 100 Mbps 100/8 = 12.5 MB/s (this speed is enough to watch online video in any quality).

Many connecting the Internet are worried about the possibility of watching online video, let's see what kind of traffic movies with different quality need.

2. Internet speed required to watch online video

And here you will find out a lot or a little of your speed for watching online videos with different quality formats.

Broadcast type	Video bitrate	Audio bitrate (stereo)	Traffic Mb/s (megabytes per second)
Ultra HD 4K	25-40 Mbps	384 kbps	from 2.6
1440p (2K)	10 Mbps	384 kbps	1,2935
1080p	8000 kbps	384 kbps	1,0435
720p	5000 kbps	384 kbps	0,6685
480p	2500 kbps	128 kbps	0,3285
360p	1000 kbps	128 kbps	0,141

We see that all the most popular formats are reproduced without problems with an Internet speed of 15 Mbps. But to watch video in 2160p (4K) format, you need at least 50-60 Mbps. but there is one BUT. I don’t think that many servers will be able to distribute video of this quality while maintaining such a speed, so if you connect the Internet at 100 Mbps, you can never watch online video in 4K.

3. Internet speed for online games

When connecting home Internet, every gamer wants to be 100% sure that his Internet speed will be enough to play his favorite game. But as it turns out, online games are not at all demanding on the speed of the Internet. Consider what speed popular online games require:

1. DOTA 2 - 512 kbps
2. World of Warcraft - 512 kbps
3. GTA online - 512 kbps.
4. World of Tanks (WoT) - 256-512 kbps.
5. Panzar - 512 kbps
6. Counter Strike - 256-512 kbps

Important! The quality of your game online is more dependent not on the speed of the Internet, but on the quality of the channel itself. For example, if you (or your provider) receive Internet via satellite, then no matter what package you use, the ping in the game will be much higher than that of a wired channel with a lower speed.

4. Why do you need Internet more than 30 Mbps.

In exceptional cases, I might recommend using a faster connection of 50 Mbps or more. Not many people will be able to provide such a speed in full, the company "Internet to Home" is not the first year on this market and completely inspires confidence, the more important is the stability of the connection, and I want to believe that they are on top here. A high Internet connection speed may be necessary when working with large amounts of data (downloading and uploading them from the network). Perhaps you are a fan of watching movies in excellent quality, or you download large games every day, or upload videos or work files of large volumes to the Internet. To check the connection speed, you can use various online services, and to optimize the work you need to run.

By the way, speeds of 3 Mbps and below usually make surfing the net a little unpleasant, not all online video sites work well, and downloading files is generally not happy.

Be that as it may, there are plenty to choose from in the Internet services market today. Sometimes, in addition to global providers, the Internet is offered by local firms, and often the level of their service is also on top. The cost of services in such firms is of course much lower than that of large companies, but as a rule, the coverage of such firms is quite insignificant, usually within a district or two.