It is common practice to refer to the speed of an Internet connection in units of Bits per Second (bps). The higher this value the higher the rate of information transfer. Connection types vary all the way from dial-up through modem to microwave, satellite communication and optical (glass) fibre.
What is the speed/bandwidth of my connection?
Before answering this question, you should understand that you never get the maximum theoretical speed from a connection. Well, almost never. This is because there are factors such as line noise, errors, resends, other traffic (besides your own) that reduce the transmission rate. Bandwidth is a term that considers the Internet connection to be like a water pipe; the bigger the pipe the more water it can deliver in a given time.
Here are some of the common line speeds, and what they mean in actual bandwidth:
Note also that bps stands for bits per second, not bytes (a byte represents an individual character). Divide by 8 to get a bytes/second value. So 28 Kbps works out to about 3 K per second transfer, in theory. In practice the rate will be somewhat lower, perhaps about 2 K per second. An unformatted (plain text) page of writing is approximately 2 K bytes in size. A typical page of a Word document will be much larger (particularly if there are graphic elements). The speeds given in the table are nominal maximum values. In the case of both ADSL and Cable values about half those posted are more likely. A download (receive) speed may also be much higher than an upload (send) speed.
According to Cyberlabs:
These results would place the 4Mb/s Cable modem 138 times faster than a 28.8kb/s modem, and 72 times faster than 56kb/s modem. The 10Mb/s Cable modem, respectively, would be 345 times faster than 28.8, and 180 times faster than 56.6.
Under ideal conditions, this is how long it takes to download a 2MB file:
Cable Modem: 11 seconds ISDN: 2.1 minutes 28.8 modem: 9.3 minutes
Assignment
Write a report on Internet connection speeds on your personal computer at home (if you do not have access to a computer at home use the school network).
In your report identify the devices that are involved in your home connection:
• Computer: brand, model, speed, RAM
• Method of connection to the Internet: dial-up, cable, ADSL etc.
• Modem: brand, model, speed (if dialup)
• Cost of monthly connection
• Internet Service Provider
• Problems, if any, that you have had with your connection
Run one or more of the speed tests referred to elsewhere in this document to obtain data on your effective connection speed. Repeat your test several times. When reporting your results include the time of day that the test was run.
Give some insight into the future of Internet connection methods. List any references (URLs or otherwise) that you use. Report must be word-processed with suitable formatting and identification.
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