What is the difference between bandwidth and download speed

I have an internet connection that provides a bandwidth of 256 kbps. However, when I download a file, the downloading software displays numbers like 30 kbps, 40 kbp etc. and keeps changing. I have never seen it showing 256 kbps. What I want to know is that even though I have a connection which has 256 kbps bandwidth, when somthing is being download it doesn't use the full 256 kbps bandwidth. I want to know what do the numbers 30 kbps, 40 kbps indicate ? Do they indicate speed. Please help me to understand this.

internet

pradeetp

Posted 2009-12-31T11:22:42.227

Reputation: 333

Answers

The distinction here is bits per second and bytes per second.

Your internet connection speed is 256 kbps (note the small 'b'), which is 256 kilo bits per second.

There are 8 bits in a byte, which is how most applications will report how they're downloading. So 256 kbps is equivalent to 256 / 8 kBps which is kilobytes per second which is 32 kBps. In this case, note the large B to denote BYTES.

Your internet connection of 256 kbps is raw bandwidth. Every time you make a connection, there is supplemental information sent and received. These are generally protocol specific headers / additional information (e.g. TCP headers / HTTP headers) and they add overhead to the overall communication reducing (normally only by a small amount, but still reducing) the total amount of bandwidth you have available for raw downloading of data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth_(computing)

Phil

Posted 2009-12-31T11:22:42.227

Reputation: 364

1also, if the site you are downloading from is throttling the download speed, then you may get a lower download speed that your bandwidth can handle – cometbill – 2010-03-03T15:20:56.897

Thanks Phil. Is there any way to find out what is consuming how much bandwidth? This will help me to know why my bandwidth is low for downloads. – None – 2009-12-31T11:51:58.237

1A 30KBps download if you have 256Kbps of bandwidth isn't low, it's normal. If you've got multiple machines accessing the internet then you need something on your router / gateway to calculate bandwidth. If you've only got the one machine accessing the internet, you may get away with something installed on your local machine. It depends on your network setup really. – Phil – 2009-12-31T12:05:33.437

A rough rule is that your max download speed is your bandwidth divided by 10, which takes into account the overhead from the TCP/IP headers. Not exact, but works for a quick estimate. – Dentrasi – 2009-12-31T16:30:58.217

The bandwidth is a measure of theoretical speed and is determined by the connection between you and the source of the download. ISPs are able to adjust the speed, for example 'throttling' it when you reach a maximum, per billing period.

Actual download speed will always be less than the theoretical limit.

Remember that the speed of a download depends just as much on the computer at the other end of the transfer. Download speed may vary as you watch because some of the connection is shared with other users.

The 'bps' figures are measurements of speed in units of bits per second, although care must be taken that Bytes per second is not meant (which would be 1/8th of the bps speed, since 8 bits = 1 byte). I think it's fair to say that ISPs will always quote 'bits per second' figures because they're bigger and look more impressive.

pavium

Posted 2009-12-31T11:22:42.227

Reputation: 5 956

How are connections shared among users?. This is a new thing for me. Can you please explain why sharing happens and who does it? – None – 2009-12-31T11:47:12.917

Data flows in packets (different users each have their own packets) and the physical connections between source and destination (eg from country to country, city to city, etc) can only handle a finite number of packets at a time. So if the capacity is exceeded because many users are transferring data, some will have to wait. Maybe not long (perhaps only milliseconds) but this appears to the user as a slow connection. – pavium – 2009-12-31T13:29:08.667

ISP bandwidth and download speeds:

File or Bandwith size measure is always in Kilo Bytes(kB) and thus data transfer speeds(or Downloads) are always calculated in terms of kilo bits per second (kbps).
For example: 512 kbps is equal to 512/8 = 64 kBps i.e. 8 bits is equal to 1 Byte.
And Audio type stream has Bitrate attribute which is measured on kbps (kb/s)

Premraj

Posted 2009-12-31T11:22:42.227

Reputation: 1 228

Phil's answer largely covers this. The reason for the changing speed is due to the way the TCP protocol implements congestion control, it's fine and expected for this to constantly change.

LapTop006

Posted 2009-12-31T11:22:42.227

Reputation: 231

Practically is it possible that the full 256 KBps bandwidth could be used during download. Is there any restriction due to the nature of the bandwidth allocation for download? – None – 2009-12-31T12:02:56.010

256Kbs, small b. Yes, it's possible you can get the full 32KBs from your 256Kbs connection. This depends on factors such as server load and traffic congestion, as others have said. – RJFalconer – 2009-12-31T16:32:08.497

-1

Your bandwidth 256kbps means, the amount of data you can receive is 256kbps. It means the highest speed you can get is 256kbps but not means it always use to. Data reception always depends on the free space to reach.

Farhana FRn

Posted 2009-12-31T11:22:42.227

Reputation: 1