Your internet and you: Answering one glaring knowledge gap in the general populous. Plus other stuff

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omegaweopon

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Aug 25, 2009
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So, basically, one of the things I hear a lot of people complaining about, when attacking any particular digital distribution services, is how such services throttle your internet connection.

Having read many of these statements, I believe that most people don't actually know what they pay for in internet. So, here's the big run down, and then, while we are at it, we will add a bit more to the overall lesson.

The big one: Mbp/s and what it actually means.

Mbps or mbps means Megabits per second. MBp/s or MBps means megabytes per second. Allow me to elaborate on the distinction. A bit, as many of us know, is a 1 or a 0, 8 bits make a byte. Therefor a 1 Mbps transfer rate, actually transfers 128 kilobytes per second. Downloads are almost always measured in MBps.

This means, that you can essentially cut your number by nearly a tenth to get your real number.

I've noticed that many people believe that a 20Mbps download, should equate to 20MBps on a digital platform, and therefor the service is throttling them. In fact, most of the digital distribution services, don't throttle connections until either A) ludicrous speeds (200Mbps+) or B) High congestion during peak hours. This just isn't how it all works, and you need to know exactly what you are paying for.

So, while we're here, I'm going to tell you the difference between Dial-Up, DSL, Broadband, and the difference between the two most common form of broadband, Coax, and Fiber.

First: Dial-Up.

Ah yes, the dinosaur of the internet. Max speed? 56kbps. Yup, kilobits per second, not bytes. Dial-up works by calling an access number, and then communicating through noise on the line. That high pitched screech we used to hear once upon a time, is literally computers talking to each other, just like if we were using the phone. Conversing via actual noise. This had become obsolete over the years though, as the next big innovation came about.

DSL

DSL, uses the exact same phone lines that your phone, or dial-up has used over the years. Why lay new wire, when phone lines are so readily available? To improve the speed of the connection, they now use differing data frequencies. Data, is sent via a high frequency, while voice is sent low. Filters are placed on the devices, to filter out the high and low data, and thus allows the system to run nicely in place. We were suddenly able to use the internet and phone at the same time. However, DSL is still a single band system. It contains roughly a max upload speed of 1Mbps. That's right, 1 megabit per second. DSL is dying a slow and painful death, at the hands of broadband. Soon it will be just another evolutionary step in the internet, though that might take as long as up to 10 years, before broadband becomes as widely available as DSL is. (Broadband, while being available in a LOT of places, still doesn't come close to DSL, because DSL uses the same wires we've been using for phones for the last half a decade or more.)

Broadband:

What is broadband exactly? Well it's basically a connection that is simply not single band. See, DSL sends frequencies through the wires, but can only send frequencies in a linear pattern. A single sting of info. Broadband however has multiple lines, each sending different data. It's exactly the difference between having one person throwing stuff over a fence, and two people. Twice as much gets done (throw things over a fence, what kind of analogy is that?) Broadband is often transferred via coax, though a push for more and more fiber has rightfully been making its way lately.

Broadband internet: Coax Vs. Fiber, or: Stuff you probably know.

Coaxial cables, often used to transmit cable as well, is a purely digital signal. It has two places, off, and on. Simple as that. An electrical charge runs through the cables in rapid succession across multiple channels, and the modems pick that charge up and convert it to data. Fiber Optics is faster however, because it transmits data at literally the speed of light. It uses light transmitted through very thin glass wires which is then picked up by a receiver at either side, and converted to data. These are actually the kind of cables we have sunken in the ocean to reach between continents. Yup, there are giant three inch thick cables running all over the world, underwater to communicate effectively. We don't really use satellites for internet transmissions as much as we once may have, however satellite internet is still alive and kicking.

There you go, a common misconception about internet, that some of you may not have known. It's always best to know what you pay for, and why you pay what you pay though.

TL:DR, Mbps means megabits per second, not megabytes. Literally 1/8th.
 

SonicWaffle

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Oct 14, 2009
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Still kinda goes over my head; so long as it makes pornography appear, I'm fairly happy. Me and technology, man, we've never understood each other.

It's cool though. We still hang out.