The Key to Understanding How Bandwidth Works

The Internet is a staple in most offices around the world, and you’d be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t rely on it in some fashion. A big part of seeing success with the Internet depends on your bandwidth, as well as your network’s capacity to reach the capabilities of your Internet service provider. Today, we want to break down what bandwidth is, as well as how you can make the most of your Internet package.

What Is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth measures how much volume of information per unit of time that your network can transmit. The more bandwidth you have, the faster your connection, which means more data can be transferred. Bandwidth is measured in seconds, so you might see some ISPs use language like megabits per second (Mbps or Mb/s).

An important distinction to make, however, is that Megabytes, or MB, does not measure bandwidth. If you see a connection advertised as 15 MB/s, that number is actually much lower (1.875 Mbps), since there are only eight bits in a byte. If all that sounds confusing, that’s because it is, and suffice to say that you should always look for the Mbps of an advertised connection rather than MB if you can find it.

The good news: most ISPs will advertise their Internet packages at a megabit value. Even still, this isn’t a reliable way to know how much bandwidth you can expect from your connection, as there are several factors that can contribute to how much actual bandwidth you have—variables like your physical location, the location of your ISP’s data centers, your networking hardware and whether you’re on a wired or wireless connection, etc. To see how fast your connection is, you’ll need to use a speed tester; there are plenty on the Internet, including one built right into Google, but we like to recommend the one at speedtest.net.

A Practical Explanation of Bandwidth

Bandwidth can be compared to plumbing in a lot of ways. Think of your data as water flowing through a pipe. It can only send so much at a time. If you want to send more water through, you’ll need a bigger pipe so more water can pass through at once.

Most users who only take advantage of simple applications and a web browser probably don’t need too much bandwidth, but bandwidth can get dicey when you add in streaming media or accessing resource-intensive cloud-based resources. Especially for SMBs, you might find that a lower bandwidth is just not cutting it, and that’s to be expected. We always recommend that you look into enterprise-grade bandwidth options whenever possible so your options aren’t so limited.

If your bandwidth is already high enough as is, and you want to upgrade the speed of your network, you have a couple of options available. You might look into purchasing a new router, changing the location of that router, switching from a wireless connection to a wired connection, and so on. Keep in mind there is only so much blood you can squeeze from this stone, and in many cases, you’ll have to upgrade with your ISP (or find a different provider) to increase your network speeds.

If your business needs to make adjustments to its network, bandwidth, or networking hardware, you can count on White Mountain IT Services to provide the necessary expertise and support. Learn more by calling us today at (603) 889-0800.

White Mountain IT

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