what exactly is bandwidth?

roland poland

Baseband Member
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55
Okay, here I am again. Asking questions.
So what exactly is bandwidth? I know it gets lower everytime you download something from the internet. But does it go back up when I delete the file from the computer?
 
Bandwidth, is the internet speed. Say you have 1.5mbs Internet. You dont download at that fast, but you can download several things, that add up to 1.5mbs, then you have maxed out your internet bandwidth, untill one or more things are done downloading. I THINK. Im really not sure about this.
 
roland poland said:
Okay, here I am again. Asking questions.
So what exactly is bandwidth? I know it gets lower everytime you download something from the internet. But does it go back up when I delete the file from the computer?
Bandwidth is a measure of frequency range, measured in hertz, of a function of a frequency variable. Bandwidth is a central concept in many fields, including information theory, radio communications, signal processing, and spectroscopy. Bandwidth also refers to data rates when communicating over certain media or devices. According to the Shannon-Hartley theorem, the data rate of reliable communication is directly proportional to the frequency range of the signal used for the communication. In this context, the word bandwidth can refer to either the data rate or the frequency range of the communication system (or both).

All you will ever need to know here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth
 
roland poland said:
Okay, here I am again. Asking questions.
So what exactly is bandwidth? I know it gets lower everytime you download something from the internet. But does it go back up when I delete the file from the computer?
If you mean in regards to a Braodband ISP/service. Then they use that term to tell you how much you can "download" in a specific period, allbeit they use it wrongly..lol.
For example, most of the cheap services this side of the pond enforce a 2GB monthly usage or bandwidth quota. Everytime you open a webpage, download a song, play an online game or whatever your using a chunk of that "bandwidth" up. Equally it works when your uploading a file to a server or again playing an online game It doesnt make any difference if you delete the file from your computer or not, as its already been downloaded from the internet.

Some companies also use the term to reflct the speed of your service. 2meg for example means in theory you could download something at 2mb/sec, but in practice with contention and your distance from the exchange you'll never achieve anything near that speed.

HTH.
 
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