What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth is a measure of data transfer. Think of it as download speed. If something downloads at 100 KB/s (100 Kilobytes a second) that’s pretty fast. Conversely, 5 KB/s is pretty slow. In the days of dial up, 5 KB/s was about the best you could get, and as a result web sites had to be small so that the end user wouldn’t have to wait forever for the web site to load. This severely limited the number of pictures and other multimedia elements that could be put on a page. These days, with the predominance of high-speed internet connections, this is no longer as large of an issue. However, a good web site is still size optimized.
Non-technically speaking, bandwidth refers to the amount of data (files, video, audio) that is sent across a network. It can also refer to a minimum, or optimum allocation needed for the transfer of the data based on time and file size. This bandwidth table compares transferring of one megabyte, ten megabytes, and one gigabyte of data at speeds ranging from 9600 baud modem connection to an OC-255 fiber connection. For additional information on bandwidth, see www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/bandwidth.html for a definition of bandwidth and some excellent references.
Bandwidth is a term used to describe the capacity of an Internet connection. The higher the bandwidth, the faster the connection. In other words, it is a measure of the flow of data/information between your PC and the Internet, for example. Broadband has high bandwidth and two of its most popular forms, DSL and Cable modem, have plenty of bandwidth to support MachMedia service.
