Is there a difference between bandwidth and internet speed? Yes, there is. There is a difference that is influenced by various physical and software factors that we will know this day.
Many times we use the terms bandwidth interchangeably and speed up the internet connection. Few or on no occasion have we stopped to think if it is really the same.
What is the bandwidth of an internet connection?
The Internet bandwidth or network bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in Kilobit, Megabit or even Gigabit) that can be transferred per second through a network link between two computers.
The real meaning of the term bandwidth is completely different from that promoted by computer networks. Bandwidth finds its use in the field of signal processing where it indicates the difference (measured in Hertz) between the lowest and highest frequency in a continuous set of frequencies.
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Internet Bandwidth Vs Speed - Is bandwidth the same as download speed?
Now, speaking of Internet speed or performance, it is only a way to show the speed of data transfer. When doing normal things like browsing the web or downloading a file, we could use speed and bandwidth interchangeably.
However, there may be situations when you have higher bandwidth, but your Internet connection still works like a snail. Let’s say your ISP has assigned you a bandwidth of 50Mbps – it means that 50 megabits of data can be downloaded in a second on your computer. You start downloading a file from a web server and the download manager reaches a maximum of 18 Mbps.
In this case, your real bandwidth is 50 megabits per second, but the speed you get is only 18 megabits per second. Internet speed could be more or less than 18Mpbs, and it could even match bandwidth if all things are right.
Internet speeds may be due to several factors. They can be physical, such as infrastructure capacity, distance, the number of users connected to the ISP, or it can depend on the type of protocol used for the connection. For example, you can have a bandwidth of 40 Mbps, but only reach 25 Mbps due to the inability of the router or copper line that the Internet guys have installed.
Another factor that also influences are the (useless) DNS servers used by the Internet service provider, over time slowing down the overall speed or performance of the final connection.
Connection latency can be one of the causes of low Internet speeds. Latency is measured in milliseconds, and it is the time it takes for data packets to arrive from source to destination, through different networks and routers.
You may have seen delays during live broadcasts and multiplayer gaming sessions, even if your network bandwidth is tens of megabits per second, it is because the latency is too high.
In conclusion…
The difference between Internet speed and bandwidth can be summarized in a single line: Internet bandwidth is the amount of data that can be downloaded or loaded from your computer, while Internet speed is the speed of loading or unloading data on your computer. Many ISPs allow different bandwidth limits to download and upload.
The load bandwidth is less than the download bandwidth in most cases, since most of the activities performed by users require downloading data from the Internet.
