We’re all there: you grab your big bowl of popcorn, sink into a cozy bed with the family, and then press «Select» on the remote to shoot your on-demand film. Unfortunately, for most people, it is a shock to be direct about what happens next. The only thing you see on your screen is the «loading» bar, which, without moving, hurts you painfully. When boredom becomes annoying, you sit quietly and leave the sound of footsteps from the room. You realize that family fun is not going to happen tonight.
A quick look at bandwidth and network speeds.
Slow internet speed is more than an inconvenience. In today’s connected world, slow internet service can create terrible traffic jams and affect your daily life. Let’s take a look at some of the factors that affect your internet connection speed and how you can improve internet performance.
Your network bandwidth is key to Internet speed. Bandwidth is the maximum rate at which you can download data from the Internet to your computer. Think bandwidth like a water pipe. So, it would help if you filled a 100-gallon tank. If your garden hose only pours 5 gallons of water per minute, you will have to wait 20 minutes to fill the tank. But a large firehouse that draws out a gallon of water every second fills the tank within two minutes. Bandwidth is like hose size. The bigger it is, the more data you can pull in a given time.
When it comes to Internet service, the Federal Communications Commission recommends broadband internet speeds of 12 to 25 megabytes per second (Mbps) for most Internet users or a home with frequent online streaming. However, these bandwidths and megabit numbers do not always guarantee an accurate measure of internet connection speed, and you should consider what you can do with it. Factors such as congestion and delay can take effect and cause adverse effects.