Kbits per second Mbits. Bits per second. For social networks and music

In order to take into account all the nuances when choosing an Internet tariff, you need to know a few facts about the principles of network operation that will help you use the services more efficiently.

Megabits and megabytes are different things. 1 Mbit/sec is approximately 8 times larger than 1 MB/sec. It turns out that with an Internet speed of 8 Mbit/sec, we get a real speed of about 1 MB/sec. A 5 MB music track will be downloaded (or fully downloaded) in 5 seconds. Thus, knowing your network needs, you can calculate the time it will take to complete a particular task at the current tariff.

The ultimate Internet speed is determined not only by your ISP. Its performance is influenced by the most important factors, for example, network equipment, speed of the remote server, wireless signal level, speed of the end device, etc. If your provider proudly claims 50 megabits per second, then when watching a movie online, you may simply not get that speed, because the computer with the movie is somewhere far away. The server is loaded with distribution of this film to several thousand, or even tens of thousands of the same users.

This is comparable to a wide pipe through which a small stream flows: the source (server) is not capable of giving more, and all the extra space is empty. A similar situation arises if you are with a tablet across 2 walls and a layer of furniture from the router - the speed of the Wi-Fi channel will drop, and no matter how fast the Internet reaches your home, it will reach the device at other, lower speeds.

An important indicator of communication quality is ping. Essentially, ping is the speed of accessing data on the Internet, i.e. how quickly the request goes through. If the ping speed is high, then it will be of little use: requests will go through slowly. A high ping has a particularly negative effect on regular web surfing, where every mouse click is sending a request, as well as on online games ah, where the synchronicity of what is happening in real time depends on the ping.

One of the most frequent and demanding user tasks is online video. If with music everything is not so fundamental, because... Since the size of the compositions is small, then with a video you must always pay attention to the quality in which you watch it. The higher the quality, the slower the buffering (loading) of the film or video occurs. For example, 480p quality requires almost half the speed compared to 1080, although many reputable sites automatically set the video quality, so the problem has become less significant.

Torrents are the most reliable speed test. Here the users’ computers act as a server, and the speed of sending information to your computer is summed up across all servers. As a result, the overall upload speed can be very high, capable of loading any Internet channel.

Taking all these factors into account, the following recommendations can be made.

approximately 5 Mbit/sec will be more than enough for web surfing and simultaneous listening to music, and the Internet channel can be shared by several devices with such tasks
10 Mbit/sec can ensure uninterrupted playback of FullHD video on 2 devices, and on the third you can view pages quite comfortably
20 Mbit/sec is already a serious speed that will allow you to watch a FullHD movie with simultaneous torrent downloading, and you can still safely hang up your phone and tablet on the channel and comfortably watch Youtube. The speed is excessive for correspondence and web surfing.
40 Mbit. Old routers simply no longer support such speeds. Needless to say, 40 Mbit/sec is enough for everything. It can only be recommended to users with special tasks, such as an FTP server or working with files in cloud systems. You should not take this speed if you are just listening to music, chatting on the Internet and sometimes watching movies. This will be an overpayment.
60 Mbit/sec and higher. Yes, currently some providers offer such numbers, and they are really rarely needed. It happens that the provider promises even 100 Mbit/sec or higher at night, but to support this speed you need expensive, powerful routers and “gigabit” cables. Almost all mobile devices will not be able to open at such a speed, and the computer needs either an expensive motherboard with a 1000mb network card, or a gigabit network card.

Taking into account the average statistical requirements of Internet users, modern conditions Internet speed of 15-20 Mbit/sec is sufficient for almost all tasks. Most often, large numbers mislead users, as if promising that “everything will happen quickly.” But providers know very well that only a quarter of the same 60 Mbit will be used, so in fact they supply you with 15-20 Mbit at a price of 60. Most often, the difference is felt only when working with torrent clients, but for most users it is hardly worth the overpayment.

99663 08.08.2009

Plus

First, let's try to figure out what bits and bytes are. A bit is the smallest unit of measurement of the amount of information. Along with a bit, a byte is actively used. A byte is equal to 8 bits. Let's try to depict this clearly in the following diagram.

I think this is all clear and there is no point in going into more detail. Since bits and bytes are very small quantities, they are mainly used with the prefixes kilo, mega and giga. Surely you have heard about them since school. We have combined the generally accepted units and their abbreviations into a table.

Now let’s try to determine the values for measuring Internet connection speed.

In simple terms, connection speed is the amount of information received or sent by your computer per unit of time. In this case, it is customary to consider the second as the unit of time, and the kilo or megabit as the amount of information.

So if your speed is 128 Kbps it means your connection has throughput 128 kilobits per second or 16 kilobytes per second.

Whether this is a lot or a little is up to you to judge. In order to get a more tangible feel for your speed, I recommend using our tests. Determine the time required to download a file of a specified size at your connection speed. You can also see how large a file you can download within a certain period of time at your connection speed.

When using our tests, you must remember and take into account that our server, on which all these tests are actually located, is located quite far from your computer and, accordingly, the results can be affected by the load on our server (on our website during peak hours, they simultaneously measure connection speeds of more than 1000 people), and the congestion of Internet lines.

Today, the Internet is needed in every home no less than water or electricity. And in every city there are a lot of companies or small firms that can provide people with access to the Internet.

The user can choose any package for using the Internet from a maximum of 100 Mbit/s to a low speed of for example 512 kB/s. How to choose the right speed and the right Internet provider for yourself?

Of course, Internet speed should be chosen based on what you do online and how much you are willing to pay per month for Internet access. From my own experience, I want to say that a speed of 15 Mbit/s quite suits me as a person who works on the network. Working on the Internet, I have 2 browsers turned on, and each has 20-30 tabs open, and the problems arise more on the computer side (to work with a large number of tabs you need a lot RAM and a powerful processor) rather than in terms of Internet speed. The only time when you have to wait a little is the moment you first launch the browser, when all the tabs are loaded at the same time, but usually this takes no more than a minute.

1. What do Internet speed values mean?

Many users confuse Internet speed values, thinking that 15Mb/s is 15 megabytes per second. In fact, 15Mb/s is 15 megabits per second, which is 8 times less than megabytes and as a result we will get about 2 megabytes of download speed for files and pages. If you usually download movies for viewing with a size of 1500 MB, then at a speed of 15 Mbps the movie will download in 12-13 minutes.

We look at a lot or a little of your Internet speed

Speed is 512 kbps 512 / 8 = 64 kbps(this speed is not enough for watching online videos);
Speed is 4 Mbps 4 / 8 = 0.5 MB/s or 512 kB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in quality up to 480p);
Speed is 6 Mbps 6 / 8 = 0.75 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 720p);
Speed is 16 Mbps 16 / 8 = 2 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online video in quality up to 2K);
Speed is 30 Mbps 30 / 8 = 3.75 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in quality up to 4K);
Speed is 60 Mbps 60 / 8 = 7.5 MB/s
Speed is 70 Mbps 60 / 8 = 8.75 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in any quality);
Speed is 100 Mbps 100 / 8 = 12.5 MB/s(this speed is enough to watch online videos in any quality).

Many people who connect to the Internet are worried about the possibility of watching online video. Let’s see what kind of traffic is needed for films with different quality.

2. Internet speed required to watch online videos

And here you will find out how much or how little your speed is for watching online videos with different quality formats.

Broadcast type	Video bitrate	Audio bitrate (stereo)	Traffic Mb/s (megabytes per second)
Ultra HD 4K	25-40 Mbit/s	384 kbps	from 2.6
1440p (2K)	10 Mbit/s	384 kbps	1,2935
1080p	8000 kbps	384 kbps	1,0435
720p	5000 kbps	384 kbps	0,6685
480p	2500 kbps	128 kbps	0,3285
360p	1000 kbps	128 kbps	0,141

We see that all the most popular formats are reproduced without problems at an Internet speed of 15 Mbit/s. But to watch video in 2160p (4K) format you need at least 50-60 Mbit/s. but there is one BUT. I don’t think that many servers will be able to distribute videos of this quality while maintaining such a speed, so if you connect to the Internet at 100 Mbit/s, you may not be able to watch online videos in 4K.

3. Internet speed for online games

When connecting home Internet, every gamer wants to be 100% sure that his Internet speed will be sufficient to play his favorite game. But as it turns out, online games are not at all demanding on Internet speed. Let's consider what speed popular online games require:

DOTA 2 – 512 kbps.
World of Warcraft - 512 kbps.
GTA online – 512 kbps.
World of Tanks (WoT) – 256-512 kbit/sec.
Panzar - 512 kbit/sec.
Counter Strike - 256-512 kbps.

Important! The quality of your online game depends less on the speed of the Internet than on the quality of the channel itself. For example, if you (or your provider) receive Internet via satellite, then no matter what package you use, the ping in the game will be significantly higher than that of a wired channel with a lower speed.

4. Why do you need an Internet connection of more than 30 Mbit/s?

In exceptional cases, I might recommend using a faster connection of 50 Mbps or more. Not many providers in Kyiv will be able to provide such a speed in full, the Kyivstar company is not the first year in this market and completely inspires confidence, all the more important is the stability of the connection, and I want to believe that they are at their best here. A high speed Internet connection may be necessary when working with large amounts of data (downloading and uploading it from the network). Perhaps you are a fan of watching movies in excellent quality, or download large games every day, or upload large videos or work files to the Internet. To check the connection speed, you can use various online services, and to optimize the work you need to perform.

By the way, a speed of 3 Mbit/s and lower usually makes working on the Internet a little unpleasant; not all sites with online video work well, and downloading files is generally not pleasant.

Be that as it may, today there is plenty to choose from in the Internet services market. Sometimes, in addition to global providers, the Internet is offered by small-town companies, and often the level of their service is also excellent. I am served by such a small company. The cost of services in such companies is, of course, much lower than that of large companies, but as a rule, the coverage of such companies is very insignificant, usually within an area or two.

In the third millennium, the Internet quietly became an indispensable phenomenon in every home and in popularity came close to its competitor - television. Today, even older people make a choice in favor of the global network, because, unlike television, there is freedom of choice and endless possibilities. It often happens that a user is not satisfied with his Internet speed and asks a logical question - “What Internet speed is considered normal?” It will not be possible to answer it unequivocally, no matter how much you would like to. First of all, you need to determine several purposes for which you need the global Internet. And then, based on your goals, decide on speed.

How much is one Mbit?

We will not delve into discrete mathematics to study in detail what a measure of Internet speed is. It will be enough to say so as not to mislead some people that Mbits and MBs are different units of measuring information. And since users are more familiar with the usual megabytes, we present the following analogies:

Internet speed of 512 Mbit is equal to the speed of downloading any 64 kilobyte file in 1 second.
6 megabits of speed declared by the provider will be equal to about 750 kilobytes per second.
Internet with 16 Mbit will download 2 megabytes per second of information from the network.

What Internet speed is considered good for mobile devices?

For mobile devices such as a tablet or phone, a speed of 1 Mbit will be sufficient. Although this may not be enough if the user intends to perform several online tasks at once, i.e. watching movies, downloading files, etc. Typically, mobile content is several times smaller in volume, which is why it also requires less resources than web versions of sites and applications. One Mbit is quite enough for other tasks, for example, for conversations on Skype and other instant messengers. We can firmly say that for mobile devices this speed is quite normal.

What should be the Internet speed for online games and watching movies?

Online games and movies are the most Internet-consuming tasks for a computer. The speed you paid is not always normal for watching a movie online in HD quality. And there are no fraudulent actions on the part of the provider. The thing is that there is not a single Internet provider that could provide round-the-clock stable speed of transmitted information. This is facilitated by various factors - from the basic network load to the capabilities of your computer and location on the network.

More often it is gamers who ask this question, because for effective and interesting game they just need to use stable internet speeds. There are known figures for the network data transfer speed that are necessary for the most popular online games.

For those who love the fantasy world of World of Warcraft, 512 Mbit of speed will be quite enough.
The games World of Tanks and Dota are at the same level of Internet consumption - up to 1 Mbit.
For Counter Strike, half a Mbit is also enough.

It is also worth considering the type of data transmission. If you are connected to a 16 Mbps package, which is implemented using a satellite signal, then it is likely that the Internet connection with 10 Mbps, which is connected via cable, will be better and faster. This happens because a wireless connection is characterized by high loss of data packets during transmission.

Internet service tariffs

In order to watch films in different quality today you need to know the approximate desired speed Internet.

To watch a video with a 360p broadcast type, you need an Internet connection with a speed of about 1 Mbit ().
To view a broadcast from 720p, 5 Mbit will be enough.
To view online video in Ultra HD 4K quality, you need more than 30 Mbps.

For what purposes is an Internet speed of more than 30 Mbit per second required?

At the moment, there are faster connections, but they are correspondingly expensive. Not every Internet provider is able to provide speeds of more than 30 Mbit. First of all, such speed will be needed by those who have expensive and powerful devices, TVs with high resolution, computers with great performance that allow you to play demanding content. Also, users who often upload various videos, programs, and large games to the network need high speed. Therefore, the concept of normal Internet speed depends primarily on your tasks.

For everyone who uses the Internet for informational purposes only, visit social networks, online magazines, reading books online, a speed of 1 Mbit will be enough quality connection(with minimal packet loss or low ping).

For those who are more demanding of the global network, say, the middle segment (and such users are the majority) - infrequently download files, watch Youtube videos and online films, use online games, etc. A speed of 10 Mbit/s will be sufficient.

How to measure internet speed

In order to measure Internet speed and determine whether it is low or normal for you, there are special online services and programs (). The easiest way is to use online services, because there is no need to download unnecessary files to your computer and take up space hard drive. In order for the test to be as accurate as possible, you need to adhere to certain conditions:

Connect the cable directly through the network interface ( network card) to the computer on which you will test the speed.
On the computer being tested, you need to close all programs that are currently running. You also need to turn off all sorts of utilities that can run in the background, usually anti-virus firewalls and torrent clients that run along with the computer.
Open the "Task Manager" and finally make sure that no downloads are being made.

One of the popular services for checking the speed of packet transmission over the network is the service http://speedtest.net/ru/.

To test your Internet, follow the link and click on the big button in the middle “Begin Test”.
After this, the verification system will connect to the nearest server located to your location and carry out all the necessary procedures to determine the speed.
At the end of the test, you will see on the monitor all the information on your connection, namely: the number of lost packets (ping), incoming and outgoing connection speed and your current IP address.

Speed Test Service

Another similar service is available at https://2ip.ua/. Here you can also test the speed by clicking on the “Test” button on the main page. It is noteworthy that sometimes the test results between these two services differ and the difference in some places is large. But it cannot be said unequivocally that the services fool users, because the conditions and verification methods may vary. Not to mention other factors influencing the result - the location of service servers, network load at the moment, etc.

Service 2ip

It is impossible to give an exact figure for Internet speed in Mbits that would be suitable for each user and would be considered normal. You need to choose a package with a certain speed based on your needs.

What does the concept of “normal Internet speed” mean, what should it be for optimal work and leisure time? personal computer. The same connection will seem quite sufficient to some, but to others it will seem like an inability to work effectively. What is normal for an Internet cafe, for MSU University, for example, “will not be enough.”

Using computers at home raises reasonable questions for users: what speed is a suitable tariff plan.

If a PC owner’s finances are limited, when choosing a tariff for home Internet, he will certainly be faced with a number of offers from providers that make it difficult to make the right decision. To avoid mistakes, you should know some parameters that determine the quality of the Internet at home.

To define, you first need to become familiar with the basic concepts.

Bits, kilobits, megabits

Data transfer speed is usually measured in bits/sec. But since a bit is a very small value, kilobits or megabits are used:

Kilobit = 1024 bits.
Megabit = 1024 kilobits.

With the advent of optical cables, Internet speeds have increased dramatically. If previously 128 kbit/sec was considered normal, today the parameter is measured in megabits and amounts to 100 megabits per second (Mbit/sec).

Therefore, megabits per second is the standard unit of measurement for modern Internet speed. The conditional classification of Internet communications is as follows:

slow – 512 Kbps;
low – 2 Mbit/s;
average – 10 Mbit/s;
high – 50 Mbit/s;
very high – 100 Mbit/sec.

You must understand that the lower the speed, the lower the tariff.

A byte is not a bit

Internet users are interested in working with files; their size is usually measured in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes, equal to:

Byte – 8 bits.
Kilobyte = 1024 bytes.
Megabyte = 1024 kilobytes.
Gigabyte = 1024 megabytes.

Inexperienced users confuse a byte with a bit. And they get megabits (Mbits) instead of megabytes. This leads to a serious error, for example, when calculating the download time of files.

It is impossible to accurately determine the period for downloading a file, because:

Providers indicate the maximum connection speed. The average (working) will be lower.
Speed is reduced by interference, especially if a remote router is used.
A remote FTP server limits the ability to download, so much so that everything else becomes unimportant.

But it is still possible to establish an approximate time. Calculations will be easier if you round:

byte = 10 bits;
kilobyte = 1 thousand bytes.

But it's better to just start downloading and determine the download time using the program than to calculate the time theoretically.

What tasks influence the choice of speed?

The lower the Internet connection speed, the smaller the range of available tasks, but the tariff is cheaper. The right choice allows you to feel comfortable without wasting money.

Outlining the circle of interests

The Internet is used to solve various problems:

Surfing social networks, listening to music.
Online games.
Organizations of streaming broadcasting (stream).
Video calls.
Watching videos online.
Download music, movies, and other files.
Uploading files to cloud storage.

Selecting a connection

When the range of interests has been determined, we set goals for ourselves and choose the appropriate tariff.

Providers offer various types connections, for example, 300 rubles per month for Internet access at a speed of 15 Mbit/sec.

The tariff descriptions contain two numbers:

the second is transmission (Upload).

If the second number is missing, then the speeds are equal. If necessary, this should be clarified with your Internet service provider.

What internet speed is enough?

A number of tasks that are necessary for him to work with a PC help the user determine this indicator:

For social networks and music

You don't need high speed to surf social networks and listen to music. The user will feel quite comfortable with 2 Mbit/sec. Even a speed of 512 Kbps will do, but website pages will open slower.

To watch videos online

The following speed indicators are considered normal for watching videos online, depending on the quality of videos and films:

SD video (360 p, 480 p) – 2 Mbit/sec.
HD video (720 p) – 5 Mbit/sec.
Full-HD (1080 p) – 8 Mbit/sec.
Ultra-HD (2160 p) – 30 Mbit/sec.

100 Mbit/s – this speed is more than enough to watch online video in any quality. Because browsing occurs buffering, minor speed dips do not affect viewing.

For streaming

To organize streaming broadcasts, you need a stable Internet connection. For a high-quality stream, the speed should not fall below a critical level. For video stream:

480 p – 5 Mbit/sec.
720 p – 10 Mbit/sec.
1080p – 20 Mbit/sec.

But these are risky values. Transmission is the most critical, since broadcasting is uploading data to the Internet, so we focus on it.

Still, jumps are possible. The tariff is chosen to level them out.

We calculate the optimal speed for the Internet by multiplying the speed of a high-quality stream by 2.5. For example, let's calculate the speed for 480 p: 5 x 2.5 = 12.5 Mbit/sec.

Taking into account that the boundary values are risky, we select Upload no lower than 15 Mbit/sec.

Online games

Games are not demanding on speed parameters. For most popular games, 512 Kbps is sufficient. This value is suitable for:

"Dota 2".
"World of Warcraft".
"GTA"
"World of Tanks".

But loading the game and downloading updates at a speed of 512 Kbps will be very slow, since you will have to download tens of gigabytes. In order not to wait for hours, it is better to ensure a speed of up to 70 Mbit/s.

For games, the determining factor is the quality of the communication channel, characterized by the “ping” parameter. the time during which the signal (request) reaches the server and returns back (response). Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms).

Ping is affected by:

The reliability of the Internet provider, which consists in the ability to maintain the declared quality of communication.
Distance from client to server. For example, the player is located in Sevastopol, and the World of Warcraft game server is in London.

Acceptable ping values:

A constant ping value above 300 ms on any servers is considered a symptom serious problems network connection. The reaction time is extremely low.

For smartphones and tablets

If the device is connected to a router via Wi-Fi, it will work in the same way as a computer. The difference is that advanced sites offer pages for gadgets with convenient placement of information on a small screen.

But smartphones and tablets are designed for mobile Internet. Cellular operators for working with the Internet offer:

3G standard – up to 4 Mbit/s;
4G standard – up to 80 Mbit/s.

The operator's website contains a coverage map with marked 3G and 4G zones. The terrain of a particular area makes adjustments, then instead of 4G there will be 3G, and instead of 3G there will be 2G - the standard is too slow for the Internet.

4G communication is provided only by devices equipped with modern radio modules.

IN mobile internet the client pays for traffic, not speed. There is no question of choosing a normal Internet speed for the device. The user selects the appropriate number of megabytes of traffic.

For video calls

voice calls – 100 Kbps;
video calls – 300 Kbps;
video calls (HD standard) – 5 Mbit/s;
voice video communication (five participants) – 4 Mbit/s (reception) 512 Kbit/s (transmission).

In practice, these values are multiplied by 2.5 to level out the jumps.

Factors affecting connection speed

The quality of the connection is affected by the following factors:

Wi-Fi standard supported by devices.
The frequency at which data is transmitted.
Walls and partitions in the signal path.
Computer and browser settings.
VPN and proxy.
Outdated drivers.
Interference from other networks.
Viruses and malware.

You can find out the current connection speed (it’s better to check at night) using the SpeedTest service. If it differs greatly from that stated by the provider, you need to find the reason.

When choosing a connection speed, the number of users connected to Wi-Fi and the speed characteristics of tasks used in parallel mode are taken into account when choosing the appropriate tariff.

Conclusion

You can use the Internet in different ways. It is difficult to list all the assigned tasks. But among those considered, you need to find a similar one and decide on the connection.

1. What do Internet speed values ​​mean?