What is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth is one of those words that crops up when people start shopping around for an internet service, but many people don't actually understand the concept behind it. To put it very simply, it affects internet speed, and that has to do with how quickly computers can communicate with each other through various channels. In other words, it measures how many bytes, or units of data, can pass through a portal in one second (bps). This becomes especially important when the subject of internet connectivity comes up, and the user becomes concerned about download speed and upload speed.

The main feature that concerns people when they shop for service is internet speed. They want to know that they will have a good download speed and a good upload speed as well, because the internet is all about shifting information from one place to another, and the user has to be able to do that quickly. Who wants to wait half an hour for a photograph to download? Yet, with some types of internet connections, such as dialup, that may be exactly what the user is faced with, and that is due to lack of bandwidth.

Bandwidth, or lack of it, is why the user may have trouble going online at certain times of the day. Around 6 or 7 p.m., and again late at night, users may not enjoy the same internet speed as they did at other parts of the day. That is because these are peak times of the day. Imagine thousands upon thousands of people sending little electronic messages here and there to servers all over the world. Those messages don't travel by magic; they travel via electricity. And those bytes of data take up space. Those times of day become internet rush hours, and the same thing happens during rush hours that happens on the streets: thoroughfares become clogged. A traffic jam of data will certainly affect download speed when the user is attempting to access a website.

Internet speed affects more than just how quickly the user can open other people's websites. Imagine the webmaster trying to update his own website. That takes a lot of back and forth type work, adjusting code, trying out code, uploading it to see if it looks the way he intends. A slower-than-normal upload speed at such a time can be very inconvenient for someone trying to get work done. Theoretically, at least, enough bandwidth can compensate for times of high usage, like having access to an HOV lane in a large, congested city.

To put it simply, bandwidth is all about internet speed. When the user goes online, he is simply transmitting messages from his computer, and so he wants those messages to travel quickly. Download speed is of the utmost importance for everyone; upload speed is quite important to anyone with a website or a blog. Nowadays, that's almost everyone. The user's internet connectivity directly affects how he is able to stay connected with the world around him; therefore, it is one of the most important things he will ever consider.