How Fast is Your Internet Connection
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What is Internet connection speed?
Internet connection speed refers to the data transfer rate from the Internet to your computer. Basically that means the amount of time it takes your computer to download a given amount of data. Internet connection speeds are usually measured in Kbps (kilobits per second, or thousands of bits per second) or KBps (kilobytes per second). Nowadays with the technological improvements in data transfer speeds, Internet connection speeds can also be measured in Mbps (megabits per second, or millions of bits per second) or MBps (megabytes per second). For example, if you had a 28.8K (28,800 bps) modem, then it would take at least 4 - 5 minutes to download a 1MB file. If you had digital subscriber line (DSL), the same 1MB file would take approximately 10 - 20 seconds.
Why do the results vary each time?
The Internet is a global network, basically a vast grouping of computers transferring data to one another. Connection speeds will vary depending on many conditions such as the time of day and the amount of congestion on the Internet in general. When you request a Web page from a server on the Internet, both the request and the resulting page travel over a series of links that help comprise the Internet. Points between links are often referred to as "hops." So depending on the number of people connecting to our servers, the number of "hops" taken to get to our site, the quality of the connections between each hop to this site and various other factors, your Internet connection speed will always vary.