The simple analogy that I use to explain bandwidth is to think of it as lanes on a highway, and you can think of data as vehicles plying each lane.

There's no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. What they're saying is that your available bandwidth is not limited by them (host company) but by the number of people that you share the bandwidth with. When you have unlimited bandwidth, your data (vehicle) will end up on the 3rd Mainland bridge during rush hour but if you have a dedicated bandwidth, your data will be the buses traveling the BRT lane.

just log-on to your cpanel of your site and you will see your bandwidth usage

@Dual Core, i enjoy your tut, it's straight to the point, full stop!

Engineers, Would 500mb be enough for my website? I have 26 clients that I report to bi-weekly, close to 18 pages of excel sheets and quarterly powerpoint presentations(8-13 pages) They prefer the printed copy but I will have to force their hands on this one. Thanks

Engineers, Would 500mb be enough for my website? I have 26 clients that I report to bi-weekly, close to 18 pages of excel sheets and quarterly powerpoint presentations(8-13 pages) They prefer the printed copy but I will have to force their hands on this one. Thanks

Dual Core,
I do not know you to be a teacher,but you have done justice to this topic.It is true knowledge is power.

Glad i could be of help, guys.

Nymph node:

Engineers, Would 500mb be enough for my website? I have 26 clients that I report to bi-weekly, close to 18 pages of excel sheets and quarterly powerpoint presentations(8-13 pages) They prefer the printed copy but I will have to force their hands on this one. Thanks

Just multiply the excel document's file size by number of clients by number of times they'll need to download per month.

filesize x 26 x 8

Hopefully that will give you an idea of the bandwidth you need.

afam4eva:

There's no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. Don't be decieved. if you really need loads of bandwidth just get yourself a VPS or a dedicated server.

I share this view too.

I keep saying that someone needs to open a web school but that someone still thinks he is not good enough. @dual core, if your web tutorials finally gets the shape of an ebook, its gonna be the no one bestseller in my online library!!

Pls i need some clarification.
My starcomms speed shows 3.1mbps but when i did speed test through www.speedtest.net it showed Upload speed of 0.16mbps and Download speed of 0.14mbps. Everything put together gives me 0.30mbps as against what my starcoms connection status says.

Pls, can somebody provide some insight into this.
Thanks

Lol databoy I dunno how to write a book.

Ayowumie:

Pls i need some clarification.
My starcomms speed shows 3.1mbps but when i did speed test through www.speedtest.net it showed Upload speed of 0.16mbps and Download speed of 0.14mbps. Everything put together gives me 0.30mbps as against what my starcoms connection status says.

Pls, can somebody provide some insight into this.
Thanks

What your starcomms modem is showing is likely the connection speed capacity of that modem.

Its like having a Honda SUV and you see 220 km/h as the max speed on the speedometer. You hire Driver A and the freak can only do 40km/h on a free way. You hire Driver B and he's a better driver and can do 120km/h on that same free way. Only some drivers will be able to drive at that 220 km/h (I could if the money or babe is right).

The modem is like that Honda and Starcomms is just a driver.

They are two separate entities. . . the hardware (modem) and the service provider (starcomms). Starcomms didn't make the modem (forget how they etch their name everywhere on it).

I just got to this thread for the first time. Senor dual core and Afam4ever, gracias for the tutorial, tis very fantastic.

Now i will quickly add this. It is for this reasons that i always upload videos to youtubes on websites that i do.
Most CMSes have extensions supporting the pulling of videos from youtubes so that people do not need to upload
or stream videos from their server - that is one of the fastest ways to kill off your bandwidth.

Some people may try uploading an entire movie to their website or blog.

@Dualcore
That web school idea is not a bad one. Heed databoy's advice.

well done dual core, afam and others,

pls what of broadband? on several occasions i tried posting sth on this forum, i was interrupted and told that my broadband has expired.

what is really broadband?
can it be measured? if yes, how?

thanks

Pls anyone with difference between ANALOGUE and DIGITAL bandwidth.
I'm seeing with all these answers two different views.

Thanks Dual Core

This is great, very great!! Please, how can I get an affordable , nigerian webhost that will accept etranzact or atm cards(e.g. Gtb naira mastercard).
What is VPS and how can one get a dedicated server in nigeria? How are they different from the normal servers?

Phemmmy:

Pls anyone with difference between ANALOGUE and DIGITAL bandwidth.
I'm seeing with all these answers two different views.

Analog and digital bandwidth refer to the same thing - bandwidth. However, most service providers are now using digital hardware because they can cram more data and many more concurrent users onto the same line. For example, on an analog line, your service provider may only be able to maintain 50 users using their phone at a particular location at the same time but with digital equipment, that number might go up to 5000.

From a user's point of view, the only difference you would see is the type of equipment that you can use.

nwaigbo_mg:

well done dual core, afam and others,

pls what of broadband? on several occasions i tried posting sth on this forum, i was interrupted and told that my broadband has expired.

what is really broadband?
can it be measured? if yes, how?

thanks

Broadband is just another internet connection except it is very "fast." Broadband internet connections are fast because of the type of medium used. You can think of a "band", which is just a number +- a certain frequency, as a single lane highway. "Broad" then refers to a 10 lane highway, which is just a bigger number +- the frequency above.

For example, MTN is allocated a certain frequency to transmit, let's say 500MHZ but they would also be told that they can't transmit below 495MHz and above 505 MHz. In simple terms, this means that they have 10MHz bandwidth or band and transmit at 500MHz. Some people will say that broadband on a fiber optic cable really has infinite bandwidth due to being optical signals (light rays) but that's not true due to other limitations in the system.

Ayowumie:

Pls i need some clarification.
My starcomms speed shows 3.1mbps but when i did speed test through www.speedtest.net it showed Upload speed of 0.16mbps and Download speed of 0.14mbps. Everything put together gives me 0.30mbps as against what my starcoms connection status says.

Pls, can somebody provide some insight into this.
Thanks

The most likely reasons that the theoretical speed of 3.1 mbps does not correspond to the actual measured speed is because (1) it is theoretical and will only happen when the stars are aligned, and (2) too many people share the same bandwidth. You can easily confirm the second reason by running the speed test at different times of the day and you'll notice that it will be the fastest when people are sleeping (not surfing).

Pls i need some clarification.
My starcomms speed shows 3.1mbps but when i did speed test through www.speedtest.net it showed Upload speed of 0.16mbps and Download speed of 0.14mbps. Everything put together gives me 0.30mbps as against what my starcoms connection status says.

Pls, can somebody provide some insight into this.
Thanks

THE MODEM CONNECTIVITY SPEED IS 3.1MBPS WHILE YOUR ISP SPEED (STARCOMS) IS BETWEEN 300-600KBPS PEGGED. WITH WHAT U HAVE ON THE SCREEN AS YOUR SPEED 0.14MBPS (140KBPS) YOUR DOWNLOAD SPEED IS 17.5KB/S AND UPLOAD OF 0.30MBPS (300KBPS) YOUR UPLOAD SPEED IS 37.5KB/S. IN THIS CASE YOUR UPLOAD IS FASTER THAN THE DOWNLOAD BECAUSE YOU HAVE FEE PEOPLE UPLOADING OR FEE THINGS TO UPLOAD.
NATURALLY WHAT YOU RECEIVE IS ALWAYS HIGHER THAN TRANSMIT

Dualcore wrote

Bandwidth is an addition of upload and download traffic over a given period of time.

The meaning of bandwidth could simpler than this, but to understand BANDWIDTH you also need to understand THROUGHPUT.

A couple of analogy could help.

Take your website as a bowl of milk, and different people want to take from the milk. If they come with straws of different sizes then some people will consume more than others. Take those straws as different bandwidths. Or rather you can use different sizes of pipes of water.


Compare a pickup van and a long vehicle trailer. The pickup will deliver products faster than the trailer( this is internet speed) but the trailer will take more goods( in this case we mean bigger bandwidth)

When you buy an internet facility that could support an internet connection of 200MB per second . but what you are currently getting is 100MB per second the 100MB per second is your THROUGHPUT, and 200MB is your BANDWIDTH