What home Internet speed do you really need? What internet speed is enough? What is 1 Mbps equal to?

Question from a user

Hello.

Please tell me, I have an Internet channel of 15/30 Megabit/s, files in uTorrent are downloaded at a speed of (approximately) 2-3 MB/s. How can I compare the speed, is my Internet provider cheating me? How many Megabytes should there be at a speed of 30 Megabit/s? Confused about the quantities...

Good day!

This question is very popular; it is asked in different interpretations (sometimes very threateningly, as if someone had deceived someone). The bottom line is that most users confuse different units : both grams and pounds (also Megabits and Megabytes).

In general, to solve this problem you will have to resort to a short excursion to a computer science course, but I will try not to be boring 👌. Also in the article, I will also discuss all the issues related to this topic (about speed in torrent clients, about MB/s and Mbit/s).

👉 Note

Educational program on Internet speed

And so, with ANY Internet provider(at least, I personally haven’t seen others) Internet connection speed is indicated in Megabit/s (and pay attention to the prefix "BEFORE"- no one guarantees that your speed will always be constant, because... this is impossible).

In any torrent program(in the same uTorrent), by default, the download speed is displayed in MB/s(Megabytes per second). That is, I mean that Megabyte and Megabit are different quantities.

👉Usually, the stated speed in your tariff is enough Internet provider in Mbit/s, divide by 8 to get the speed that uTorrent (or its analogues) will show you in MB/s (but see more about this below, there are nuances).

For example, the tariff speed of the Internet provider about which the question was asked is 15 Mbit/s. Let's try to put it in a normal way...

👉 Important! (from a computer science course)

The computer does not understand numbers; only two values are important to it: there is a signal or there is no signal (i.e. " 0 " or " 1 "). These are either yes or no - that is, "0" or "1" is called " Bit" (minimum unit of information).

In order to be able to write any letter or number, one unit or zero will clearly not be enough (it will definitely not be enough for the entire alphabet). It was calculated to encode all the necessary letters, numbers, etc. - a sequence of 8 Bit.

For example, this is what the code for the English capital "A" looks like - 01000001.

And so the code for the number “1” is 00110001.

These ones 8 Bits = 1 Byte(i.e. 1 Byte is the minimum data element).

Regarding consoles (and derivatives):

1 Kilobyte = 1024 Bytes (or 8*1024 Bits)
1 Megabyte = 1024 Kilobytes (or KB/KB)
1 Gigabyte = 1024 Megabytes (or MB/MB)
1 Terabyte = 1024 Gigabytes (or GB / GB)

Mathematics:

One Megabit is equal to 0.125 Megabytes.
To achieve transfer speeds of 1 Megabyte per second, you will need an 8 Megabit per second network connection.

In practice, they usually do not resort to such calculations; everything is done simpler. The declared speed of 15 Mbit/s is simply divided by 8 (and ~5-7% is subtracted from this number for the transfer of service information, network load, etc.). The resulting number will be considered the normal speed (an approximate calculation is shown below).

15 Mbps / 8 = 1.875 MB/s

1.875 MB/s * 0.95 = 1.78 MB/s

In addition, I would not discount the load on the Internet provider's network during peak hours: in the evenings or on weekends (when a large number of people use the network). This can also seriously affect access speeds.

Thus, if you are connected to the Internet at a tariff 15 Mbit/s, and your download speed in the torrent program shows about 2 MB/s- everything is very good with your channel and Internet provider 👌. Usually, the speed is less than declared (my next question is about this, a couple of lines below).

👉 Typical question.

Why is the connection speed 50-100 Mbps, but the download speed is very low: 1-2 MB/s? Is the Internet provider to blame? After all, even according to rough estimates, it should be no lower than 5-6 MB/s...

I'll try to break it down point by point:

firstly, if you carefully look at the contract with the Internet provider, you will notice that you were promised access speed "UP TO 100 Mbit/s" ;
secondly, in addition to your access speed, it is very important where do you download the file(s) from?. Let's say, if the computer (from which you download the file) is connected via low-speed access, say 8 Mbit/s, then your download speed from it is 1 MB/s, in fact, the maximum! Those. First, try downloading the file from other servers (torrent trackers);
thirdly, perhaps you already have some kind of the program downloads something else. Yes, the same Windows can download updates (if in addition to your PC, you have a laptop, smartphone, etc. devices connected to the same network channel - look at what they are doing...). In general, check with what;
it is possible that in the evening hours (when the load on the Internet provider increases) there are “drawdowns” (you are not the only one who decided to download something interesting at this time ✌);
if you are connected via a router, check that too. It often happens that inexpensive models slow down (sometimes they simply reboot), in general, they simply cannot cope with the load...
check driver for your network card(for example, to the same Wi-Fi adapter). I have encountered the situation several times: after on the network card (90% of the drivers for the network adapter are installed by Windows itself when installing it), access speed increased significantly! The default drivers that come with Windows are not a panacea...

However, I do not exclude the possibility that your Internet provider (with old equipment, clearly inflated tariffs, which are only theoretically available on paper) may be the culprit for the low access speed. Simply, to begin with, I would like you to pay attention to the above points...

👉 Another typical question

Why then indicate the connection speed in Mbit/s, when all users are guided by MB/s (and in programs it is indicated in MB/s)?

There are two points:

When transferring information, not only the file itself is transferred, but also other service information (some of which is less than a byte). Therefore, it is logical (and in general, historically) that the connection speed is measured and indicated in Mbit/s.
The higher the number, the stronger the advertising! Marketing has not been canceled either. Many people are quite far from network technologies, and seeing that somewhere the number is higher, they will go there and connect to the network.

My personal opinion: for example, it would be nice if providers indicated next to Mbit/s the real data download speed that the user will see in uTorrent. Thus, both the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe 👌.

👉To help!

By the way, I recommend it to anyone who is dissatisfied with their Internet access speed.

However, imagine that you have a high speed Internet connection, you are unlikely to say “I have 57.344 bits.” It's much easier to say "I have 56 kbytes", isn't it? Or, you can say “I have 8 kbits,” which is actually exactly 56 kbytes, or 57.344 bits.

Let's take a closer look at how many megabits are in a megabyte.

The smallest measurement of speed or size is Bit, followed by Byte, etc. Where, in 1 byte there are 8 bits, that is, when you say 2 bytes, you are actually saying 16 bits. When you say 32 bits, you are actually saying 4 bytes. That is, such measures as bytes, kbits, kbytes, mbits, mbytes, gbits, gigabytes, etc. were invented so that there would be no need to pronounce or write long numbers.

Just imagine that these units of measurement did not exist, how would the same gigabyte be measured in this case? Since 1 gigabyte is equal to 8,589,934,592 bits, isn’t it more convenient to say 1 GB than to write such long numbers.

We already know what 1 bit is and what 1 byte is. Let's go further.

There is also a unit of measurement “kbit” and “kbyte”, as they are also called “kilobit” and “kilobyte”.

Where, 1 kbit is 1024 bits, and 1 kbyte is 1024 bytes.

1 kbyte = 8 kbits = 1024 bytes = 8192 bits

In addition, there are also “mbits” and “megabytes”, or as they are also called “megabits” and “megabytes”.

Where, 1 Mbit = 1024 kBits, and 1 Mbyte = 1024 Kbytes.

It follows from this that:

1 MB = 8 MB = 8192 KB = 65536 KB = 8388608 bytes = 67108864 bits

If you think about it, everything becomes simple.

Now can you guess how many megabits are in a megabyte?

It will be difficult the first time, but you will get used to it. Try to take the easy way:

1 megabyte = 1024 kbytes = 1048576 bytes = 8388608 bits = 8192 kbits = 1024 kbytes = 8 Mbits
That is, 1 megabyte = 8 megabits.
Likewise, 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobits.
As in 1 byte = 8 bits.

Isn't it easy?

So, for example, you can find out the time it takes for you to download this or that file. Let's say the speed of your Internet connection is 128 kilobytes per second, and the file you download on the Internet weighs 500 megabytes. How long do you think it will take to download the file?
Let's do the math.

To find out, you just need to understand how many kilobytes are in 500 megabytes. This is easy to do, just multiply the number of megabytes (500) by 1024, since there are 1024 kilobytes in 1 megabyte. We get the number 512000, this is the number of seconds in which the file will be downloaded, taking into account the connection speed of 1 kilobyte per second. But, our speed is 128 kilobytes per second, so we divide the resulting number by 128. That leaves 4000, this is the time in seconds for which the file will be downloaded.

Converting seconds to minutes:

4000 / 60 = ~66.50 minutes

Convert to hours:

~66.50 / 60 = ~1 hour 10 minutes

That is, our file of 500 megabytes in size will be downloaded in 1 hour 10 minutes, taking into account that the connection speed throughout the entire time will be exactly 128 kilobytes
per second, which equals 131,072 bytes, or, to be more precise, 1,048,576 bits.

Or TCP/IP.

At higher levels of network models, a larger unit is typically used - bytes per second(B/c or Bps, from English b ytes p er s second ) equal to 8 bit/s.

Derived units

To denote higher transmission speeds, larger units are used, formed using the prefixes of the C system kilo-, mega-, giga- etc. getting:

Kilobits per second- kbit/s (kbps)
Megabits per second- Mbit/s (Mbps)
Gigabits per second- Gbit/s (Gbps)

Unfortunately, there is ambiguity regarding the interpretation of prefixes. There are two approaches:

kilobit is treated as 1000 bits (according to SI, as kilo gram or kilo meter), megabit as 1000 kilobits, etc.
A kilobit is interpreted as 1024 bits, incl. 8 kbps = 1 KB/s (not 0.9765625).

To unambiguously designate a prefix divisible by 1024 (and not 1000), the International Electrotechnical Commission came up with the prefixes “ kibi"(abbreviated Ki-, Ki-), « furniture"(abbreviated Mi-, Mi-) etc.

1 byte- 8 bits
1 kibibit- 1024 bits - 128 bytes
1 mebibit- 1048576 bits - 131072 bytes - 128 kbytes
1 Gibibit- 1073741824 bits - 134217728 bytes - 131072 kbytes - 128 MB

The telecommunications industry has adopted the SI system for the prefix kilo. That is, 128 Kbit = 128000 bits.

Common mistakes

Beginners often get confused kilobits c kilobytes, expecting a speed of 256 KB/s from a 256 kbit/s channel (on such a channel the speed will be 256,000 / 8 = 32,000 B/s = 32,000 / 1,000 = 32 KB/sec).
Bauds and bits/c are often (wrongly or intentionally) confused.
1 kbaud (as opposed to kbit/s) is always equal to 1000 baud.

Decoding the abbreviation

"mbps" ( mbit per second) - megabits per second. It is in these units that connection speed is most often measured. All providers indicate speed in megabits per second in their advertisements, so we should also understand these values.

How much is 1 mbps?

To begin with, we note that 1 bit is the smallest unit for measuring the amount of information. Along with bit, people often use byte, forgetting that these two concepts are completely different. Sometimes they say "byte" when they mean "bit", and vice versa. Therefore, it is worth considering this issue in more detail.

So, 1 bit is the smallest unit of measurement. 8 bits are equal to one byte, 16 bits are equal to two bytes, etc. That is, you just need to remember that a byte is always 8 times larger than a bit.

Given that both units are very small, in most cases the prefixes “mega”, “kilo” and “giga” are used for them. You should know what these prefixes mean from your school course. But if you forgot, it’s worth reminding:

"Kilo" is a multiplication by 1,000. 1 kilobit is equal to 1,000 bits, 1 kilobyte is equal to 1,024 bytes.
"Mega" - multiplication by 1,000,000. 1 megabit is equal to 1,000 kilobits (or 1,000,000 bits), 1 megabyte is equal to 1024 kilobytes.
"Giga" - multiplication by 1,000,000,000. Equals 1,000 megabits (or 1,000,000,000 bits), 1 gigabyte equals 1024 megabytes.

In simple terms, connection speed is the speed of information sent and received by a computer in one unit of time (per second). If the speed of your Internet connection is stated as 1 mbps, what does this mean? In this case, this means that your Internet speed is 1 megabit per second or 1,000 kilobits/second.

How much is that?

Many users believe that mbps is a lot. Actually this is not true. Modern networks are so developed that, given their capabilities, 1 mbps is nothing at all. Let's calculate this speed using the example of downloading files from the Internet.

Keep in mind that mbps is megabits per second. Divide the value of 1 by 8 and get megabytes. Total 1/8=0.125 megabytes/second. If we want to download music from the Internet, then provided that one track weighs 3 megabytes (usually tracks weigh that much), we can download it in 24 seconds. It’s easy to calculate: 3 megabytes (the weight of one track) needs to be divided by 0.125 megabytes/second (our speed). The result is 24 seconds.

But this only applies to an ordinary song. What if you want to download a movie that is 1.5 GB in size? Let's count:

1500 (megabytes) : 0.125 (megabytes per second) = 12,000 (seconds).

Converting seconds to minutes:

12,000: 60 = 200 minutes or 3.33 hours.

Thus, with an Internet speed of 1 mbps, we can download a 1.5 GB movie in 3.33 hours. Here you can judge for yourself whether it will take long or not.

Considering the fact that in large cities Internet providers offer Internet speeds of up to 100 mbps, we would be able to download a movie with the same volume in just 2 minutes, and not in 200. That is, 100 times faster. Based on this, we can come to the conclusion that mbps is a low speed.

However, everything is relative. In some remote village, where it is difficult to even get a GSM network, having Internet with such speed is cool. However, in a large metropolis with huge competition between providers and mobile operators, such a weak Internet connection cannot exist.

Conclusion

Now you know how to determine Internet speed, and you can understand a little about these units of measurement. Of course, getting confused in them is a piece of cake, but the main thing to remember is that a bit is an eighth of a byte. And the prefixes “kilo”, “mega” and “giga” only add three, six or nine zeros, respectively. If you understand this, then everything falls into place.

Russia has very good and, no less important, affordable home Internet. Seriously! In villages and very deep provinces, things are, of course, worse, but take any city, even a small one, in the European part of the country and look at the tariffs. For 300–400 rubles a month you can bring Internet to your apartment at a speed of around 25–50 megabits per second, and with some promotion even 100 megabits.

For comparison: in “civilized” countries, fast Internet (both home and mobile) is much more expensive. And the concept of “monthly data limit” still lives there. We only have this left with mobile operators.

However, being cheap is not a reason to pay for something you don’t use. Even a hundred rubles saved warms your wallet, and therefore the tariff for your home Internet must be chosen based on your real speed needs. Let's figure out how many megabits per second are required in different situations, and start with the basic concepts.

Megabits, megabytes and real speeds

Data size is usually measured in bytes. For example, an HD movie weighs from 700 megabytes (megabytes) to 1.4 gigabytes (gigabytes), while a Full HD movie weighs from 4 to 14 gigabytes.

Data transfer rates are usually specified in bits (not bytes!) per second, and sometimes this causes misunderstandings.

Byte ≠ bit.

1 byte = 8 bits.

1 megabyte = 8 megabits.

1 megabyte per second = 8 megabits per second.

If the user does not distinguish between bytes and bits, he can easily confuse them or mistake them for the same thing. In this case, it will calculate the approximate time for downloading an HD movie via torrent something like this:

The film weighs 1,400 "megs".
Internet speed is 30 “megas” per second.
The movie will download in 1,400 / 30 = 46.6 seconds.

In fact, the Internet speed is 30 megabits per second = 3.75 megabytes per second. Accordingly, 1,400 megabytes must be divided not by 30, but by 3.75. In this case, the download time will be 1,400 / 3.75 = 373 seconds.

In practice, the speed will be even lower, because Internet providers indicate the speed “up to”, that is, the maximum possible, and not the working one. In addition, interference, especially during Wi-Fi transmissions, network congestion, and limitations and characteristics of user equipment and service provider equipment also contribute. You can check your speed using, and increase it using.

Often the bottleneck becomes the resource from which you download something. For example, your Internet speed is 100 megabits per second, and the site sends data at a speed of 10 megabits per second. In this case, the download will occur at a speed of no more than 10 megabits per second, and nothing can be done about it.

What internet speed do you really need?

Obviously, the above table requires clarification.

Questions and answers

What to do if the Internet is used on two or more devices at once?

Let’s say you are watching Full HD streaming video on a smart TV, your wife is surfing YouTube on a laptop with an HD screen, and your child is watching something from a smartphone or tablet, also in HD quality. Does this mean that the numbers from the table need to be summed up?

Yes, that's absolutely right. In this case, you will need about 20 megabits per second.

Why do different sites have different speed requirements for watching videos of the same resolution?

There is such a thing as bitrate - the amount of information with which an image is encoded per unit of time, and, accordingly, a conditional indicator of the quality of picture and sound. The higher the bitrate, the better the image, as a rule. This is why on torrents you can find versions of the same movie with the same resolution, but different sizes.

Additionally, there are super-smooth 60fps videos. They weigh more and require faster internet.

Is it true that online games are so undemanding of Internet speed?

Yes, for most games like CS, Dota 2, WoT, WoW and even GTA 5, just one megabit per second is more than enough for multiplayer, but in this case, ping becomes decisive - the time it takes for the signal to travel from you to the game server and back. The lower the ping, the lower the latency in the game.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to know in advance even the approximate ping in a specific game through a specific provider, since its value is not constant and depends on many factors.

Why during video calls does the picture and sound from my interlocutors go normally to me, but not from me to them?

In this case, not only incoming, but also outgoing Internet speed becomes important. Often, providers do not indicate the outgoing speed in the tariff at all, but you can check it yourself using the same Speedtest.net.

To broadcast via a webcam, an outgoing speed of 1 megabit per second is sufficient. In the case of HD cameras (and especially Full HD), the requirements for outgoing speed increase.

Why do internet service providers' speed tariffs start from 20–30 or more megabits per second?

Because the higher the speed, the more money they can charge you. Providers could keep the tariffs “from the past” with a speed of 2–10 megabits per second and reduce their cost to 50–100 rubles, but why? It is much more profitable to increase the minimum speeds and prices.