Bandwidth, Internet Speed, Web Cams, Net Movies

Bandwidth, Internet Speed, Web Cams, Net Movies.

Internet bandwidth/speed is measured in information per time (KBps) thousand bits per second and ranges from slow 20KBps to 100 times faster 2000KBps. Keep in mind that you are not sold Internet speed. You are sold a limitation to a maximum speed and the more people on line the less bandwidth you have available and consequently the slower the Internet speed you get.

Any internet speed (available bandwidth) will eventually communicate data. Sometimes speed is a luxury not a necessity as in you can wait 5 hours for a movie to download and then watch it. However for live broadcasts, video phones, conference, and other broadband communication the internet speed is a necessity and a minimum internet speed is required for satisfactory results.

Programs (software) and hardware give limitations on the operating system 07, the minimum speed of the processor 3 GHz, and the minimum amount of memory 8 GB required for functioning properly. However minimum internet speeds in somewhat ambiguous because you never really know what you are getting. The point is that if you have dialup forget about it. With $20 intermediate service do not expect your quality web cam or the net view on line movies to produce satisfactory results. Even with $30 High speed broadband claims you may find yourself limited to off peck hours for the available bandwidth you need to get quality continuous streaming video service.

MacAfee speed test will give you some idea about your internet speed at one moment in time. Repeated a few times you will get a better interpretation of your available internet speed. Repeated at different times of the day it will reveal the times of high usage and the resulting insulting very slow internet speed you get from your internet provider. An internet provider does not distribute bandwidth equally and your street can be significantly slower than the next block, mostly due to amplifier location per volume of accounts.

Have some awareness of the internet speed you are paying for and getting. Check the internet speed before buying a web cam or joining a net movie service. If your web flicks or web cam is working some or most of the time then the interference, interruptions, distortions, frozen images are defiantly due to the lack of internet speed you are getting from your internet provider. Internet speed should be check before assuming the problem is with the hardware, software, or computer.

Communicating Data

*We use the internet to communicate data (emails, attachments, documents [100 KB], images [4 MB], music [5 MB], programs [10 MB], video clips [100 Mb], movies [1 GB] and HD movies [2 GB]).
*Live broadcasts, video phones, conference calls, streaming videos, web flicks, and other broadband communication data are instantaneous and therefore bandwidth/internet speed dependent.
*We use Formats like Analog, MP3, JPEG, and PDF to utilize, code, or compress information.
*We use Programs like word, media player, or adobe to open or format the information.
*In some cases the same program must bet used by both parties to send and open an attachment and that’s why you can not open some attachments you do not have the program to read the format

Bandwidth, Frequency, Light, Audio

To explain bandwidth I must first explain frequency. Frequency is cycle of repetitive action consistent with respect to time. The frequency of the earth’s rotation around the sun is 1 cycle per year, the moon cycles its phases once every month, and the earth rotates on its axis one cycle per day. The frequency measured in vibrations, rotations, Hz, or cycles ranges of from one bazillionth of a cycle per bazillion millennia to a bazillion cycles in a bazillionth of a microsecond. Common frequencies to us are the audio range (bandwidth) that we hear and the light spectrum (bandwidth) we see.

To help see the meaning of bandwidth I will use light as an analogy. Light itself is an unknown entity. That is to say we know what it does and how it reacts under different circumstances but not if it is a wave, particle or what exactly. We know how it reacts to gravity, time, space, and other forces. We know how it is focused, reflected, and that a spectrum of colors results from visible light passing through a prism. We have mathematical formula to describe the phenomena of lights activity but still uncertain as to what light actually is.

We know about light and we consider the spectrum bound by and to include the infrared and ultraviolet range of frequency. They infrared and ultraviolet bandwidths (range section segment) are still considered light even though undetected by our eyes. The point is that we with our vision detect a limited bandwidth of the total light spectrum (defined bandwidth). Each color we detect is a smaller bandwidth of the visible light spectrum which is in turn is a limited bandwidth of the complete light spectrum that includes the lower infrared and higher ultraviolet bandwidths. We can narrow the bandwidth of visible light (light spectrum) to a single color or as in a laser beam to one frequency.

The audio spectrum of vibrating sounds we hear is bound by a bandwidth (frequency range) of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. As laser beam is to light a tone is one frequency of the audio spectrum. As colors are to visible light an Octave is a limited bandwidth within the audio spectrum.

Basically the entire frequency spectrum is divided into bandwidths with titles like Audio waves, Ultrasonic, Intermediate, Radio, TV, Light, Micro, X-rays, and Gamma-rays to name a few. Frequencies slower than light are commonly referred to as waves and faster than light are referred to as rays. We have mathematical formula to describe rays activity but still uncertain as to what rays actually are.

MacAfee speed test http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/test_0150.asp

JimRaab