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Bandwidth is a measure of two different factors, depending on context. First, it can be considered the speed of the connection (usually referred to as "internet speed" or "bandwidth speed"). This is most often expressed in megabits per second (abbreviated as Mbps). The higher this value is, the faster that data can transfer between the Internet and you. Most Internet connections that people have nowadays are asynchronous in nature, meaning that the speed to send data from their computers to the Internet are different (read: slower) than the speed to send data from the Internet to the user. As a good example, in my city the cable company's top speed is 110Mbps for download speed (meaning data coming from the Internet to the end-user) but only 5Mbps for upload speed. If one is interested only in small things such as sending out typical emails, browsing the Internet, or even playing Internet-enhanced games, this is more than sufficient. However, if someone wants to operate a self-managed web server for his friends and family, this could very easily be too limited due to the upload speed since the server would be constantly responding to requests for data from its pages when accessed by those aforementioned friends and family members.

Second, the term bandwidth can refer to the amount of data being transferred (usually mentioned as "data usage" or "bandwidth needed") and can be referred to in any common measure such as bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. This is just a raw figure for the amount of data that is used to transfer files, whether they be pictures, videos, audio, text, or other parts of a website, Windows patches, or whatever else. Some ISPs have limitations on the amount of data that one can transfer in a month's time. Usually it is the cable companies that impose those limits but some of the phone companies (such as AT&T's U-Verse service) are also starting to impose such limitations with the penalty for exceeding the arbitrary monthly allotment being either slowed speed until the next month begins or allowing one to continue at full speed but being charges excess data usage fees.


As for the term lag, that refers to a delay between transmission and reception of the data. There is always a limited amount of lag on the Internet since we are talking about a network but for most purposes, the lag is not a concern. For online gaming, it can be more of an issue and certain servers will kick users off if their ping rates (the method used to measure lag) exceeds a certain level for a pre-defined amount of time.


Lag can be--and often is--affected by the Internet speed (whether up or down) in use by the person in question. It can also be affected by the type of Internet connection (such as buried coax cable from the cable TV service, pole-based cable from the telephone company, or satellite communication from a service such as DirecPC or whatever they want to call it this year), weather conditions, and more. There could also be some other issue at play that is beyond the control of the end-user and the ISP such as a router that is serving as one of the intermediary hops between the user and the game (or other web) server that is compromised and therefore causing communication problems.


So, bandwidth is a concern for gamers but so are many other factors. If one is noticing lag, the best thing to do is try to attach to a different server (assuming that is an option) and see if that makes any difference. If not, then come back and try again a few minutes to a few hours later and chances are that things will be back to normal.


I hope this helps. If you have other questions that I can answer for you, feel free to drop me a line.

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What is the difference between transmission bandwidth and channel bandwidth?

The transmission bandwidth refers to the range of frequencies that are being transmitted from one point to another. The channel bandwidth on the other hand refers to the frequencies of a given channel.


Webex bandwidth requirements?

Transmission bandwidth depends on modulating signal frequency and carrier frequency


What is relation between roll off factor bandwidth and bit rate?

The roll-off factor of a digital filter defines how much more bandwidth the filter occupies than that of an ideal "brick-wall" filter, whose bandwidth is the theoretical minimum Nyquist bandwidth. The Nyquist bandwidth is simply the symbol rate expressed in Hz: Nyquist Bandwidth (Hz) = Symbol Rate (Sym/s) However, a real-world filter will require more bandwidth, and the excess over the Nyquist bandwidth is expressed by the roll-off factor. Suppose a filter has a Nyquist bandwidth of 100 MHz but actually occupies 120 MHz; in this case its roll-off factor is 0.2, i.e. the excess bandwidth is 0.2 times the Nyquist bandwidth and the total filter pass-bandwidth is 1.2 times the Nyquist bandwidth.


What is the importance of the quality factor Q of a tuned amplifier?

If quality factor is greater then bandwidth will also greater


What is the effect of bandwidth on a digital signals?

Bandwidth is an inherent characteristic of a given transmission channel, or is determined by the narrowest-bandwidth component of the system. The bandwidth of a channel will limit the possible attainable data rates. This is shown simply by Shannon's Theorem, which states C = B log_2 (1+P_signal/P_noise), where C is the channel capacity in bps, B is the channel bandwidth in Hz, P_signal is the power of the detected signal in W, and P_noise is the noise power of the detected signal in W. As an example, consider a standard phone line (i.e., using a dial-up modem). Standard phone lines have a bandwidth of about 3.4 kHz and a signal-to-noise ratio of about 10,000. Using this information, we get C = (3.4 kHz) log_2 (1+10,000) = 45 kbps. Dial-up modems can actually get as high as 56 kbps, but that is beyond the scope of this question. In general Shannon's Theorem can provide a fairly accurate way to predict the possible data rates for a given transmission channel if the bandwidth and resulting signal and noise powers are known.

Related Questions

What is transmission bandwidth?

The frequencies which are used to transmit data.


What is the relationship between laser bandwidth and the efficiency of data transmission in optical communication systems?

The relationship between laser bandwidth and the efficiency of data transmission in optical communication systems is that a higher laser bandwidth allows for more data to be transmitted at a faster rate. This is because a wider bandwidth enables the laser to carry more information in the form of light signals, leading to increased data transmission efficiency.


What is the relationship between frequency and bandwidth in terms of data transmission?

Frequency and bandwidth are closely related in data transmission. Frequency refers to the number of cycles per second that a signal oscillates at, while bandwidth is the range of frequencies that a signal occupies. In data transmission, higher frequencies allow for more data to be transmitted in a given amount of time, resulting in a wider bandwidth. Therefore, a higher frequency signal typically has a larger bandwidth and can carry more information.


Which factor affect data rate of a link?

the bandwidth and the signal to noise ratio


What is light signals bandwidth?

The bandwidth of light signals refers to the range of frequencies or wavelengths over which the signal can be transmitted. This bandwidth determines the amount of data that can be transferred over the optical communication system. A wider bandwidth allows for higher data transmission rates.


What determines the data rate that a modem can support?

The bandwidth of the transmission media The modulation encoding used


Is there any relation between transmission media and bandwidth?

There is a relation between transmission media and bandwidth. The transmission media cannot exceed the amount of bandwidth available. The transmission of media is limited to the bandwidth.


What is the significance of controller bandwidth in optimizing network performance and ensuring efficient data transmission?

Controller bandwidth is crucial in optimizing network performance and ensuring efficient data transmission because it determines the amount of data that can be processed and transmitted by the network controller at any given time. A higher controller bandwidth allows for faster data transfer speeds and reduces latency, resulting in improved network performance and overall efficiency.


What is defined as the amount of data that can be transmitted across a transmission medium in a certain amount of time?

bandwidth


What is the connection between the bandwidth of a signal and the data rate that it represents?

The data rate (C) is equal to the bandwidth (B) times the logarithm base 2 of 1 plus the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) (how much interference is introduced in the transmission of data)C = B x log2(1 + S/N)So your data rate is directly proportional to your bandwidth. If you increase your bandwidth, your data rate will also increase provided the signal-to-noise ratio isn't affected.


Why optical fibers has large bandwidth?

Study the optical transmission property of glass, to learn more. also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber You might wish to refine the question to differentiate between optical bandwidth and data bandwidth. If a laser can be modulated and the beam directed through an optical fiber, then the data or the analog bandwidth is about equal to the modulation bandwidth capability of the laser in Hz per second.


Is high bandwidth needed for simple blogs?

"High bandwidth is not needed for simple blogs as there are not that many things running on the blog sites. They do not require a high amount of bandwidth, or data. It only requires people to type something out and submit it to the website for publishing. Speed or amount of data is not really a factor for simple blogs."