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Thread: Mbits and Mbs

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    Marmoset Warrior
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    Mbits and Mbs

    Now, im not stupid and I know all about Megabits and Megabytes (e.g. that they are 1000Kb but, I do not know the difference between a Megabit and a Megabyte. Is there any difference because when you subscribe to 1.5Mbit ADSL you never get a download speed of 1.5Mbytes, it is significantly lower. Also, knowing the difference would help me guestimate download times and the such.
    Cheers guys

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    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    There are 8 megabits in a megabyte.

    MB = Megabyte
    Mb = Megabit

    1.5Mbps is 1.5 Megabits per second. Divide this figure by 8 to get a download speed in megabytes per second.

    Eg, 1Mbit ADSL = 1024Kbps (Kilobits per second)

    1024 / 8 = 128

    So in theory the download speed on 1Mbit ADSL should be 128KB (Kilobytes) per second.

    Confused?

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    Drop it like it's hot Howard's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Caged
    Confused?
    For once, no.
    Simple explanation there mate, im gonna write that on a post-it until i remember it off by heart as I inevitably will.
    That workout that 56k download speed should be 7Kbs a second. But as I know that is only on a good day when you have to stand with your hand out the window, there must be now wind and it must be 16.453 degrees centigrade
    When I get Broadband in november (yes, i know its a long way off, don't remind me!) 3Mbit will give me a d/l speed of roughly 384Kb/s.
    Better than 5.4kb/s

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    Cable Guy Jonny M's Avatar
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    The divided by 8 figure is without things like compression, overheads, collisions etc, in reality your download speed will be a bit lower, unless your ISP caps you above the advertised rate (ntl do slightly I think).

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    Quote Originally Posted by Caged
    unless your ISP caps you above the advertised rate (ntl do slightly I think).
    Why those dirty swines!

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    Spodes Henchman unrealrocks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by r1zeek
    Why those dirty swines!
    Thats a good thing

    Yeah - Bits is bandwidth and Bytes is storage and capacity (or in this context try to think of it like that). Its a bit confusing but it boils down to having 8 bits in a byte (and a bit is basically a 1 or a 0).

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    Quote Originally Posted by unrealrocks
    Thats a good thing
    Theres me and my quick reading again for ya

    Wouldn't that bit to byte conversion be worthy of sticky in here somewhere?

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    Ex-MSFT Paul Adams's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Caged
    MB = Megabyte
    Mb = Megabit
    While Caged's post was very useful, this bit is a tiny bit misleading.
    It is thought that years ago the above was true (which I'm not sure of) but now the terms are used very haphazardly, and it was only a de facto definition at best.

    Personally I've always used "kb" for kilobyte, "Mb" for megabyte and "Mbps" for megabits per second, but there ya go
    I've gotta be different

    I recall reading huge flame-fest threads on newsgroups on the "difference" between k, K, kb, Kb and KB, and the language purists were insisting we could not call it a "kilobyte" anyway, as kilo implies 1000, not 1024.

    Mbps I am almost certain is an absolute definition - megaBITS per second.
    I'm not sure if MB/s is another de facto one, but it is generally read as megaBYTES per second.

    Google doesn't even help much as a lot of "definitions" contradict, and some even claim "meg" is short for "megabyte", when it's only short for "mega" as you can say you have 128 "megs" of RAM in your PC and a 100 "meg" connection to your LAN.

    (Though a lot of the websites do seem to have this exact same wording at the end of their paragraph on the subject:
    "Some years ago, it is claimed, "MB" always meant megabytes and "Mb" meant megabits but recently this useful distinction has been lost.")


    Oh, btw 1Mb = 1024Kb, not 1000Kb - hard disk manufacturers have gotten into trouble over that one

    unrealrocks was spot on in suggesting you think about (kilo/mega)bytes as storage and bits (per second) for bandwidth.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Adams
    Oh, btw 1Mb = 1024Kb, not 1000Kb - hard disk manufacturers have gotten into trouble over that one
    1Mb (mega bit) = 1000kb (kilo bit). (there's no capital K si prefix - kilo is indicated by a lowercase k.)
    1Mib (mebi bit) = 1024kib (kibi bit). afraid to say that hard drive manufacturers are correct, it's windows (and other operating systems) that are wrong.

    here is some more information on the matter.



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    Quote Originally Posted by këö¬t
    Well cool, I didn't know that - they redefined a megabyte 6 years ago and noone noticed

    So, in reality, only hard disk manufacturers are actually correct, ironic twist of fate following the uproar years ago about people getting ripped off by missing their umpteen me**byte hard disks
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