MB - what is it? What you need to know about traffic to a new network user

The Internet has become a commonplace today, which is found in almost every home. But this figure is still not absolute, and quite a few people are just planning to connect their home Internet for the first time.

Getting acquainted with the tariffs of providers for this service, people often do not understand the meaning of various terms, such as "megabytes", "megabits" and the like. For a person who is just planning to start working on the Web, such notations appear to be unfamiliar and even resembling invented ones for the provider to be able to take away more money. But we hasten to assure you that it is quite easy to understand the topic of measuring Internet traffic, which we will do now.

Traffic MB - what is it?

The designation "MB" can be used for two different types of traffic measurements - in megabytes and megabits. So, one megabyte contains the amount of information, commensurate with 8 megabits. The existence of two different units of information at once is due to the technological structure of computer technology.

It is enough for us to understand that megabytes are used when measuring the amount of downloaded data, and megabytes for the data rate of the global network.

How to understand, where is the megabyte, and where is the megabit?

Usually, special abbreviations are used, where a megabyte corresponds to a reduction in MB, and a megabit is a reduction in Mbit, but in non-regulated literature, MB can also occur. What this reduction means in each particular case, you can clarify with the consultant, who will process your application for Internet connection.

However, you are unlikely to go wrong when you consider the speed of connection to the Internet in megabits per second, because providers use this unit of measurement (MB / s).

What is it for the convenience of using the Internet

What speed of the Internet is necessary for your needs, it is possible to define with the help of a small check-list:

• To use e-mail and text messengers, you will have a speed of up to 1 Mbps.
• Viewing information resources with large images and animations, browser and client online games - choose a tariff at a speed of 5-10 Mbps.
• Watch streaming video on YouTube and audio in high resolution - from 20 Mbps.
• Downloading the installation files of modern games or movies in BluRay format will require a speed of 60 Mbit / s, if you are not ready to wait forever.

The connection speed of more than 100 megabits per second makes no sense to connect, if you plan to use the Internet through a cheap router - it simply will not be able to give out such a wi-fi. If you plan to connect to the Internet using a LAN cable, then only the bandwidth of your computer's network card (this can be a laptop, tablet, TV, or something else) will be a limiting factor.

Restricting traffic

In some tariffs write that the volume of downloaded and transmitted traffic should not exceed, for example, 5,000 MB. What is this, well know mobile Internet users. Using a modem or 3G / 4G Internet on a SIM card is often limited to a certain level, so as not to overload the provider's network.

To understand how much traffic one or another task will take, we give the following examples:

• Downloading the movie in an average quality will take about 700 MB;
• Viewing for an hour of videos on "Youtube" in HD can "eat" from 200 to 700 MB;
• Viewing ridiculous pictures in a social network is unlikely to allow you to spend more than 2-3 thousand megabytes per month.

Usually, after using a megabyte package, the user does not lose access to the Internet, he is simply limited to the speed to a minimum. Working on the Net at this speed causes terrible discomfort, so try to spend traffic sparingly, if it is limited.