BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTIONS- TERMINOLOGY

There are 3 things you need to know about your INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP) and your connection.

The amount of data which you can transmit – downloads and uploads per month is known as your BANDWIDTH and is measured in MEGABYTES or GIGABYTES                                       

The speed that data is transmitted to your computer (DOWNLOADS) and from your computer (UPLOADS).  This is expressed in kilobits per second (kbs) and is a theoretical maximum speed. There are 8 BITS in a BYTE.

You will have a MAILBOX with possibly only a 20Mb or 30Mb limit – this is zeroised once you have downloaded the messages to your PC.

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The lowest BROADBAND speed is 256kbs download / 64 kbs upload. Some people in GS now have connections of 1500kbs/ 256kbs.   Currently the highest available in Australia is 20,000 kbs download / 756kbs upload.

In practice, speeds will often only be slightly above half of the theoretical maximum as in Golden Shores most users are transmitting data on telephone lines - not dedicated cables, fibre optics or wireless connections.

As an example to download a 3 Mb file may take approximately the following times:

BANDWIDTH: Some ISP’s only measure downloads; some will slow your connection speed to dial up levels for the remainder of the month if you exceed your monthly limit; others charge extra for every megabyte over your limit. Check the small print of your ISP plan.

MAILBOX:  When you are away from home try to use a PC (a friend’s house or internet café) to logon to your ISP and clear  junk or unwanted mail messages so you retain the important ones for when you return home and can download them.  Be careful you have not set your mail program to retain a copy of messages for a certain number of days even after you have downloaded them.