How fast is 3mbps

Say you need to fill a gallon tank. If your garden hose puts out only 5 gallons of water per minute, you'll be waiting 20 minutes to fill the tank.

But a huge firehose that puts out a gallon of water every second will fill the tank in less than two minutes. Bandwidth is like the size of the hose. The larger it is, the more data you can pull down in a given time. Bandwidth is measured in bits per second. Note that bits are different than bytes, the common measure of file size.

One byte equals 8 bits, so 1 megabyte MB equals 8 megabits. If you have a 1 megabit-per-second connection, a 1MB file will take eight seconds to download. On a 1 Mbps connection, an MP3 file, which might measure about 6MB, will take about 48 seconds to download. A 5 gigabyte, or 5,MB, movie will take about 11 hours. The bandwidth you're allotted is shared among all devices on your connection.

How much you need depends on how you use the internet. If you've got one person downloading a video game, someone else streaming a movie and another person refreshing Instagram on his phone, you'll need enough bandwidth to keep everyone happy.

Video streaming tends to eat up the most bandwidth, so households running simultaneous streams may want to pony up for higher speeds. Netflix recommends a 3 Mbps connection for one standard-quality stream and 5 Mbps for a high-definition stream. Two simultaneous HD quality streams would need around 10 Mbps, and so on. Online video games don't require much bandwidth to play. Latency varies significantly across providers and across broadband technologies.

A high latency, meaning a slow response, can affect performance in both online gaming and Skype-style voice over Internet protocol services, even if your download and upload speeds are both impressive. This could be during a particular period such as an evening or across an entire month.

Exceeding this limit could mean your service is slowed down or you face other consequences. Usage limits are particularly common on mobile broadband services. The result is that although your service may offer a particular speed such as 3 Mbps, you may not be able to download at this speed indefinitely. A professional writer since with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism, John Lister ran the press department for the Plain English Campaign until He then worked as a freelance writer with credits including national newspapers, magazines and online work.

A common measurement tool is Speedtest. An online free service, you can immediately find out your download and upload speeds. Another consideration for at-home workers or telecommuters - your neighbors.

While you may be working at home during peak usage hours, your neighbors' online habits could affect your speed, depending on their online activities. Online gaming, streaming video and downloading large files or movies all require larger amounts of bandwidth and can quickly slow down your speed. At the end of the day, the best way to determine if you need faster Internet speed is your satisfaction with your Internet's current performance.

If Internet latency is causing you frustration or decreasing your productivity, check your current speed and look into moving to the next tier of speed available from your local Internet service providers. Alexis Caffrey is a freelance writer with a focus on technology, new media, and design. In a former life she was a graphic designer based out of New York, NY.

You can reach Alex via her email. Powered by Campus Explorer.