----- Original Message ----- From: "Pranav Joshi" merciless_messiah@yahoo.com To: "GNU/Linux Users Group, Mumbai, India" linuxers@mm.ilug-bom.org.in Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 12:52 PM Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] Confusion... Internet Speeds.
There is a difference between the small b (bit) and the big (Byte)... it's always small in Kbps.. coz transfer speeds are measured in bits bytes are ususlly associated with data storage for eg. (files on hdd, cdrom are measured in bytes/kilobytes and so on)
kbps here does not actually refer to kilo bits per second. The actual term is kilo bauds per second. All data transfer over phone lines are measured in bauds, which has comething to do with the fact that data is not send in digital signals (0 and 1s) but in analog mode (in terms of rapidly varying sound levels). While the older modem technologies provided a conversion of 1 baud = 1 bit or 8 baud = 1 byte, the later technologies were able to get more than one bit from a baud, primarily using compression techniques.
However, I am not sure if the speeds of modems we use today are in terms of actual bauds or use a relative reference factor to make it look better and also since the customers generally think of them in terms of "bits per second" rather than "bauds"
Regards Saswata