There appears to be some confusion as to what KB/s and Mbps really are and why we measure internet speeds in one or the other. In many cases your broadband provider is giving you one figure and online internet speed checkers are displaying another. Many people believe 1Mbps is the same as 1MB/s, however this is not the case.

Bytes and Bits

The confusion is mainly due to bytes and bits. These are two different ways of measuring data and although they sound similar 1 byte is actually 8 bits. To help reduce some confusion, bytes and bits are displayed differently in acronym form – bytes use capitalised “B”’s while bits use lower case “b”’s.

• 1 byte is 1B

• 1 bit is 1b.

Instead of having very long numbers we round up bytes into Kilobytes (KB) and Megabytes (MB).

• 1 kilobyte = 1000 bytes = 1KB

• 1 megabyte = 1000000 bytes = 1MB

We also round up bits into kilobits (Kb) and megabits (Mb).

• 1 kilobit = 1000 bits = 1Kb

• 1 megabit = 1000000 bits = 1Mb

How do bytes and bits affect data transfer speeds?

The speed in which data is transferred over the internet is measured in bytes per second (B/s) or bits per second (bps). Many companies choose to display their speeds in bps as the numbers appear larger.

Your internet connection has two different speeds, a download speed and an upload speed. Internet service providers tend to give you their maximum download speed; this shows how fast your computer could download a song or a web page in optimum circumstances. However if you plan to place files on the cloud you should also take note of your ISP’s upload speed; this shows how fast data can be transferred from your computer to the internet.

When uploading files to Livedrive you may see a speed of 125KB/s, this actually the same as a speed of 1Mbps. As previously explained this is because 1 byte is the same as 8 bits. Our maths can be seen below;

125KB/s = 125,000 bytes of data per second.

1Mbps = 1,000,000 bits of data every second.

125,000 bytes x 8 = 1,000,000 bits

What affects the speed of Livedrive and how can I check how fast my internet is?

The speed of Livedrive can be affected by a range of factors, these include the distance your computer is from the data centre and whether your Internet provider is purposely throttling your internet speeds. Some providers will reduce internet speeds at different times of the day, will reduce your speed once you have downloaded a certain amount of content, or will throttle certain services. If you have many computers downloading or uploading files on a network it will also affect the speed of your Livedrive account.

If you want to check out how fast your current internet connection is from your internet service provider please go to www.speedtest.net and press the “begin test” on the image. One point to note: The speed test will default to your current location, can you please make sure the test is ran to London, UK only if you want to test how fast your connection could be to Livedrive.