The difference between latency and speed of an internet service provided by ISPs?
In: Technology
I can send a single piece of data to the house next door in 2ms, to the next town over in 4ms, and all the way across the country and back in 56ms.
The amount of time it takes for a “packet” to travel somewhere and back is called the latency.
If I download a really big file from my buddy with a cheap internet connection, it takes *ages*. If I download the same file from a big service on the internet it takes seconds, even though that service is in, say, Australia.
The amount of data that you can send every second is called bandwidth.
Between my house and my buddy next door there’s low latency (good) but also low bandwidth (bad).
Between my house and the server in Australia there’s high latency (bad) but also high bandwidth (good!)
Low latency is good for reducing lag in games – you’re sending little bits of data back and forth really fast (my character moved here, shot there, etc).
High bandwidth is good for watching movies – you’re receiving LOTS of data per second, but if it takes a couple bit before it starts playing that’s fine.
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