What is the difference between bandwidth and download speed?

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What is the difference between bandwidth and download speed?

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They are ways of describing the digital and analog nature of a network connection.

Bandwidth is often misused in relation to data rate (speed). There is no direct relationship between the bandwith being used and the data rate, though there are maximum practical limits on how much data you can fit within a set band.

Bandwidth(analog) is measured in Hertz(cycles per second), and is the range of the frequency spectrum the signal occupies.

Data Rate(digital) is measured in Bps(bits per second), all the ones and zeros passing through in a second

Your internet connection which is comprised of binary data from the websites/emails you are working with on your computer with additional data wrapped around it for routing/encryption etc. That is then converted from digital(binary) data into an analog signal do be transmitted from your network to your ISP then on to the destination. This occurs at the modem(Modulator/Demodulator) for cable internet or the ONT(Optical Network Terminal) for fiber based connections or the transceiver for a WiFi link (copper/fiber/radio is the transmission medium).

For example a standard FM radio signal has a data rate of 64KBps but a bandwidth of 267kHz

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