1. #1
    The Lightbringer Proskill's Avatar
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    megabyte and megabit

    how much megabit is 1 megabyte ?? i was changing my internet speed from 4kilobits to 8kilobits but it was supposed to change in the next month - march.
    currently im downloading sw tor with the speed of 1.53MB/s
    i dont know if its actually faster or slower.
    but even if 1MB is 10kilobits then its more than i ordered.

  2. #2
    http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-...m#did-you-know

    MBps is an abbreviation for Megabytes per second, whereas Mbps is an abbreviation for megabits per second. Eight megabits equal one Megabyte.

  3. #3
    1 megabyte is 8 megabits. 1MB is 1024KB (B is Bytes, b is bits)

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yousend View Post
    1 megabyte is 8 megabits. 1MB is 1024KB (B is Bytes, b is bits)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte
    Not necessarily true. There are many standards for byte and bit prefixes. In general it's chaos, and you never know exactly what it means. I can tell you the standard taught at my university is MB - 1000KB, MiB - 1024KiB - 1024 x 1024 B.

  5. #5
    I worked for an ISP the trainer insisted that a megabyte and megabit are the same thing. They could not be convinced otherwise. Helped me know how their promotion system worked

  6. #6
    When talking about download and upload speeds, 1 byte = 8 bits, and 1MB = 8Mb.

    When talking about measuring storage, the manufacturers calculate 1kB = 1000b, while Windows uses the 1kB = 1024b conversion, leading to "1TB" HDDs only having ~930GB of usable storage.


    MiB = MibiByte, a standard used in computing. It isn't made up.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    When talking about download and upload speeds, 1 byte = 8 bits, and 1MB = 8Mb.

    When talking about measuring storage, the manufacturers calculate 1kB = 1000b, while Windows uses the 1kB = 1024b conversion, leading to "1TB" HDDs only having ~930GB of usable storage.


    MiB = MibiByte, a standard used in computing. It isn't made up.
    Yea I was trying to edit my post to say the difference is when talking about storage compared to everything else, but I managed to delete it. I've never seen MiB used in the industry, but I don't teach and I've not been to any kind of training that is dealing with such small amounts of storage recently.

  8. #8
    Yea I was trying to edit my post to say the difference is when talking about storage compared to everything else, but I managed to delete it. I've never seen MiB used in the industry, but I don't teach and I've not been to any kind of training that is dealing with such small amounts of storage recently.
    Our guild forum's database is measured in MiB on the admin control panel.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    Our guild forum's database is measured in MiB on the admin control panel.
    Interesting. What software are you using?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by obdigore View Post
    Yea I was trying to edit my post to say the difference is when talking about storage compared to everything else, but I managed to delete it. I've never seen MiB used in the industry, but I don't teach and I've not been to any kind of training that is dealing with such small amounts of storage recently.
    So you call my university bad and think MiB is Men in Black, and THEN you make the slightest research into the subject? And then you delete your post to not look like a fool. Funny.

    Fact is, MB is ambiguous. You never know if people mean it as an SI prefix or a binary one (even though it's true that the standard is theoretically set, it's just that many, many people don't follow it). That's why using MiB is safer, though frankly not common. But it's a good thing to teach the next generations, to possibly eliminate the ambiguity in the future.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by obdigore View Post
    Interesting. What software are you using?
    We are using phpBB3

  12. #12
    The Insane Masark's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    When talking about download and upload speeds, 1 byte = 8 bits, and 1MB = 8Mb.
    And bytes are never used for networking. It's called "gigabit ethernet" (and means 1,000,000,000 bits per second) for a reason, specifically that a byte still isn't necessarily 8 bits.

  13. #13
    Stood in the Fire Vouksh89's Avatar
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    http://what-if.xkcd.com/31/ I feel like this is mildly relevant to the thread. xkcd's what-if is always interesting.

  14. #14
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    There are 8 bits in a byte.
    'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
    Or a yawing hole in a battered head
    And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
    And there they lay I damn me eyes
    All lookouts clapped on Paradise
    All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Khatolic View Post
    how much megabit is 1 megabyte ?? i was changing my internet speed from 4kilobits to 8kilobits but it was supposed to change in the next month - march.
    currently im downloading sw tor with the speed of 1.53MB/s
    i dont know if its actually faster or slower.
    but even if 1MB is 10kilobits then its more than i ordered.
    My question is, where are you that you have 4 kbps internet speed? 14.4 kbps were available in the early 90s.

  16. #16
    I'm guessing you upgraded from 4 Mbps (4 megabits per second) to 8 Mbps (8 megabits per second). 8 Mbps translates to 1 MBps (megabytes per second) though MBps is not the standard when measuring bandwidth, though usually that's how you see download speeds. 1.53 MBps (megabytes per second) translates to 12 Mbps, so it sounds like you're getting a little more than what you paid for, which isn't surprising, especially if your neighbors aren't using their internet much.

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