Basic Internet Question:

Bandwidth is the rate at which data that can be transferred through a connection. A standard PC modem has a very low bandwidth of about 3,000 to 5,000 bytes per second. The very high speed lines that make up the backbone of the Internet are much faster, at least 1,000,000 bytes per second! Note that bandwidth is not exactly the same as speed. If you only want to transfer one byte, it may not get where it is going any faster with high-bandwidth than it would with low-bandwidth. However, if you want to transfer a million bytes, then high-bandwidth will definitely help! You can think of high-bandwidth as like drinking juice with a fat straw, whereas low bandwidth is like drinking juice with one of those thin coffee straws.