There has been a misconception circulating around the Internet ever since the website SpeedTest.net began showing the speed of Internet users. The misconception that I am referring to is the thought that because you have a high speed connection, every website and file will download instantly. While it is true it may apply to some large websites with massive datacenter infrastructures, it does not apply to all.

Whenever you visit a website like Google.com or BestTechie.net you are downloading content from that website and it is being presented to you in the form of a webpage. While the download is occurring bandwidth is being allocated by the web server that hosts the website so that a steady flow of information can be presented to you. The problem with speed happens when the website that you decide to visit does not have a sufficient outgoing and incoming connection.

For example, let us say that you have an Internet connection of 30 Megabits per second. This means that you can download a file at 3.75 Megabytes a second. That is a lot, but what if you visit a website like Example.com and they only have an Internet connection of 10 Megabits a second (common speed). That means that the website has to allocate enough bandwidth to provide you a meaningful flow of information while also leaving enough for another user connecting. Therefore, a slow down occurs because the server cannot match your overall speed. It is as simple as that.

Even though your Internet Service Provider offers you a high speed connection does not necessarily mean that it will always be put to use. An Internet connection is normally only used to its full capacity on websites that have large infrastructures scaled to handle an enormous amount of traffic. Peer to peer sharing is another area where it would be put to use. Other than those two situations, plan to not always get what is advertised.