Troubleshoot Your Internet Connection


There are several types of internet connections. Briefly they are as follows, in order of increasing speed/bandwidth.

(Bits per second is abbreviated as bps. Kilo, Mega, and Giga represent one thousand, one million, and one billion respectively.)
  • Analog (up to 56 Kbps)
  • Satellite (less than 1 Mbps)
  • DSL (up to 8 Mbps)
  • Cable (up to 20 Mbps)
  • Tier (T1 through T5, with 64 Kbps per channel, cumulatively up to 1 Gbps)
  • Optical (1 Gbps+)
  • Internet2 (100 Gbps)
Most homes use either Cable (e.g. Comcast) or Optical (e.g. Verizon FiOS).


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