We often encounter clients who confuse similar terms that, while they may seem alike, are quite different. Here is a simple glossary of terms that you might need when ordering VPS servers or dedicated servers.
NIX (Neutral Internet eXchange): This is an association of legal entities, i.e., companies providing internet connectivity in the Czech Republic. Each of these companies contributes to the operation of a so-called peering center, which is a network node in Prague that connects their networks together.
SIX (Slovak Internet eXchange): This is a Slovak peering center operating similarly to NIX. As of February 17, 2020, it connects 59 Slovak networks.
Traffic: This term refers to the volume of data transferred over a period, typically measured in Gb/month or Tb/month.
Transit: This term refers to data transfer specifically to foreign countries, similar to traffic but only concerning data sent abroad.
Bandwidth: This indicates the speed of data flow, or how much data a link can carry over a short period, typically measured in Mbit/s or Gbit/s.
Latency: This refers to the delay in communication, or how long it takes for a response from the target host to return. It is usually measured by the program "ping," which sends an ICMP packet to the host server to check its availability. The time elapsed from sending the query to receiving the response is measured, with milliseconds (ms) being the basic unit.
CDN (Content Delivery Network): This is a network of computers distributed around the world. Each of these computers stores data, videos, web pages, etc., in cache. When a visitor is far from the server and tries to access it, the website is loaded from the nearest server, optimizing response time and improving web performance by providing cached content from the CDN. In practice, CDNs are used mainly for protecting the hosting server from attacks, reducing data transfers, and lowering the computational demands on the hosting server.
Bits and Bytes: While IT often uses powers of two for "round" numbers, other people prefer round numbers ending in zero. Therefore, IT works with bits, whereas ordinary users find it easier to work with bytes.
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b (bit): The basic unit of data quantity in its fundamental form, stored in hardware as ones and zeros, where each bit is either a one or a zero.
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B (byte): Represents an eight-bit binary number (e.g., 00010110). Each byte consists of 8 bits.
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Mb (megabit): Equals 1,000,000 bits, which is equivalent to 125,000 bytes.
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MB (megabyte): Equals 8,000,000 bits, which is equivalent to 1,000,000 bytes.
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Mb/s (megabit per second) and MB/s (megabyte per second): These denote data transfer rates, indicating how many megabits or megabytes of data are transferred per second. This is used, for example, in network management.
These units are often used in internet service provider offerings. Providers might want potential customers to believe that a connection speed of 100 Mb/s will download a 1 GB movie in 10 seconds. However, this would require a speed of 100 MB/s, which is a significant difference.