How Many Bytes In A GB?

csnann

I am going to get broadband and am trying to work out how many GB (gigabytes?) I need per month. I have just checked my dial-up useage and discovered that I used 17,000,000 bytes in the past hour doing the stuff I normally do. Is that 17 MB? So how many hours would I get out of a GB at that rate?

macman

Still on dial up! Why?
Try this converter:
http://www.123marbella.net/en/free-bandwith-calculator.html
The time you spend online is not relevant with broadband, as you are permanently connected. It's what you are doing that matters. Surfing/emailing uses little data. Streaming or downloading uses a lot.

closed

You'll probably use a lot more once you get broadband

asbokid

In answer to your question...

a gigabyte is 2^30 bytes rather than 10^9 bytes (a billion bytes)
a megabyte is 2^20 bytes rather than 10^6 bytes (a million bytes)
a kilobyte is 2^10 bytes (1,024 bytes) rather than 10^3 bytes (1,000 bytes)


edit: so 17,000,000 bytes (1.7 x 10^7) is short of 17 megabytes (17 x 2^20) by 825,792 bytes.

edit2: at that rate, transferring a gigabyte of data (2^30) will take you..

2^30 / (1.7 x 10^7) hours

63 hours 9 minutes 41 seconds.

eyeinthesky

We normally think in 1000s, i.e. 1000 bytes to a kilobyte, but it is actually 1024. There are 1024 megabytes to a gigabyte, but it's difficult to work out how much data you will actually use on a daily basis. General surfing and email will use a relatively small amount, but windows updates can sometimes be pretty large. Also you need to consider updates to your programs and antivirus. If you use iplayer or youtube you will be using a fair bit. Do you download anything, like trial programs, music, or videos?

Sorry, I'm not much help. I'm sure someone will be along soon to advise.

debitcardmayhem

Aaah but 17,000,000 Bytes = 136,000,000 bits + lets say * 1.09 (for headers and ecc bits) = 148,240,000 bits divided by 3600 (60 mins x 60 Secs) = 41,777 bits per sec. Mind you that figure assumes that you are "doing the stuff I normally do" , so you never pause for say 5 secs per minute (or you are speed typist) so allowing for 5 seconds per minute the your data rate is 41,777 * 60/55 = 44900+ bits/sec d...good going for dial-up. So builing up on asbokid's calcs and allowing for 8 hours sleep and therefore 16 hours of web usage, about 15 Gig / month should sort you. Mind you once you realise how find how useful broadband is then at least treble that :cool:

GeoffX

My ISP, Plusnet, uses 1000s rather than powers of 2. I'd guess that most with caps are the same. Plusnet do though have an accurate online usage meter, and between midnight and 8am is unmetered.