Your network's bandwidth is very important because it determines how much data can actually flow on your network. And you might think that that is the speed of your network, which no, it's not. In fact, a lot of people confuse bandwidth and speed. They are related, but they are two different things because bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that can transfer across your network. Whereas the speed is the actual speed of that data transfer.

that can transfer across your network. Whereas the speed is the actual speed of that data transfer. It might not reach your total bandwidth and your network's bandwidth is dependent upon the hardware that you choose. So your switches, your routers, your firewalls, uh, you, the access points that you use, even the cabling that you use determines your network's bandwidth. So you can think of bandwidth as well lanes in a highway. So imagine a one lane highway, so that means

So you can think of bandwidth as well lanes in a highway. So imagine a one lane highway, so that means that traffic is only flowing in one direction and it it's one car after another. It's not very efficient. Well, you need to add more lanes. So a two lane highway can obviously handle more traffic. A three lane highway can handle more than a two lane, a four lane can handle more than a three lane and, and so on. That is exactly what bandwidth is.

This is just a simple explanation with no code.

as streaming content is completely dependent upon your network's bandwidth. But if you are building web applications that provide various services either for other users on your network or they are publicly available for people outside of your network to access, but there are many other factors that affect our actual speed. One of those is called latency,

that affect our actual speed. One of those is called latency, which we will talk about in the next episode.