Network Speed Table available
August 22, 2009Jeff Zahorowski No Comments »
I’ve just posted a network speed table to help you memorize the speeds of all the various connections. CompTIA is fond of asking a question on the A+ test involving a scenario where a given minimum bandwith is listed, and you must know which connection would be fast enough to meet their criteria. Thus, I’ve listed all of the connections mentioned in most A+ certification books, and sorted them by typical speed.
CompTIA requires information like this in domain 4.0 Networking of the 220-701 A+ Essentials test, and domain 3.0 Networking of the 220-702 A+ Practical Application test. Specifically, A+ Essentials domain 4.2 requires you to “Compare and contrast the different network types”, and lists DSL, cable, fiber, dial-up, wireless (all 802.11 types, they specify) and more.
I consider the Network Speed Table a work in progress and I’ll be updating it in the future. Particularly, CompTIA mentions other network types such as satellite, cellular, and Bluetooth, which the table does not include. When I’ll update the table I’ll post a notification here on the front page. Additionally, the speeds listed include minimum, maximum, and typical speeds. For this information I drew from various sources, including A+ certification books, books for other CompTIA certifications including Network+ and Security+, and good old Wikipedia. As such there is certainly room for some, shall we say, discussion about the speeds. The speeds I list as typical are particularly open to interpretation and may conflict with your personal experience, but rest assured those numbers were not pulled out of a hat. They were pulled out of Wikipedia. I know that’s not an authoritative source, but that way I know if you and I have a disagreement over them, then other geeks have already had the same disagreement and the result you see on the table is the result the Wikipedia-editing geek community has come to rest on (for now). However some of the other numbers were drawn straight from CompTIA A+ certification books, and I’ve been around enough to know that those numbers aren’t always accurate, even though they ought to be. Heck, sometimes two different books don’t agree with each other, even though they have each gone though a supposedly authoritative vetting process. Therefore, if you find an inaccuracy in the table, or have any suggested addition or edit, leave it in the comments!
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