You get more bandwidth than you think possible
A strange calculation: 250 divided by 500 is 5. Forget all about what you have learned in mathematics. You might think that 250 divided by 500 is 0.5; but on an overloaded internet connection that is controlled by a SmartShare StraightShaper you can experience a curious kind of math.
With a SmartShare connected to the network, a 100% loaded 250/250 mbit/s connection with 500 active users, can give each user on the connection up to 5 mbit/s. But how is that?
Right from the beginning of the internet, there has been built-in bandwidth management in the protocols (TCP)
The purpose of this bandwidth management, was to ensure all users equal amounts of the bandwidth, and that worked fine in the world of DOS where a PC could do only one thing at a time. But with modern hardware platforms, operating systems and browsers which are optimized for making processes parallel, the built-in bandwidth management is set aside but nevertheless, bandwidth is still being distributed in a way where the assumption is that the device can make only one request (one flow) at a time. So now, when a device can make thousands of requests at a time, this device is getting what is equivalent to thousands of devices. Good for few, bad for most.
So, initially the distribution of bandwidth on a non-regulated internet connection is far from democratic and fair, and when you e.g. don’t have a SmartShare to regulate the internet connection, it can turn out to be the wild west and a real battle to gain access to bandwidth.
Read: How does the internet work.
Typically, 5-10% of the users will occupy largely 90% of the bandwidth
But let us not track down the 5-10% and hit them in the head, because most likely they are not at all aware of the fact that they are part of a group that occupies bandwidth at the expense of all other users. Upgrading apps and operating systems, background synchronizing between cloud files and local files on numerous devices are just some of the things going on without us knowing about it that uses a large part of our bandwidth.
Small data becomes big data
An everyday example of how much bandwidth we rapidly use is when we e.g. take a photo with our smartphone. Every time we take a photo with our smartphone it is saved in the telephone in an app, which is typically installed on several devices. Maybe we share the photo with the rest of the family. The photo we just have taken is maybe 3Mb and is first sent from our smartphone to a cloud service, which then tells all the cloud service’s subscribers that there is a new object or file ready for download. That one 3 Mb photo is then easily downloaded to five devices, and so the photo has suddenly taken up 15Mb on the connection.
The calculation
But with a SmartShare StraightShaper connected to the network updates, synchronizing and sharing photos will not be a problem, but how can that be?
The answer lies in the unique method in which SmartShare allocates the bandwidth to users. Remember that with a SmartShare, 500 users on a 250 Mbit/s (fully exploited/used/loaded) connection can still have up to 5 mbit/s, but how does this curious piece of math work?
Usually, not all 500 users need the guaranteed bandwidth at the same time, but when SmartShare constantly ensures that all are given access by turn, and the available bandwidth constantly is distributed equally among the active users you will, even with 500 active and bandwidth-gobbling users be able to get 5 mbit/s per user.
The term mbit/s (megabit per second) is an expression of the amount of bits that can be moved/transported in a second. This means that when a SmartShare StraightShaper constantly ensures that users alternately come online, there will be many more users every second that get access to the bandwidth. It also means that the amount of bandwidth per user is higher, that the users obtain data more rapidly and thereby release more bandwidth to other users. All users are thus ensured a substantially better experience when a SmartShare StraightShaper is connected to the network.