Broadband

[Col]

How are broadband connections quantified i.e. its generally 100Mbps however I often hear it described as 2M connections?

[Space]

no it's not generally "100Mbps" at all.
100Mbps is probably the speed of the ethernet hardware which is sometimes used to link the computer and the broadband modem.

[j2buttonsw]

I believe the correct unit is Mbps which is megabits per second. An office ethernet connection is 10, 100 or 1000 Mbps (1000 Mbps is a gigabit connection). The internet used to be measures in kbps (kilobits per second) and a dialup was typically 56 kbps or 56 k. As broadband was introduced the connection went up to, for example, 512 kbps (0.5 Mbps) and I think the highest in the UK is around 8000 kbps or 8 Mbps (no where near 100 Mbps). I'd be happy with a 2 Mbps connection...

[Chappers]

When you get to 2mb you suddenly become aware of the speed limit of the web...having a 2mb connection means you can download at about 256 kilobytes a second maximum but in reality, you will be lucky to ever go above 150k.