95th percentile

[GordyMac]

Can someone explain the "95th percentile" rule to me? I don't understand it at all and I always hear people talking about it and it is REALLY starting to annoy me

 

[BVSDaryl]

The 95th percentile is a mathematical calculation widely used to evaluate the regular, sustained utilization of your Internet connection. The reason this statistic is so useful in measuring data throughput is that it gives a very accurate picture of the cost of the bandwidth. The 95th percentile says that 95% of the time, your usage is below this amount. Just the same, the remaining 5% of the time, your usage is above that amount. The 95th percentile is a good number to judge how much bandwidth you are actually utilizing and helps filter out usage spikes.

Hope this helps

 

[GordyMac]

Oh.. so they kind of take an average I guess?

 

[BVSDaryl]

Yep, which is good sometimes but can be a real pain as well.

 

[GordyMac]

Yeah I get it.. nice... that is a good way to calculate though. From what I understand anyway.

 

[BlackStorm]

Wouldnt be if you get a DoS attact that lasts a good while, or a few in a month, would really bring the bill up