Bandwidth vs throughput

[Speedster]

I've got some spare time sitting at the office waiting for an appointment, so I figured I'd use the time to clear up this thing in my head. Am I right in saying that "bandwidth" refers, in a DSL context, to the available connection speed. ie 384/512/1024 in Telkom products. "Throughput" on the other hand refers to the amount of data transferred through that connection.

So to say I've used up my bandwidth is a bit of a non-sensical statement? As is referring to 20GB of bandwidth?

 

[Tommygun]

As I see it bandwidth is an indicator of both. 384 kbp/s tells you the theoretical maximum transfer rate possible on the line and therefore the potential amount of data transferable over a given time period. Of course you could be sending or recieveing data from any given place at substantialy less than the theoretical maximum, infact, you mostly are. Just to complicate matters you could have a 1Mbps capable line but only have a 512kbps service over it limited by routers or other devices). I think it would be fair to say one had used up ones data allowance rather than bandwith.