How to check broadband speed

[Sauber 10]

Type "Bandwidth Speed Test" in your google search window.

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home 4 sale by owner

http://www.tryforsalebyowner.com

[commuter 10]

tried a couple of sites and getting

 

download 1986 kbps

upload 376 kbps

 

is there any way to test whats possible or is that what I've just done?

[Starvinmarv 10]

Currently i'm getting:-

 

Download Speed 3310kbps

Upload 361kbps

 

And i'm supposed to be on 8mb broadband, although i only upgraded just under 2 weeks ago, although aol keep telling me that i will have to wait around another week to get better speeds, apparently next week i will get between 5.5mb and 7mb.

[forkandspade 10]

i have 8m broadband and i was told by bt to try http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ all you have to do it enter your phone number NO downloading involved

[Alky 10]

not sure about this site - looks a bit hooky to me. Any one know if it is legit?????

[Harry O 10]

If you've got FireFox there is a Download Speed PlugIn that you can install that will tell you.

[RiffRaff 10]

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/

 

Living in the sticks I only get 490 down and 325 up. Last night though only got 105 down and 210 up!

 

Damn BT!

 

I've just tried this link - it thought about it for a minute, then gave me a message stating that "Applet ProgressBarPT started"...and then stopped.

Tried again, and this time it proudly (eventually) let me know that

"Configured download throughput speed is 7150kbps. DSL connection rate : 448kbps (up) and 8128 (down)"

Then I tried the RoadbandMax test :

"5760 down and 383 up. Actual IP throughout was 6721kbps..."

 

(Dronfield/BT Broadband, by the way)

 

I think I'll just stick to "slow/crap tonight" or "Not bad tonight" in the future!

[mmitchell 10]

try these web sites

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://www.testmy.net/

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/

[Wonder Boy 10]

anyone tried downloading nuria from nuria.org, I had a look yesterday it is linked from adsl guide, it will graph your speeds over a period, good evidence for complaints!!

[artivejoy 10]

This blog can help you to find out how to check broadband speed

 

http://checkbroadbandspeed.blogspot.com/

 

[not wanted 10]

How accurate are these tests? I usually use speedtest.net and I usually get between 10000 and 17000 on a 20 meg connection but one of the other sites I used put me down at 6000.

[punk 10]

How accurate are these tests?

 

A more appropriate question would be "how reliable are these tests?" and the answer would be: not very reliable at all.

 

The sites work by sending a chunk of data from their server to your computer and measuring the time it takes for the data to arrive, data size/time=throughput.

 

The problem is that the data doesn't get directly delivered to your computer, it has to pass over numerous internet connections on the way to you. So what the test is really measuring is the slowest or perhaps busiest part of the connection (the bottleneck if you like) between you and the server the data is being sent from.

 

Quite often the bottleneck will be your internet connection but other times it will be something else. These sites are hugely popular and if you happen to run a test at the same time as a few other people you may overwhelm THEIR internet connection so the speed test would be measuring a bottleneck at server side not your side. It could also be any other connection between you and the server (running a test from a server fewer hops away/geographically close makes the test more likely to be reliable).

 

There are also other ways the test will show a false speed, for instance your computer may be downloading windows updates or a virus update when you run the test.

 

In ideal conditions (assuming the slowest part of the path is your net connection) they are quite accurate, but you can never guarantee ideal conditions. You could run the test at 5am when there's likely to be less people pulling data from the same server but you'd likely get a higher result at that time of the morning anyway due to there being less contention (between you and the ISP) at that time of the morning.

 

One things for sure; Using ADSL hardly anybody will get the full speed of the connection they subscribe to at higher speeds. It depends how close you are to the exchange. If you live right next to the telephone exchange and your telephone line goes directly to the exchange then you will get the full speed (this is very rarely the case). Most people will get less than the speed they subscribe to. This is a limitation of ADSL (and all ISPs advertise using the clause "speeds up to...").