Test your internet speed and make sure you’re getting what you paid for

Ever wished for information about your internet speed? There are several websites online that offer metrics related to your internet connection such as download and upload speed.

Here are some websites that provide internet speed testing:

http://www.speedtest.net

Very comprehensive site with more than just a fancy interface. Provides download and upload speeds, latency (Latency tests measure the round trip time for a packet to travel between one specified point to another on the internet and back) and location and physical distance to the server which helps carry out the tests. The site gives you a large number of servers to check your speed against. All your tests will be stored in table format so you can compare tests against each other. The site also gives information on worldwide broadband speeds including speed rankings of internet service providers operating in regions around the world.

McAfee Internet Connection Speedometer

http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/default.asp

McAfee also provides a neat internet speed reader providing download and upload speeds.

CNET Bandwidth Meter Online Test

http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/

CNET’s speed test is conducted from a server in the US. May give your a poorer speed result if you are international.

Verizon Speed Test

http://www2.verizon.net/micro/speedtest/hsi/

Tracert.org Speed Test

http://www.tracert.org/bandwidth_meter/

The way the speed test usually works is by having a small file downloaded from a server and then the time for the download to complete to be recorded. The results of a speed test can vary considerably. Things that may affect your results include, time of day (you’ll experience less speed during peak hours), whether your running other internet activities simultaneously (e.g. browsing, downloading) and the quality of the connection to the server that is conducting the test (running tests from different sites may give different results).

You may want to run speed tests at different times during the day and week and even over months to identify patterns, trends and problems.

Testing your internet speed from MS-DOS

You can also conduct your own test through MS-DOS by conducting a ping test. This is a test where packets of information are sent to a server from your computer and then sent back. The round trip time is measured and whether any of the packets were lost during transmission. Ping tests give you an idea of the speed and reliability of a connection to an internet server. Here is how you run one.

1. Go to Start Menu → Run
2. Type cmd.
3. Type ping then the address of any website. For example, ping http://www.microsoft.com

This test will give you minimum, maximum and average round trip times of the packets that were sent to the website you typed in. By trying this out with several different websites you can measure relative speeds with different servers. Below is an example screen.

Running a speed test from MS-DOS