You got your broadband but after the arduous connection process, you wonder why your supposedly 6 Mbps DSL seems to download like a 34Kbps dialup line. You think you got ripped off or you think your computer is slow and not your connection. Well those assumptions might be true, but before you bang the door of your ISP’s customer support office or yell at them on the phone, here is a tip to know how fast your connection speed really is. Speedtest.net offers a really cool service that lets you test your connection speed. During the test, you will see the results in a dashboard-like interface.
To start the test, go to Speedtest.net then click the Begin Test button at the middle of the page:
After a few moments that depends on your Internet speed, the output will come out:
From my example above, it was able to detect my ISP located in Shenzhen, China. It also shows my 3.26Mb/s download speed and my 1.64Mb/s upload speed. Usually the download speed is higher than the upload speed because users usually download data more than they upload. Another feature that you can use is to benchmark your result against the local ISPs in your region. To do that, go to the summary link: http://www.speedtest.net/summary.php Then you should see how your speed compares with the average speed in your region:
Another great feature of this service is that it remembers your results and then it let’s you see your best score to date:
I love how it presents the global rank and the local rank. This way I can assess if the price I pay is worth it. For example, if a local ISP asks for a 90% percentile amount for a 50% local rank, then it is somehow questionable. You can use this information to get the best ISP deal!
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