Saturday 28 April 2012

Testing Internet Speed Easily

Nothing could be more frustrating than waiting patiently for a summoned web page to load itself into the browser only, after a delay lasting minutes, to be confronted with a message to the effect that the server has timed out and inviting one to try again later. The speed of an internet connection is critical to an enjoyable browsing experience and finding some means of testing internet speed is an important step towards improving it.

A quick, or perhaps painfully slow, search of the internet will reveal a large number of software packages dedicated to internet speed test. These can range in nature from quick and free tests that may be performed directly using applications that are hosted on the suppliers site to full scale software downloads that vary both in price and effectiveness.

One thing that all packages designed to test your internet speed have in common is the need to have all other applications closed down, particularly those that may themselves require an internet connection, before actually proceeding with the speed test. Only under these conditions will the testing be a true reflection of performance.

Just because they do not levy a charge for their services, it does not mean that sites offering free facilities for test my internet speed provide an inferior service and several of them conduct millions of tests per day while helping users to keep track of their connection performance with a regime of regularly repeated testing.
A typical peed test should address both the speed of uploads and downloads as a bare minimum Today, the better internet speed testing software will not only measure these two parameters but will assess latency and available bandwidth capacity also.
With the growing number of platforms to which internet applications may now be deployed, the developers have found it necessary to extend their services to include speed tests for such devices as the popular Apple iPhone.

Make no mistake about it, speed is everything in this day and age. This fixation with speed has now transferred over to the Internet as well and it seems that nothing on the net now is ever fast enough. So how fast is your Internet service anyway? Is is up to your standards? These are a few of the questions that more and more web users are asking themselves and an Internet speed test is a great way to find out.
Download and Upload Data Transfer Rate
There are two components that actually determine your Internet speed and they are your upload and your download rate of data transfer. Both of these functions are measured in kilobits per second, but it is the download function that tends to be the most important, simply due to the fact that it is the function that is most often used by a person on their computer.

Newer is Better

The old way of testing Internet speed was pretty straight forward. A file of a known size was transferred and as it was done the time it took to do so was recorded and it was as simple as that. There is a new way however, that is far more accurate and also far less time consuming.

Increase Your Speed

It is done through an online service. What the service does, is to send your computer a package of data that your computer then sends back to them. In this way an accurate reading of your actual Internet speed is ascertained. Why do you need to know your Internet speed? Once you know your Internet speed then you can Begin to take actions to increase it. As you do these things, then you can go back to recheck your Internet speed to gage any improvements that have, or have not taken place.


There are many ways to check the internet speed. The best way is to visit the online speed test web sites. Some of them will provide accurate results and some will not. You should test your internet speed on many online speed test providers.