Measuring Network Speed

Efficiently using the internet is definitely about speed. If your computer seems slow when browsing the web, how do you know that it's not your ISP, the web page that you are looking at, or the internet in general? When I work with clients setting up their networks, I always run this little performance testst. It helps me see what the computer/network's internet speed is versus others currently connected. It's free ofCourse, but it does have an abundance of advertisements.

To start the performance test, go to the web site : http://www.toast.net/performance. On the left side of the Performance Test image to the right, choose which test to run. The tests range from a very small amount of data (Text) to a very large amount of data (Blue Angels). You can also test your upload speed. That is good for figuring out why your emails are taking forever to send.

On the right side of the Performance Test image, choose which web host to connect to. Since you are testing the relative speed, the web host is inconsequential. At the bottom of the Performance Test window is a Run Test button. Press the button after you have selected your options (Choose Shuttle and Text for this exercise).

Next, you will see some text being displayed in your browser window, then an image of a rocket. Lastly you will see your performance results as shown to the right. . As shown on the left, the results were indicative of my computer/network speed. The numbers to the right of the bars indicate the amount of data downloaded and above the chart (not shown) will tell me how long that the test took. In this example, my performance beats everyone else's except for users on the Rogers Internet Service Provider! I was zipping along faster than my neighbors on Comcast. It would be interesting to get feedback from those in the area who are using Verizon FIOS, dial up, or T3 (EMC?) connections in comparison to Comcast. Note that it's best to run the test 3-4 times (use the back button on Internet Explorer) to get more accurate results

Other internet performance test that I've looked at and tried are the CNET speed test. and the DSL Reports speed test (really cool!)