One of the first things I did when I got Internet access in our new apartment was to do an Internet speed test or check the speed of my Internet connection. The tool/website I use to test my Internet connection speed is called Speedtest.net, a website created by SpeakEasy a company that provides bandwidth and phone services.
I first came across Speedtest back in 2006 and I believe it’s one of the best and one of the most popular and widely used online bandwidth speed test tools. Aside from the nice graphics and user interface, what makes Speedtest good is that they have a lot of datacenters in different locations so you can choose the closest datacenter to test your Internet connection. Also, their bandwidth speed test results are very accurate.
Although I didn’t change my Internet Service Provider (still with Time Warner Cable), I wanted to do the test to check if I’m getting the same speed here in the new apartment and see if the location would have an effect on the Internet connection speed. I did two tests – one with my WiFi network using a NetGear Super-G wireiess router and another one using a wired connection. Btw, I chose the Los Angeles datacenter because it was the closest one to my location which is 50 miles. The other option was the San Diego datacenter which was 100 miles away. Anyways, here are the results of my Internet speed tests.
WiFi network
Wired connection
I was surprised with the results because they were higher/faster than what I expected and better than the Internet speed test results I had in our old apartment. I wish I kept a copy of those tests but I remember I only averaged about 17-18 Mbps even on a wired connection. Here in our new place, I average about 25-27 Mbps on a wired connection and 15-17 Mbps on WiFi.
If you want to do an Internet speed test for some project or just simply want to check how fast your Internet connection is, I recommend you use Speedtest. Not only do they have accurate results, they also have lots of datacenters to choose from so you can pick the one closest to your location. The closer the datacenter is, the more accurate the results get. Btw, SpeakEasy has another website called Pingtest.net which tests the Ping, Jitter and measures Packet Loss and can help you determine the quality of your broadband Internet connection.
Anyone else who also uses Speedtest.net? What tool or website do you use to test the speed of your Internet connection? If you know of a different or even better Internet speed test tool, please share it with us.
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August 21st, 2010 at 4:25 PM
Thanks, today I learned that my internet speed is pretty awful, just wrote a blog post regarding internet speed, too.
April 4th, 2010 at 7:35 PM
I’ve always used SpeedTest, at home I get 15 downstream and 2 mpbs upstream, and while I am at college, I get about 6 downstream and 2-5 mpbs upstream.
April 1st, 2010 at 7:25 AM
I would be extremely happy with just a quarter your WiFi speed. In the hostel, I’m just using EDGE (tethered from my phone). Speedtest.net shows 0.08Mbps at the time of writing this, though normally it’s around 0.1Mbps+.
At home I’m subscribed to 1Mbps, which is considered expensive compare to our living standards here in Malaysia.
How much did you pay for such speed? Any fair usage policy?
March 30th, 2010 at 9:52 PM
I wonder when we’ll reach THOSE speeds over here in the Philippines :(
March 30th, 2010 at 1:10 AM
This makes me think evil thoughts about my ISP a lot more than I already do.
Max I can get is 2Mbps and only during evenings and wee hours in the morning. Switching to a “better” ISP would improve my speed to 6Mbps but we’re still waiting for SkyBroadband to be available in my area.
March 29th, 2010 at 11:34 PM
I haven’t use any speed test yet but its a good thing to know the speed of my internet. It’s good that you are back online Jaypee. Now I have something new to read. :)