How to Test Your Internet Connection Speed

Posted on April 15th, 2009 by Marck

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High-speed Internet connections are essential for businesses, but can also be useful for home users as well. Browsing sites and downloading large files can be made much faster and easier if you have a very fast Internet connection. From time to time, you need to check the speed of your Internet connection to ensure its speed and reliability.

Internet Speeds At A Glance

One of the problems of early dial-up Internet connections is that they were slow and reliable. There are times that they can get the job done, but most Internet connections before were too slow and too expensive. With advanced technology becoming cheaper every year, more and more people are subscribing and hooking up to fast Internet connections.

Connection Types

To get an idea of how fast your Internet connection can be, you have to know what type of connection you have installed on your computer:

T1 or higher are the fastest connections usually available to commercial establishments and businesses that rely on high-speed Internet connections. A T1 line can have connection speeds as high as 100 MB per second.
Broadband connections include digital subscriber line (DSL) connections like ADSL and SDSL. Broadband is the fastest available connection available to home consumers, which can reach speeds comparable to T1 lines.
Wireless connections like wi-fi and mobile Internet (including 3G HSDPA) are connections fast enough for use in mobile devices like laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs. Wireless connections may be made private for home use (especially if you have more than one computer), or can be made public by malls, shopping computers, restaurants, and coffee shops.
Dial-up is very seldom used today, although it is the cheapest way to get an Internet connection. To establish a dial-up connection with a phone company that offers it, you simply connect a cable from your computer to a phone jack.

Performing a Speed Test

There are many sites and utilities available on the Internet for you to test your Internet connection speed. Some of the most popular tools include:

McAfee Internet Connection Speedometer
Speedtest.net
Testmy.net

To perform a speed test, simply visit a site that tests your Internet connection speed, and follow the instructions on the screen. Depending on the type of connection you have, the speed test should not take more than half a minute to be completed. You may also need to check your connection speed with other sites to cross-check with other speeds you may get.

Reading the Numbers

Now that you have the numbers, it’s time to understand what those numbers mean:

Burst speed refers to the fastest possible speed given your connection. The burst speed usually lasts a very short time before network resources and other subscribers slow down the network. Burst speeds cannot be sustained, but they can give you an idea of how fast your connection could be.
Upload speed refers to how fast data from your computer is sent over to a network. Upload speeds are especially important if your computer has server functions.
Download speed refers to how fast your computer receives data from other computers in an Internet network. If you’re a home user, you need to pay special attention to your download speed.

It’s good practice to test your Internet connection speed every time you log on to the Internet to ensure reliability and constant speeds. With these simple steps, you can be assured of the fastest possible speeds you expect from your Internet service provider.