Test Your Connection Speed: Two Great Options
I know, broadband speed tests are a dine a dozen. But as you are aware we don’t usually talk about the mundane here and this is no different. I found a great new connection speed testing website and you should check it out.
I have used Speedtest.net for ages and I like it, I also like speed.io a new slick flash driven speed test for the Interwebs. Both speed tests are useful and slightly different features and they both look great. speed.io does a few things that I like and the test covers more aspects of your connection and gives you a ranking of sorts.
So expect the usual download and upload speeds, ping and speed.io also includes number of connections, which I thought was a nice touch. This service may be slightly more accurate but that is hard to prove and really not necessary.
Many things influence speed and you really only get a good picture of your speed by using a few services and tools and getting a rough estimate. You get to know what is “normal” and what is not for you. Turn your PC on at the same time that the kids all get home from school and your connection is still going to get caned by the script kiddies and WOW mob. Not to mention damaged cables, dodgy set-ups and inefficient ISP’s.
The cool thing about speedtest.net is that you can select the server that you want to use to test from and to. This is nice if you want to see what your speed is from say Sydney to New York. They also give some great stats on ISP’s and results by country and region.
As can be expected both services offer the option to embed your results as code for your blog or website.
So don’t go using those crappy Java and other speed tests offered by ISP’s and other questionable places, try these and let us know in the comments how your ISP is doing.
Here are my results using both services. Over wireless from the laptop on a Saturday morning, so no doubt the kids are hammering the 0’s and 1’s. I am on an 8MB connection down and 364kbs (which sucks) up.
Speedtest.net
speed.io
Both services have the usual knobs and dials that move while the test is happening.
"I Want To Be a Celebrity"
Buy at 
I pay for 7 Mbps down/512k up;
Results from http://www.speed.io
(Copied on 2008-09-12 22:05:40)
Download: 6938 Kbit/s
Upload : 516 kbit/s
Connects : 2735 conn/min
Ping: 22 ms
Results from http://www.speedtest.net
Average Download: 6907 kb/s
Average Upload: 510 kb/s
Ping: 23 ms
Which is listed as “Excellent.” But then I don’t have a lot of Internet users in my building and I am located right next to the cable/telephone room on my floor.
3.6 mb down
867 kb up
surewest canopy lite
no need to test my dsl.
0.01 molasses down
0.001 molasses up
Results from http://www.speed.io
Download: 8788 Kbit/s
Upload : 684 kbit/s
Connects : 1800 conn/min
Ping: 30 ms
Results from http://www.speedtest.net
Average Download: 8470 kb/s
Average Upload: 735 kb/s
Ping: 26 ms
Smart arses, here’s my woeful results (but in line with my 1500/256kbs internet connection).
Results from http://www.speed.io
Download: 1345 Kbit/s
Upload : 216 kbit/s
Connects : 2553 conn/min
Ping: 22 ms
Results from http://www.speedtest.net
Average Download: 1333 kb/s
Average Upload: 218 kb/s
Ping: 29 ms
Results from http://www.speed.io
Download: 11691 Kbit/s
Upload : 629 kbit/s
Connects : 2759 conn/min
Ping: 21 ms
Results from http://www.speedtest.net
Download: 12464 Kbit/s
Upload : 671 kbit/s
Ping: 25 ms
Results from http://www.speed.io
Download: 4145 Kbit/s
Upload : 229 kbit/s
Connects : 879 conn/min
Ping: 145 ms
Results from http://www.speedtest.net
Download: 8455 kbit/s
Upload : 242 kbit/s
Ping: 15 ms
Interestingly different…. really like the sites though. Nicely done IMO.
Wait for it…………….
Telstra Cable 25GB Extreme
Download:28621 kb/s
Upload: 1021 kb/s
http://www.speedtest.net/result/322573741.png
That was about 10am Saturday morning. Normally get around 15000 - 25000kb/s
I was suprised at that,and for $89.95 it aint *that* expensive (for the speed u get)
Foof, that’s nice TAIDoug, do you live in the back room of your Focal exchange or something?!!
I’m about 4km away from my exchange and so anything other than the cable I get (which is very good on the whole) is not worth it…
Doug… you my friend are a bastard.
Must be ADSL2 though - they don’t offer anything over 8MB on ADSL as far as I am aware.
The price is indeed good, pity about the conditions and the fact that it is Telstra.
Your still a bastard…
Just how much prOn do you need, Doug?
Disappointing results for the T3 at work. Only 12000 kb/s down and something like 65000 kb/s up. The download side must be choked or split or something.
It’s Telstra Broadband Cable. 100% sure about that to (we’ve been on it for years, but only had the speed increase a year or so back.) A quote off bigpond’s site: “BigPond Broadband Cable offers blistering fast internet connection, with download speeds up to a staggering 30Mbps in selected areas of Sydney or Melbourne” I am in Sydney, about 40mins by car to the CBD.
@ Dave, couldn’t agree more about the fact it’s Telstra. I had a telstra technician come to the house to fix the internet (we later found out the connection on the street was faulty) and he went to the foxtel box. He had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
BTW, check this out, reminds me of Telstra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVp7b5gzqU
Off I go…Zoom Zoom:D