See How Fast Your Internet Connection Really Is
Have you ever thought to yourself, “wow, my internet connection seems slow..” or “I wonder if my internet connection is as fast as what I signed up for..”. There’s no need to ponder these questions anymore. There’s a great site called speedtest.net that will show you exactly what your upload & download speeds are.
You can even compare your internet speed with others so you’ll know how your service stacks up.
Here’s what to do:
1. Click on this speedtest.net link.
2. Click on the recommended yellow pyramid.
3. Watch the cool graphics as it tests your internet connection speed.
4. After the test is done it will take you to a result page, which may not mean a whole lot at the moment but make note of these numbers.
5. Click on the My Summary tab at the top of the page.
6. On the Summary page you can easily see how your download and upload speeds compare with others using the same ISP, everyone in the US, North America and globally.
OK, so now you’re probably wondering, “what the heck is a Kb/s anyway?”. Kb/s stands for kilobits per second. Kilo is 1,000 so Kb/s is how many thousand bits per second are being transferred. If you divide your Kb/s by 8 you get your KB/s transfer rate. In North America the average download speed is 4,726 Kb/s or 590 KB/s or 5.9 Mbps (from speedtest.net’s stats).
Upload speeds are usually slower because with DSL broadband it’s normal to have faster download speeds than upload speeds. With Cable broadband they’re more likely to be the same. In North America the average upload speed is 892 Kb/s or 112 KB/s or 1.1 Mbps (from speedtest.net’s stats).
Understanding Internet speed lingo can be confusing, this site does a great job of explaining it:
http://www.broadbandbuddy.com.au/broadband-learning-centre/internet-speeds-explained
Now you don’t have to wonder anymore about how fast your internet connection speed is :)
Regards,
-Bert
