When you contract to get high speed internet at your home (or office), you are basically signing on the bottom line, and completely trusting your ISP to deliver what they promise. In fact, if you’re a serious geek, you probably are paying a bit extra for some additional internet speed. So how do you know you’re getting what you’re paying for? I mean, they could easily tell you you’re getting 8Mbps, when they’re really giving you 1 or 2, right?
Far be it from me to doubt the honesty of a telecom (you know, with a lengthy list of historically untrustworthy behaviors), but it’d be nice if there was a way to verify their claims.
There are a number of services you can utilize to check your internet speed. DSL Reports is, perhaps, the best known, but I just stumbled upon a service called Speakeasy. Speakeasy does a speed test, verifying both your upload and download speeds and giving you an easy to read result. It’s really the answer to any questions you may have had about the service you’re getting from your ISP.
But what if you want to test the internal speed of your home network? The speed of your network can greatly impact the actual speed you experience when online. In other words, your internet can be lightning fast, but if your network is slowing you down, you’ll never enjoy the high speed you’re paying for. For example, if you’re streaming video to that huge, expensive TV you just installed, and it seems to be hanging, the problem might very well be your network.
Testing your network involves using another tool: LAN Speed Test. LAN Speed Test performs a service that is very similar to the internet speed testers, above, but only measures throughput speeds between your computers on your personal network. LAN Speed Test is a downloadable tool, and is actually fairly simple to run. If you need to troubleshoot your network, this is a great place to start.
Speakeasy can be found here, and DSL Reports right here. A nice tutorial on running LAN Speed Test can be found over at MakeUseOf. Have fun testing!
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Also, Wireless networks have the potential to cut down your speed a lot! If your ISP is telling you you’re getting a certain speed, but you’re only getting a portion of that on your network, verify whether you’re using a directly connected Ethernet or a wireless network – it could be causing your latency issues and a physical connection might be something to look into; if it’s applicable.
I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with ISPs in past years. Faulty modems, unstable connections, etc. The help I’ve gotten from the ISPs in dealing with these problems? Next to nothing.