Digital Valdosta

How to: Test Internet Speed

There are times that you may feel like your internet speed is moving at a snail’s pace. Did you realize that there are ways to test your connection speed with out calling your ISP? I will cover some of the online tools that I have used in testing. Also I will cover how to test your speed from the command line.

Before we start testing

In cases of slow connectivity there are a few things to keep in mind. Connection speed depends on the medium that you use to connect to the internet. If you are using a DSL modem to connect, you can unplug the power cord for 10-15 seconds and restart your computer.

Doing so will allow your modem to attempt to refresh the connection with the ISP. Also the restarting of your computer will allow it to gain a new connection to the modem and clear out the temporary memory. Once you have done this attempt to connect to the internet.

If this works then this may be your only step. But if you want to be sure you can continue with this article.

Online Speed Testing Tools

When in comes to performing an internet speed test there are several options out there. However, I would not just go to any website that offers this. There could be potentially harmful code on some websites. I am only going to discuss the ones that I personally use to save you the concern about viruses or any other malicious attacks.

The first tool that use is a tool provided by Youtube.com. It is a video streaming test that will show the speed that you are receiving the video.

In the image above, I have drawn an arrow to depict where to look for the speed of the stream. This is a great tool because it not only tests your speed. But it test your speed contantly, for around an hour. Most tools will test the speed with one request and report the speed it takes to send.

Another tool that I use is SpeedTest.net

When you come to this site, ignore the other buttons as they are ads for unneeded software. Just click the button as depicted in the above picture (or another location on the map). This only takes a few seconds and will return the results. Tools like this are for quick speed inquiries and will not show the same speed that your ISP listed in your DSL package. But don’t worry too much about that as internet speeds fluctuate. As long as the speed is somewhere close to the advertised speed then everything should be good on your end. The speed lag may only be with website you are viewing or could be something else entirely.

Check Internet Speed from the Command line

If you don’t want to run tools on the internet then you can run a ping test which is a simple way to test your internet speed. To do this open your start menu and click Run (unless you are on Windows Vista or 7, just the file name in the dialog box at the bottom of the start menu. If you are on a MAC or Linux computer open Terminal and run the following command). Type cmd.exe and press enter.

In this window type the following command:
ping -t google.com

Let this run for as long as you would like. To stop it, hold Ctrl and press the C key on the keyboard. You will notice close to the end of each line there is a Time entry. In most cases the time will be close to 30 ms. But really as long as you don’t have a large number of timeouts and the speed isn’t a long ways off from the above noted speed then everything should be working properly.

Final Thoughts

If you are still having issues with your internet speed and the above tips did not show that in the results you may need to have a skilled technician look at your computer. If other applications are running properly (i.e., Word, Quickbooks, etc.) then it is always best to get a diagnostic ran on your computer. Explain to the technician that your suspect your internet speed is slow. Also give the results of the speed test(s) that you ran to the technician. (If you don’t remember to give the technician the results they should run their own any ways.) Your ISP may need to be contacted, so be sure to have your account information on hand should the technician need to contact them for you. Your ISP may even have a tool to test your internet speed.

I hope that this information helps you resolve the problem or at least give you the answers you need.

Until next time, have a blessed day.