Questions & Answers:
Why do I need to clear the cahe in my browser?
How does this page calculate my connection speed?
Why do I get different speed results each time I run the
Bandwidth Speed Test?
I thought my Internet connection was faster. Why does the
Speed Test come up with a lower figure?
Could my Internet Service Provider (ISP) be the cause of
my slow down?
I have a 56K modem. Why isn't my download speed even
close to 56K?
Why do I need to clear the cahe in my browser?
The first time you load this test the results will be the actual bandwidth, as your computer's cache will not contain any of the parts of this test. Your computer keeps copies of the files it has downloaded on a local storage device.
Depending on your borrower’s configuration you may be loading the files from local storage rather than from the remote server.
You can configure your browser to avoid this problem by setting the cache to zero. Zero cache normally forces the browser to get a fresh copy each time the script is run and thus consistently providing correct results.
How does this page calculate my connection speed?
Actually, this isn't just one Web page, it's a
Web pages, with an externally loaded data file of a fixed size.
When the inital page loads, it notes the
time just before and just after the data file loads, then
uses this information and the size of the data file to
calculate the rate at which the data arrived at your computer.
Each time you click the re-load on your Browser the external file should again be loaded and the time recaculated.
You may need to clear the browsers cache at least once if you've run the test before.
Sometimes the cache will retain the data file and the result might be the effective not actual bandwidth.
* ~ Indicates cache effective not actual bandwidth.
Why do I get different speed results each time I run
The
Bandwidth Speed Test?
Like any major highway system, the Internet
information highway has many roadways and interchanges,
each with their own capacity and speed limit, and, like
highways for cars, sometimes you get traffic delays. Just
as you have to wait in a your car while other traffic
goes through at a traffic light, data sent to your computer
has to wait while other data passes through routers, the
Internet equivalent of an intersection, on it's way to you.
You are more likely to run into slow Internet traffic
during peak use hours than those times when fewer people
are online, such as after 11 p.m. and before 7 a.m. When this
page was being tested, I found that the results on my
144Kbps DSL line results varied from a consistent 120 to
135Kbps mid-morning and afternoon, all the way down to
64Kbps during evening peak-use hours. If you really want
to find out what your best possible Bandwidth Speed
Test result is, try loading this page at 3:00am on a
weeknight, when almost everyone is asleep when Internet
use is at it's lowest. (Friday and Saturday nights are not
a good choice.)
I thought my Internet connection was supposed to be faster.
Why does the Speed Test come up with a lower figure?
No Internet connection ever performs at 100%.
When we test loaded this page direct from our test Web
server across a two computer 10Mbps local area network (LAN), our best result
was 9028.1 Kbps or 1106.4 K bytes/sec. There is always some loss, and the faster your connection is, the greater that loss
is going to be.
Next, this page can only measure the time it takes the
applications data--the actual data file--to reach
your browser. Wrapped around that data is some overhead
that can range from 2 percent to 25 percent of the total data sent.
There's no way for the program built into this Web page
to control or discover exactly how much overhead was used
to send the page's internal data file, but generally the
percentage is small, and this page adjusts its figures up
by 2 percent to compensate. Nevertheless, the actual overhead
may be higher than expected, resulting in a depressed
value for the Kbps figure.
Also remember that your connection to your ISP
is just one part of the system that gets data to your
computer. Between your computer and the server that sent
this Web page there are probably a dozen or more routers,
communications links, and other network components this page
had to travel through. Each of these components have a set
capacity and speed at which they can operate, and most of
them handle network traffic for thousands, even millions
of computers every day. The inevitable result is that
all Internet traffic encounters some sort of delay
as it transits across The Net, and that reduces the amount
of data that gets funneled into your connection in the
first place.
I'm getting a big slowdown. Could my Internet
Service Provider (ISP) be the cause of my problem?
Perhaps.
The delay could be at your ISP, or it could be
elsewhere. (See the explanation
above, but if you're consistently getting
Bandwidth Speed Test results that are substantially
below expectations, the root problem is most likely your
ISP's fault.
While your dial-up modem, DSL, ISDN or other Internet
connection may be a dedicated line, all of an ISP's
connections get combined into one or more shared
connections. In most cases, these shared connections have
less capacity than the combined total of all the customer
connections they serve. Done judiciously, this works better
than you probably think. Since most Internet users spend
more time reading their email and Web pages than they do
downloading them, they're only using a fraction of their
connection's actual capacity. Overbooking allows an ISP
to combine several customer connections into a single link
that's smaller (and less expensive) than the combined
total of all the connections they serve, without reducing
the amount of data sent to a customer when they are
downloading data.
The problem is that some ISPs, cable modem companies,
and DSL providers take the overbooking concept too far.
They funnel so many connections into a small combined
connection that normal customer demand overwhelms the
capacity of the combined connection. This is a
particular problem during peak use hours, when line speeds
can slow to a crawl.
Unfortunately, there is no remedy for this problem.
As competition in the high-bandwidth Internet
connection business heats up, you'll have more options
and your ISP will have more incentive to maintain more reasonable
overbooking ratios. Until that time, however, your
only options are to complain to your ISP or switch
to another Internet provider with a better track
record.
I have a 56K modem. Why isn't my download speed even
close to 56K?
There could be several reasons--and most of
them aren't your ISP's fault.
First of all, static electricity caused by radio signals,
power lines, and other sources interfere with most 56K modem
signals, forcing them to fall back to 42-50Kbps.
56K modems also require a clean, straight through
telephone connection to the telephone company's central
office switching center. Phone company line amplifiers
that boost a telephone signal over a long distance, PBX
switchboard systems, and other phone equipment alter the
phone signal and force 56K modems to fall back to speeds
of 33.6Kbps and lower.
Finally, the FCC doesn't allow 56K modems to use the
full range of signals that phone company equipment can
generate. They're concerned that it'll cause static
interference to other phone lines.
So no 56K modem in the United States ever connects at 56K.
Most 56K modem users seem to connect at speeds of 44-48Kbps.
Raw Data:
If you're just dying to see the raw data used to calculate
your download speed, here it is:
- download start time:
- download end time:
-
download time:
-
Test packet size in thousands of bytes:
-
estimated line speed (K bits per second):
-
estimated line speed (K bytes per second):
