ThirdRing.net - Testing your connect speed

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Testing your connect speed

Although our preferred method for determining your connect speed on the Internet is with the INETBENCH utility (for more info, click here), there are a variety of online speed tests that you can use. Most of these are geared towards measuring file download speeds that you might see when downloading files like MP3's or software applications -- and thus aren't really relevant to the speeds you get when you are just "surfing" the Internet. And because there are so many variables involved, you'll likely see some wide variations in the speeds reported. All of which is why we prefer tests such as INETBENCH, of course! But these other tests do serve some purpose, so here are some of the better ones:

DSL Reports -- some excellent speed tweaking tools here as well
SpeakEasy.net -- very similar to the DSL Reports test
SBC Yahoo DSL Internet Throughput Test -- SBC's test, but anyone can use it
BandwidthPlace Speed Test -- another good source for broadband info

ZDNet Internet Services -- measures download speed only
Internet Frog -- yet another speed test, also has some other good useful tools
SpeedTest.net -- global tests, maintains test history for you
Broadband Reports.com -- a variety of different tests
RoadRunner Speed Test -- download 50MB file from a server that is connected directly to the backbone, which should give you a "max" download speed for your connection
numion.com WebSpeed -- this is more similar to what we do with INETBENCH