A bandwidth tester measures internet connection speed by transferring data and reporting the amount of data transferred per second. Internet packages are sold based on allocated bandwidth, and ISPs advertise packages with a “speed up to” limit. DSL customers see speeds closest to the maximum limit when they live close to their local DSLAM, while cable customers are affected by the number of people using the service. Before testing the connection, close unnecessary programs and check for hardware or malware issues. The tester may ask for location and service type information to rank results correctly.
A bandwidth tester is an online service that will measure the speed of your Internet connection for you. It does this by passing chunks of data to your computer, calculating how long it takes to complete the transfers. By reporting how many kilobits or megabits of data has been successfully transferred per second, you can get an idea of your real connection speed.
Internet packages are sold based on allocated bandwidth. The higher the bandwidth, the higher the speed. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) typically advertise packages using the language of “speed up to…” with the bandwidth limit expressed in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (mbps). There’s also a lower limit for each package, and most people won’t see the upper limit of the delivered range consistently, if at all. This is due to many factors affecting speed, making the bandwidth tester a useful tool.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) customers see speeds closest to the maximum limit when they happen to live in very close proximity to their local DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM or dee-slam). DSLAMs can be thought of as community routers for DSL service, with lines branching out into neighborhoods to serve local residents. Since signal strength decreases with distance, if you happen to live on the outer edge of the usable area, you’ll experience speeds in the lower range of your subscribed package. All things being equal, hopping on a bandwidth tester can give you a pretty good idea of how close or far you are from your DSLAM.
Cable customers who get Internet service through the cable TV company are unaffected by physical location. However, cable internet has its own problems which can affect your online speed. There is a limited amount of bandwidth available for each neighborhood and if many people use the Internet at the same time, the speed can decrease. Conversely, when there are fewer neighbors using the service, more bandwidth is available and speeds are closer to the advertised limit. If you’re browsing and find your computer running particularly fast or slow, a bandwidth tester will let you know whether you’re imagining things or not.
The most obvious time to measure your online speed is when you’ve upgraded your internet connection or switched internet providers. Tips for tweaking your Internet connection are also available online, and a bandwidth tester will let you know if the tweaks worked.
Before testing the connection, close unnecessary programs, leaving only essential processes such as firewall, antivirus and antispyware running. If your computer appears to be slow, or if you know it has used a bandwidth tester before, you may have problems unrelated to your ISP, particularly if it’s a persistent condition.
A slow computer may be hardware related. When a hard drive becomes too full or when memory is low, system processes can slow down to a crawl. If the problem isn’t hardware, you may have a spybot, virus, Trojan, or rootkit using your computer behind your back, sucking up valuable system resources. Run a thorough scan with an up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware program and check for rootkits with a rootkit finder. Once the problem is resolved, revisit the bandwidth tester. You should see the benefits expressed in better results.
A bandwidth tester may ask for some information including your zip code and the type of internet connection you are using. Knowing your general location can help reduce the “hops” between your chosen web server and your computer, eliminating possible delays that aren’t attributable to your connection, but to the computers that are between the web server and your computer. Knowing the type of service you have will help the site rank the results correctly, showing how your connection compares to others using the same type of service.
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