Speed Tests How To Do Them And Why You Should Do Them

Checking Your ISP's Speed

Checking out your broadband speed to see how you compare to what your ISP is charging you for is recommended for when you are getting slow download speeds or just to stay on top of them to make sure you are actually getting what you are paying for.. I thought perhaps it might be a good thing to give a little demonstration on how to go about checking your speed.
There are several sites that will allow you to check your speed for free. Here I am using dslreports. Also I want to point out that all the images in this tutorial are clickable to a larger image.

First visit dslreports and there click "Tools"

Once the "Tools" Page has loaded you will see several options. Here we want to select "Speed Tests"

Once we get to the "Speed Tests" Page we have the option of using either the Flash based test or the Java based test. Either of these will work and I am going to show you both tests. For the first one I am going to start with the Flash Test.

First we must select a Server. I like to pick one that is relatively far away from my location.

Do not try to use your internet connection while the test is going on. It will take a few minutes to finish the test depending upon your internet connection speed.
Here you can see the upload speed is 2377 and the download speed is 273. The upload speed is actually under the 3000 I am paying for. But the speed can be affected by the time of day and numbers of people who are online at that particular time. If you are this close I wouldn't be too concerned. If it stays like that constantly you may want to contact your ISP.

Now to show you the Java based speed test. Both of these will work and should show the same results.
When using the Java based test you have to manually start the test by clicking the "Run" button.

Speed results for the java based test are well below what I am supposed to be getting but this sometimes happens especially at peak usage times. Like during the late afternoons and early evenings. But if it happens constantly I would contact them to complain but if you are complaining about your speed you should probably keep a report of the different times that your speed was not up to par.

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