How can I test my Internet connectivity bandwidth speed?

So skeptical! If your ISP is offering you "turbo" connectivity, then surely it's true?!

It probably isn't and, yes, don't call me Shirley.

More seriously, there are ways to test your Internet connectivity, as I'll show you in a second, but before we do I feel obligated to point out that it's like water in a plumbing system: you can have a really big pipe along the way, but ultimately the speed of the water coming out of the tap is defined by the slowest, smallest channel through which it travels, not the fastest. So even if your Internet provider offered ultra-high speed fiber connectivity, odds are good that your favorite sites will still seem to be stuck with fairly similar performance.

Then again, like plumbing (hey, be glad I'm not talking about little data cars on the Information Superhighway!), every step you take to speed up the flow is good and offers some benefit, so even if it doesn't make everything lightening fast, it's all going to help in all but the most extreme cases.

There are a number of different Web-based speed tests you can run for free on your computer, but, again, they'll show end-to-end performance from your computer to their server. If your favorite site is out of Ice Station Zebra in the Arctic Sea, well, a test of your connectivity with Dallas, Texas isn't going to offer a good comparison.

One of the most popular is from an ISP called Speakeasy, conveniently called the Speakeasy Speed Test...

First step is to pick one of their servers for the test. You can either pick one that's close - which should have the best performance - or one that's far away (or in the city where they host the site you most frequently visit). I'm actually at a Starbucks in Southern California as I run this test, so I'll pick Washington DC to maximize the distance. To do that, I click on "Washington DC" and it immediately starts running its test suite...

The program drops some test files on your computer (and removes them when it's done, no worries) and after just a few seconds of prep, starts the download test:

Once it's done with the download test, it'll immediately switch to testing the upload speed:

When done, it'll present you with both download and upload performance numbers:

Run the test a couple of times - the results often vary by 10% or more.

Now, armed with those numbers you can talk with your ISP and find out if you're seeing the performance they've been promising they'd deliver.

As a side note, it's unusual to see upload and download speeds being so similar. Usually you'll see a more asymmetric result, where your download is 2x, 3x or even faster than your upload speed. The good news is that most of us upload a lot less than we download...

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