Is it me or is the Internet down–easy ways to check your connection speed
Ever have one of those days when you’re just not sure your Net connection is up to snuff? It happens to all of us from time to time, but the key is figuring out if it’s you or the rest of the world that is having the problem.
For the basic, “Am I online” test I like using Google and an IM client (Skype is purported to be the fastest as letting your know when there is a connection problem, but any will do). Loading Google up in your browser of choice and seeing if you’re online with IM is fast and easy.
Okay, you’re online, but man is it slow. What’s next? Well Akamai’s new Visualizing Global Web Performance with Akamai tool is pretty cool. You get a snapshot of what global Net traffic is like. This will give you an idea if it’s just you or pretty much everyone else.
Now if you want to get down and dirty about your connection, try an online speed test tool. I’ve been playing with SpeedTest.net lately, mostly because it looks cool. It’s also accurate don’t worry. Regardless, the idea is to pick a server near you and see what you’re getting for an upload and download speed. This is certainly in the your mileage may vary department. Your ISP will say you get a certain download and upload speed. At work, you won’t know this, but the idea here is to run the test. No matter what you should probably get into the 1-2 megs up range if you have high speed access. If you’re not … test later in the day. Then again the next. If the results are consistent, you might have a problem.
When I ran the test today my tests using a wired connection were about 25% faster than my wireless connections. Why? My wireless connection is encrypted and that adds a bit of over head to the connection. I didn’t think it was that much, so that’s why I’m going to do some more tests.
Bottom line is the intermittent connection problems are often external to you (not your problem), regular problems, it’s probably you or someone on your network.
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POSTED IN: Cool tools, Internet tips
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