Reliable connection speed test?

pickarooney

Anyone know a good, realiable connection speed test, preferably not with Java?
I get wildly differing results (from 300kbps to 2.2 Mbps) depending on which ones I use.

Mutant_Fruit

Download a nice big file like this using a program like this and see how fast it downloads once you have segmented downloading turned on. Thats the best speed test.

bounty

fruit's "best way" sucks... install a program, download some crap, then time something...


just click this and chose sever :cool:

http://www.giganews.com/test_connect.html

Mutant_Fruit

bounty wrote:

fruit's "best way" sucks... install a program, download some crap, then time something...

Well, you don't have to install the program, you can just download some crap... thats all a speed test is. It downloads some crap to your computer, and times it.

I only said install getright (or a similar program) because they allow multisource downloading, so you're guarenteeing that the server you're downloading from isn't limiting your download speed. Hell, downloading from heanet would probably be best.

And yes, it is the best way. As good an all as you think the website speed tests are, i don't personally think a 300kb file is enough to test my broadbands max speed. Give me a 30mb file, and a proper speed average. I know it can sometimes take up to 5 seconds for my connection to ramp up to full speed, which often horribly skews the results of speed tests when done with obscenely small files.

I've had speed tests tell me my max speed is 43kB/sec, when in fact i can download a file at 110kB/sec right after the test...

EDIT: Getright also times the download and calculates average download speed... if thats any use Tis my favourite download manager.

EDIT2: I think giganews is bogged down a bit at the moment, i'm getting speeds of less than 20kB/sec off it.

pickarooney

bounty wrote:

fruit's "best way" sucks... install a program, download some crap, then time something...


just click this and chose sever :cool:

http://www.giganews.com/test_connect.html

The two servers gave me different results

Anyway, it looks like I'm on around the 2-2.5 Mbps, despite paying for 4 :frown:

RintPete

Here's another one I find quite reliable when my 2MBit ADSL link from Eircom is playing up.

-=- RintPete

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~leslie/testpage.htm

minotour

http://www.beelinebandwidthtest.com/

oneweb

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/ is a good one, it even gives a 'subjective' result (limited to 3 tests per IP per month)

Adey2002

Try

http://www.irishisptest.com/

Mutant_Fruit

Speed tests have been known to get increasingly unreliable the faster your connection is. Thats why downloading a LARGE file is the best way to measure speed. If you really do have a 4mbps connection, time a 150mb download from heanet. Thats the best way to stress your connection.

Even a 3mb stress test wouldn't be large enough to give an accurage picture of a 4mbps connection i'd say.

pickarooney

They finally upgraded it. Nothing left to download now though.

Blaster99

Particularly if you're with IBB, it mostly depends on the route to the server you're testing with. I can get great results from some servers, and utter crap from others. With Eircom's ADSL I get the same speed from everywhere.