Test Internet Connection Speed/Bandwidth with Internet Speed Meters

Written by Pavan Kumar on May 3, 2009

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Many people mistake their LAN connection speed with DSL modem as the true internet speed. The fact is that the speed at which you are connected to the internet is entirely different from what the speed you are connected from your computer to router with ethernet cable.

Test internet speed / bandwidth

Many Internet Serivice Providers (ISPs) tend to provide you a slow connection than what they exactly charge you for. If you are using a 256kbps connection, some ISPs may give you the actual connection speed of around 150-200kbps which is very poor service. To check the exact speed at which you connect the internet can be measured using different tools which include both desktop tools and / or web 2.0 applications. These days many of you love to use web 2.0 services rather than desktop softwares and hence here are few such internet connection speed testing tools which you may use.

1. McAfee Internet Connection Speedometer

McAfee has launched a free tool to measure the bandwidth / speed. You can chect it for different connections varying from Dial Up connections to ISDN or DSL (digital subscriber line). You can check out the tool here.

2. SpeedTest.net

This tool has been popular and has been widely used by people. The special thing about this site is the easy to understand user interface in an easy presentation. And you can also choose the server which should be used in order to test your internet connection speed (both upload and download speed). Your nearest server is recommended by the service and you can use that instead of searching for your choice. Test connection speed here.

3. Speakeasy Speed Test

This also provides you the option to choose the server to use, but the servers are only US servers and you need to pick one among them. The web page is not well organized and its nice to ping to the nearby servers than some server far away. You can try this here.

4. Speed.io – Internet DSL Speedtest

A simple flash based internet access bandwidth measurement tool which presents the analysed results as if you are watching a vehicle speedometer. The display interface is really cool, but at the same time, site is little slow if you are using dial up connections. Access tool here.

5. Think Broadband – Broadband Speed Test

This tools tests your broadband connection in detail and provides you with all statisctcs it has observed. You can make use of this tool here.

If you think you are on a very slow connectivity, a simple advice is to try increase internet speed using various free DNS servers, this may increase your speed to some extent if your ISP DNS servers are not fast.

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Category: featured, internet

Tags: internet, Internet Connection Speed Meter, services, Test Internet Speed

20 Readers responded to this post

good post! I had used only speed.io before

By Raju on May 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 pm

Well said dude. Many of my friends are thinking like they are connected with 100 MBps internet connection. This resembles their illiteracy only.

By Tech @ InkAPoint on July 4th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

Hi Pavan, good tip you gave here.

Actually even I am from Karnataka, doing Engineering in CS and E, thought I’d give you a shout. Come by my site sometime.

By Prathik Raj on July 4th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

It’s nice.
I tested my broadband speed by using the http://www.ip-details.com/, which is like http://www.speedtest.net/.

By kanaga on July 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

I tooo have a 100MBPS Connection Pavan but the result is a 5MB Files Takes 50 Secs to download mate…
Here are the results mate

By Balaji | GuideToTech.com on July 18th, 2009 at 10:22 am

@ Balaji,

There is no chance that you can have 100MBPS connection. What you see in windows when you connect is the connection speed between your router and computer which of course is 100MBPS. By the approximate stats you provided, I can guess that your speed might be 750kbps to 1mbps – this may vary on what kind of connection you have.

FYI, The normal connections we use for home internet in India are some kbps to 2mbps. There are other higher speed plans too, but they are expensive.

By Pavan Kumar on July 18th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

@ Pathik,

Good to see you here 🙂 Your blog is nice too 🙂

By Pavan Kumar on July 18th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

@Pavan What speed do you get mate..
I have tweaked my settings so only getting atleast 1.04MBPS mate…

By Balaji | GuideToTech.com on July 19th, 2009 at 7:38 am

@ Balaji,

I use a BSNL broadband unlimited connection which provides me 256 kbps connectivity.

By Pavan Kumar on July 19th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

Dear Mr. Pavan,
I feel delighted at your job at such an early age. keep it up. I am afraid these internet speed meters
may trace my Internetn ID. Do they? Isn’t it dangerous .

By PR.JOGARAO on July 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 pm

@ PR.JOGARAO

Thanks for compliments. What do you mean by internet ID? Your IP shows you are from AP, India using BSNL connection, AFAIK, here in India, we are provided with dynamic IP which changes every time you disconnect and reconnect to internet. So, there is no fear of being traced. Also note that every website (incl most of the blogs) trace the user information for different reasons, but no one is going to track each and every user in detail, also we cannot track the personal information anyway. Your privacy is guaranteed with these services as you don’t need to sign up / login to them, you just click a button and know your internet speed.

By Pavan Kumar on July 24th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

@JOGARAO! not its not dangerous as ur internet ID called public ip is dynamic…so chill!

i have a 8mb connection (in pakistan) which most of speed test sites show less like 5-6mbps….but when i use download managers i can get 950 kb/s approx! 🙂 which is 7.6mbps

and the upload speed tests are more bugged! its good to approximate but not exact figures!

By Muhammad Qasim on September 4th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

I use SpeedTest more often or when I am getting bored. But, as I am using Airtel, the speeds are pretty much consistent. And as Airtel gives me their own speed checker, I tend to use that too.

This post is quite informative for ppl who are always in doubt whether they are getting the full speeds 😀

By Suneel on September 8th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

BSNL “http://DATAONE.IN/” also provides speed meter feature …

By ram on September 15th, 2009 at 5:34 pm

BSNL BROADBAND USERS CAN CKECK SPEED FROM EITHER “http://dataone.in” or “http://www.calcutta.bsnl.co.in/”

By ram on September 15th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

I normally use this website called http://speedtest.pk
to test my internet connection speed plus it also provides country and ISP information as well….

By furqan on May 18th, 2010 at 9:11 pm

u r best advisor in computer field

By maharaj on September 4th, 2010 at 9:23 pm

Hi Pavan kumar !
i want to know my Airtel india Net Speed
How can We Majar it
Pl. give me ideas

By Mahesh Kapadia on January 4th, 2011 at 12:01 pm

speed of internet is very slow

By sudhir gupta on January 12th, 2011 at 11:21 pm

hello sir
speed meter

By neerajkumar on January 20th, 2011 at 10:27 am