On Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:03:16 -0500, George
wrote:

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:57:01 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:52:17 -0600, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:12:32 -0500, George
wrote:

Red Green wrote:
I've seen and used them before. This one kinda fancys me.

http://www.speedtest.net
That one has been around for a long time. Unfortunately it has no way to
tell you the actual speed if you are using Comcast (or others that use
"speedboost" or "powerboost") because the small temporary bursting you
get gives a large false reading.
This tells you how fast your internet connection is WHEN CONNECTED TO
THAT SITE.
Actually, speedtest.net gives you a choice of many servers to test
against. They highlight one they think will give you a reasonable test
result based on your IP. You can, however, pick any one you like.


Having many servers is a good idea, but that's still limited to
testing your connection's ability to do speed tests. If that the only
thing YOU do on the internet?


Interesting you mentioned that. Lots of people are into bragging rights.
The various upper tiers that ISPs have play right into that. I know some
people who obsess about "important" things like having the
biggest,fastest etc that will buy whatever the highest speed is
available and do endless speed tests just to verify what they have.


The highest tier here (this is Suddenlink) seems to be for that
purpose. It is more expensive for what you get. I suppose a speed test
site is good for those people.

I spend relatively little time on speed tests.


I'd much rather install a program like NetMeter
(http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/). This makes it possible to
see how fast your connection is in normal use (I transferred files
to/from my website's FTP).
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"The government of the United States is not, in
any sense, founded on the Christian religion."