How Fast Is Your Internet Connection?

It's always good to know how speedy your broadband connection is and whether it's measuring up to what your broadband provider is promising you. Luckily, it's easy to find out. About.com has links to what it considers the three best speed testing sites. You can read its story, but I'm linking directly to its picks (plus a number of my own), because that About.com frame they put at the top of the screen when you click on a link is pretty much the worst thing on the planet.

About's picks are hit and miss. The Cnet test, in particular, does not work well at all, and the AuditMyPC test is often out of order. Still, you might want to try all of these sites, as well as my two additions, to see if you can find one that provides good, consistent results. Results will vary widely depending on where you live and what type of connection you have, so use my comments only as a rough guideline.

About's picks are the first three. My comments are in parentheses.

• Speedtest.net (good site)
• AuditMyPC.com (server is frequently busy; dramatically limits use)
• Cnet Bandwidth Test (completely wrong; only tests downstream speed)
• Speakeasy Speed Test (good, simple, but may overreport download speed; try a server farther away from you for more accurate results)
• DSL Reports (limited slots, requires Java; download speeds were completely wrong)

I'm on a line that's rated for 4,000kbps down and 384kbps up. Here are the results I received for each site, testing against the closest available server.

Speedtest.net: 4,888kbps down, 362kbps up
AuditMyPC.com: 4,577kbps down, 394.1kbps up
Cnet: 876.1kbps down
Speakeasy: 11,259kbps down, 347kbps up
DSL Reports: 409kbps down, 358kbps up

Ultimately I have to agree with About.com: Speedtest.net provides the most reliable, accurate results and has a service that is restriction-free and easy to use. Give it a spin and see if your broadband connection is really living up to its promises!