Checking and testing internet speed. Why speed tests have different results

Hello site readers. IT lessons. Today we will deal with the popular question " how to measure internet connection speed?» Everyone is interested to know if we get those megabits per second that we paid for and why sometimes files or sites load oh-oh-very slowly ...

In this IT lesson, you will use the knowledge gained in the previous two lessons: "" and ""

Of course, you would like to press one button and quickly find out your speed ... this is also possible, but the accuracy will not be high. In addition, you need to take into account some factors that affect the data transfer rate and the result of its testing.

The lesson is great, if you need to find something specific, you can use the content:

What affects internet speed?

First, let's look at what can affect the quality of measuring the speed of an Internet connection. And there are many such factors:

• Speed, with which you are contacting, checking the speed of the Internet (this may include the speed of access to the site from which you download something)
• Speed ​​and settings if your computer is connected to the local network through it
• Working on the computer at the time of checking
• Antiviruses and firewalls running in the background
• Computer and operating system settings

In most cases, the most important item on this list will be the first item - server speed. Let's give some illustrative examples.

Example 1
If you connect your computer to a local area network using a cable (twisted pair), then connection speed with another computer on the same network(in your city) will be very large, for example, 70 Mbps .

Example 2
Now we measure the speed between our computer and some server on the other side of the country. Maybe we'll get about 20 Mbps .

Example 3
Imagine that all 800 regular readers of the IT-lessons site connected to this server at once and started downloading different files. Connection speed with loaded server will decrease and for you it will be, for example, 3 Mbps .

Example 4
Now let's try to download the file from a server in another country, for example, in Australia, we get less 1 Mbps!

Now, I think it is clear that the measured speed depends on which server you have chosen to test: its location, its own maximum speed and its workload affect. That is, you need to understand that:

The speed of all servers (containing sites and files) is different and depends on the capabilities of these servers.

The same applies to other items (for example, the connection speed will be different when connecting to the network directly or through a router, and will also depend on the characteristics of this router).

How to improve the accuracy of the check

It is advisable to complete these points if you want to get the most accurate result of checking the speed of the Internet connection. If approximate measurements are enough for you, then you can proceed to the next section of the lesson.

1. Connect the network cable directly to the computer(V )
2. Close all programs, except for the browser (in which there should be one bookmark with this IT lesson)
3. Stop programs that are downloading in the background(torrent clients, download managers, etc.), except for those that you have chosen to test the Internet speed
4. Temporarily disable your antivirus (do not forget to enable it later), because. in some cases, it can affect the readings of online tests.
5. Launch the Task Manager (simultaneously hold down the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys) and go to the "Network" tab. Make sure the network is not busy ("Network Usage" should be less than 1%). If the network is being actively used, a program or Windows update may be in progress. In this case, wait for the downloads to finish or restart your computer.

Network Usage in Task Manager (Green line jump - Internet connection speed check process)

In addition, each measurements must be taken several times. to improve testing accuracy.

How to measure internet connection speed

There are several ways to measure the speed of an Internet connection. Consider them in order of increasing complexity of use.

1. Online services

Since we are now at the “Beginner” level, we will consider the first method in detail, and for experienced users I will briefly describe the remaining two.

Method 1. Measuring speed using online services

This is the one the easiest way to measure"Press one button and find out everything quickly." Accuracy is relative, but simplicity attracts. 🙂

note that online tests have different accuracy!

I will tell you only about the most popular services.

SPEEDTEST.NET

Let's start with the most popular and most accurate online internet speed test(plus it's free). I will dwell on it in more detail and advise all readers of the site to start using this particular method.

Here is a short guide:

2. Find the button " Start verification» and press it:

Click the "Start Check" button

3. At the end of testing, you see three results:

First number indicated by the word "Ping" (read "ping"), denotes network packet transmission time. The smaller this number, the better the quality of the connection (preferably less than 100 ms).

The second number is the data acquisition speed. It is this figure that providers advertise when connecting (it is for these megabits per second that you pay your honestly earned rubles / hryvnia / dollars / yuan 🙂).

The third number is the data rate. As you can see, it can be noticeably less than the download speed, and the provider is silent about this (but, in most cases, a high outgoing Internet speed is rarely required).

If you want to measure the speed of an Internet connection with a particular city, then select it on the map (all major cities on the planet are available) and click the "Start Test" button again.

Thus, you can check the examples I have given for yourself.

The creator of the “speedtest” has another interesting online service that checks internet connection qualityhttp://pingtest.net/.
On the company's main website there are many more interesting opportunities for testing network connections http://www.ookla.com/.

Other Online Internet Speed ​​Test Services

The principle of operation for all services is the same: they pressed a button, waited, got a number ... but the results are different.

2. Add multiple downloads from different fast file servers, like this one (test archive) and this one (Linux distribution)

3. We set in the settings maximum number of threads(sections to download)

4. Keeping track of top speed file uploads:

The maximum achieved speed is highlighted in the image with a red rectangle.

What speed is needed to download movies?

We learned how to measure the speed of data transfer over the Internet, now let's see where it can be applied.

Let's say we want to download average quality movie, which usually takes 1.4 GB. Let's calculate at different speeds:

• Speed 100 kbps- about 32 hours (we'd better not wait until the movie is downloaded using mobile Internet)
• Speed 1 Mbps- It will take 3 hours to download such a movie
• Speed 3 Mbps– 1 hour download
• Speed 15 Mbps- less than 15 minutes to download
• Speed 50 Mbps– about 4 minutes
• Speed 100 Mbps– about 2 minutes

Compare with time music downloads(for example, an mp3 file in good quality, about 10 MB in size):

• Speed 100 kbps– less than 15 minutes of loading
• Speed 1 Mbps- 1.5 minutes download
• Speed 3 Mbps– 0.5 minutes

At the same time, it is worth remembering that there is a guaranteed speed and a speed not guaranteed by the provider (we dealt with this in the IT lesson).

Outcome

So, today we learned how to check the speed of the Internet (Internet connection) in three ways. We learned that in addition to speed, you need to take into account the quality of the connection, which is indicated by “ping” (we will deal with it separately). And yet, we clearly estimated what speed would be sufficient to download the movie. Thus, we have completed the topic of information units and data transfer rates. What's next?

Already guessed? Of course, test! This time there will be few questions, but I advise you to re-read (including this one). If you're ready, then

Copying prohibited but you can share links.

Want to know how fast your Internet connection really is? Measure your internet connection speed and see how fast your download, upload, ping and jitter are.

Numbers that don't lie

You pay the provider for an Internet connection, which must comply with certain technical parameters within the selected tariff. Among them are not only the download speed, but also the transfer speed along with the delay or response (ping).

In practice, however, the measured values ​​may differ significantly from those indicated on paper. Sometimes for a long time, sometimes only for a short period of time due to a technical problem or aggregation - the shared potential of an Internet connection between multiple users. Speedtest will help you spot the differences and show you what your connection really is like. And all this within a few tens of seconds and without complicated settings.

How does internet speed measurement work?

From the user's point of view, everything is simple. Directly in the web browser, click on the measurement button and wait. Before running speedtest, it is important to disable all tasks, applications, and devices that might be using Internet connections. This would affect the results, and you would not learn anything, or the conclusions would not have the required accuracy.

The technical decisions and background of speedtest are complex in themselves, but in short and very simplistic, the test simulates the situation when you upload and download data. Based on how quickly these transfers occur, measured values ​​are calculated. You can test the speed of up to thirty test servers located in various geographic locations. What data will you find out?

Connection speed under magnifying glass

The test results will present a series of key values ​​against which you can evaluate your connection and immediately choose, for example, a different plan or a different provider. The main values ​​are:

Download

The download will show you in Mbps the data download speed on your device. The higher the value, the better, because the faster the download, the less time you will have to wait while you download a web page, or e.g. an email attachment. Internet connectivity at home tends to be asymmetrical. This means that the upload speed for the user is faster than the upload speed.

Upload

The specified upload speed is another main value that the test results will show. Upload again expresses in Mbit / s how fast you can upload Internet data with a given connection. The higher the number, as with download, the better. Fast loading is important, for example, for cloud backup or video streaming. The higher the value, the faster you can upload data from the device to the Internet.

ping

The three main parameters culminate in a response (ping) in milliseconds. On the contrary, the lower the better. Its value is especially important for online game players who need a fast server response when playing so that there is no delay in the game. Everything below 40ms can be considered relatively fast, and everything in the 0-10ms range is really good.

Jitter

Jitter is also part of the results. It expresses in milliseconds fluctuations in the value of ping, and hence the stability of the connection. The result should be as low as possible. The higher the jitter value in the test, the less stable the Internet connection.

Speedtest results will show in detail how many MB of data you can theoretically download and upload in a given period of time. You can easily find out whether the indicated amount of data, and thus the speed, is sufficient. It's useful, isn't it?. Blog and website owners have the option to embed a connection speed test for free directly on their website via the embed code.

Check your connection regularly

Connecting to the Internet is certainly not the case when what was yesterday is valid today. Don't forget to repeat the speedtest from time to time or use it any time you suspect connection speed problems.

He will answer you immediately, and you have the opportunity to decide what your next steps will be. In any case, wasting time with a slow Internet does not make sense nowadays.

Many who have already encountered Internet speed testing services have noticed that the result of these tests quite often diverges from the tariff plan (the speed provided by the provider). The majority, not delving into the details and subtleties of the services, prefer to believe the indicated results of the speed test, on, perhaps for the first time, an open site. And then calls to the technical support of the provider begin with complaints and claims. Often, long negotiations with technical support end in nothing - the recommendations of the technical staff are difficult to fulfill, or scary. And, as a result, the client is not satisfied.

We did a little testing of the most popular Internet connection speed testing services and decided to find out which service to give the most preference to, and also tried to find out why speed measurements show such different results. On each of the sites, we carried out from 3 to 5 measurements, citing here the best indicators.

For testing, we used a simple system unit with a dual-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, installed with the Windows 7 operating system. The computer is not installed, the firewall is disabled. All components and modules (including the flash player) have been updated. Used browsers: Opera, Chrome, Fire Fox, Safari, testing was carried out in each of them. The network card is the most inexpensive, with an interface speed of 100 Mbps (Full duplex). The computer was connected with a 3-meter twisted pair cable to a Cisco L2 switch with a 1 Gb / s port (auto) and an external interface (Internet channel) 2 Gb / s (LACP bonding mode 2).

In total, an analogue of broadband Internet access was obtained with a speed limited by the bandwidth of the computer's network card - 100 Mbps.

Speedtest.net by Ookla - Global Speed ​​Test

speedtest.net- probably one of the first and most popular services for checking the main network parameters. The test itself was created on the basis of flash technology, which, on the one hand, is beautiful, convenient and visual, on the other hand, it can fail - an incorrectly installed flash player on your computer, or a browser flash module is not able to fully implement speed testing, and , as a result - measurement errors.

The web interface of the page http://www.speedtest.net/ looks like a map with the ability to select a server with which to test.

When you open the www.speedtest.net page, the service determines your location. Very useful in this service is the choice of the server with which you want to test, because the fewer intermediate nodes between your computer and the server, the more accurate the measurement results will be.

Before testing begins, a ping test takes place - the server's response time to your request to it.

Immediately, after measuring the ping, the download speed is measured - Download.

After measuring your upload speed, the service will automatically start measuring upload speed - Upload, the speed at which you can upload and transfer files to the Internet.

Outgoing speed testing - Upload.

After performing all the tests - ping, incoming and outgoing speed, the results will appear on the screen with a suggestion to repeat the test ( TEST AGAIN), or select another server ( NEW SERVER) to check the Internet settings.

Test result.

Next, using the service Speedtes.Net, we have chosen another, the most remote server in Kyiv, the data to which will pass through several Data Centers, by this we will show the influence of intermediate nodes on the accuracy of testing measurement.

Selecting a remote server located in Kyiv.

Speed ​​testing with a server located in Kyiv.

Here it is worth paying attention to the increase in ping to 13 ms, which indicates data delays on intermediate servers and routers located between us and Kyiv.

Result for Speedtest.net by Ookla - 95/95 Mbps with our bandwidth of 100 Mbps, this is the most accurate result.

If you need to do testing with our server located in Torez, go here.

Bandwidthplace.com - speed test for all devices

bandwidthplace.com- just like Speedtest.Net uses flash technology to measure network speed. Everything is more modest here, the choice of servers (button Select Server) for testing is small, only about 15, the location of which says that the service is focused on America and Japan. The closest to us was Frankfurt (Germany).

The result of the check, to put it mildly - no. With our actual channel width of 100 Mbps, the Bandwidthplace.com service showed only 11 Mbps - 10 times lower than our real speed. Moreover, we did not manage to check our outgoing speed using this service.

Bandwidthplace.com speed test.

The remoteness of the server and a large number of intermediate nodes to it are to blame. We counted 8 pieces.

Route trace to the server - Bandwidthplace.com.

Result for Bandwidthplace.com - 11/-- Mbps with our bandwidth of 100 Mbps - this service is not suitable for our region.

2ip.Ru - Portal of network services

2ip.Ru- probably one of the first Russian-language services for the Internet. Among them is the speed check service.

Before checking, the service offers to enter your speed according to the tariff plan, for further evaluation - declared / actual.

The lack of choice of the nearest server affected the results.

The result of the Internet connection speed is 2ip.Ru.

Despite the fact that the 2ip.ru service is aimed at Russian-speaking network users, it is located in Germany, so the service is more suitable for the western regions of the CIS countries (Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg ...). In view of the fact that there are a large number of nodes between us and the 2ip.ru service, it is not suitable for accurate measurements.

Result for 2ip.Ru - 27/7 Mbps

Pr-Cy.Ru - Analysis and verification of network resources

Pr-Cy.Ru- another popular Russian-language service that specializes in website analysis, the speed check service on it is a nice addition to other services.

The speed test page has a map that allows you to select your preferred server with the fewest nodes on the way to it for the most accurate result.

Speed ​​test page - Pr-Cy.Ru.

After pressing the button "Start Internet Speed ​​Test", first the server response time (ping) is measured, after which the incoming and then outgoing Internet speed will be automatically checked.

Internet speed testing on Pr-Cy.Ru website.

Internet speed test result.

The test result was disappointing, the deviations were more than 20%. Most likely, the owners of the Pr-Cy.Ru resource do not prioritize the accuracy of measuring Internet speed and pay more attention to the accuracy of their other services.

Result for Pr-Cy.Ru - 80/20 Mbps, in our opinion, a dubious service for our region.

On this, we believe, enough comparative tests. Our goal was to show that speed check services are nothing more than entertainment, you should not take them more or less seriously. We did not specifically consider other services, such as.

Currently, free online services are very popular, capable of determining the speed of the Internet connection used in a few seconds, as well as finding out the IP address of the computer, determining the user's location, checking the site for viruses, and more. Among the most common programs of this type is Speedtest.

The free service is designed to quickly test the speed of transferring and downloading data to the user's computer.

You do not need to download or install any additional components to complete the test.

To start testing, a special button "Forward" (Start testing) is provided.

The final result is issued 30 seconds after the program is launched for execution.

Features of Speedtest Net

As a result of using SpeedTest, it becomes possible to determine the incoming and outgoing speed of the Internet connection.

In most cases, the declared value of this characteristic is deliberately overestimated by the supplier and does not correspond to reality. The provider indicates unreliable facts in order to attract the attention of users and increase its popularity.

A complete package of tools with all the features can be obtained only if you visit the website of the official developer of the service or its partner. This is very important, as an incredible amount of obscene resources have now been created, masquerading as the original.

Global Speed ​​Test SpeedTest

• The Speedtest.net service includes only one page - the main one.

He is:

• ping,

• the value of the incoming and outgoing speed Internet connections,

• user location, set to the IP address of the computer from which the site was logged in.

Internet speed results among website users

1. The total number of tests is 6867.
2. The average download speed is 30.13 Mb/s.
3. The average download speed on a PC is 28.31 Mb / s.
4. The average ping value is 29ms.

Particularly demanding users can take advantage of the option to determine the geographic location of the server that will perform the check. For this, a special map is provided, the scale of which can be changed using the slider located on its left side. In other cases, this operation is performed automatically.

Parameter testing is carried out in real time and looks really impressive. It provides a visual display of everything that happens - the transfer of data between the specified server and the user's computer, taking into account all the established indicators.

The data handler window presents a colorful animation of downloading or transferring data from the user's device to the selected city, a graph and an image of a speedometer with the Speed ​​mark. This approach is designed to brighten up the waiting time for the issuance of the result and save a person from unnecessary negative emotions about this.

The whole process of determining the real speed of the Internet connection through Speedtest is performed with one click of the mouse.

It is very convenient and does not take much time. Even a beginner can cope with such a task.

Ookla

Ookla is a world leader in broadband internet speed testing and network diagnostic software.

SpeedTest.net was designed to be the most accurate way to determine the fastest ISP and mobile network. Speed ​​tests are aggregated by averaging the test results of each device at a given user location, each day.

This improves data accuracy and reduces bias from retests or tests that try to skew results. There are also many other ways to prevent fraudulent or inaccurate results.

With over 5 million users daily using the Speedtest app, the company continues to be a leader in internet speed testing. This free service is available to anyone around the world who is interested in knowing the features and characteristics of their Internet connection.