How to Easily Check Your Internet Speed at Home to get what you’re paying for
We tend to rely on the internet for getting most of our day-to-day work done. While doing that, we need to make sure that we have access to high speed internet. Otherwise, we will not just have to experience frustration, but we will also have to face numerous struggles while trying to get the work done according to the preferences that we have.
You are spending a considerable amount of money to get an internet connection. At the time of getting the internet connection, your service provider will tell that you are getting a specific internet speed. You need to make sure that you are receiving that speed from the service provider at all times. Otherwise, you will not be able to receive what you are looking forward to getting. In other words, you will just be spending your money in vain. This is why it is essential for you to do a check on your internet connection and make sure whether you really get what you are paying for or not. If not, you can make the decision to switch to a different internet service provider.
Checking the internet speed with Speedtest.net
You can discover numerous websites out there on the internet, which can provide support that you need with checking the internet speed. Out of those tools, speedtest.net has received lots of attention. It is a simple tool, which can deliver outstanding returns to you with detecting the internet connection speed.
You can visit speedtest.net website from an internet browser to check your connection and get a better understanding about the internet speed. However, you need to make sure that you are accessing the website with an internet browser, where JavaScript is turned on. In addition to that, you need to make sure that you are having Adobe Flash installed. In case if you don’t have Adobe Flash, you have some alternative options available to consider. For example, you can navigate to the HTML5 version of Speed Test website.
On the Speed Test website, you will be able to discover a widget, which you can use to check the internet speed. You can press on the Test button and then it will test the download speed as well as the upload speed. A sample file will be downloaded to check the download speed. Likewise, a sample file will be uploaded in order to check the upload speed as well. You will not be able to see this file.
Apart from download and upload speeds, you will be able to get a better understanding about the latency using Speed Test internet connection speed check tool as well. However, it is also important to keep in mind that the results that you can see would be slightly impacted by the server that you select.
Understanding the internet speed
If you are completely new to measuring internet speed, there are certain things that you are not fully aware of. It is important to be aware of those things before you proceed. Then you can get a clear picture about the results that you are seeing on your screen as well.
- What is meant by Mbps
Mbps defines Mega bite per second. Your internet speed will be measured in the form of bits. A bit can be either 0 or 1. The number of bits that are transferred within a second will be used as the measure to locate the internet speed.
Your internet connection is capable of handling lots of data bits. Therefore, the standard used to measure the internet speed in today’s world is megabits per second. One 1Mbps refers to the transfer of one million bits per second.
If you have a higher megabit per second internet speed, you don’t need to worry too much about anything. In the ideal scenario, it should match with the internet speed that is recommended by your internet service provider. However, you should understand that this would not happen at all times and there are situations where it can slightly vary.
- What is latency
Another important term that you will come across while you are measuring the internet speed is latency. This is also called as the lag of internet. Latency refers to the time that will be taken for the signal to be sent out from the computer to your internet service provider. Along with that, the time taken for the signal to come back will be considered as well. If there is a high latency, you will have to end up with slow internet. For example, you will have to experience buffering when you are streaming a video. It can deliver the worst experience when you are playing an online multiplayer game or you are proceeding with a video chat tool.
How to get the most accurate speed?
There are certain factors, which can keep you away from getting an accurate internet speed check. For example, you need to check and see whether there are automatic downloads taking place. If there is a large file downloading in the background, bandwidth will be allocated to it as well. You can get a quick picture of this through the Task Manager. If there is a download, you should stop it. Likewise, you should also make sure that there is no media content streamed on your device.
The next thing you need to be mindful about is the number of devices that are connected to the router. At the time of measuring your internet speed, you need to make sure that no other devices are connected to the router. Otherwise, bandwidth will be allocated to those devices as well and you will not be able to end up with getting the best internet speed check results.
Final words
Keep these things in your mind and proceed to check the speed of your internet connection. Then you can determine whether you have a good internet connection nor not.
