Are You Getting the Internet Speed You’re Paying For? Here are Some Fast Ways to Find Out!
There are many reliable or fairly reliable ways to check your Internet connection speed. There are dozens of them. And you should check your Internet speed occasionally to make sure that you’re getting the speed that you’re paying good money for. And if you’re not, you should find out from your ISP (Internet Service Provider), why not.
So let’s get started with some ways you can find out what your Internet download speeds are (as this is what you’ll want to know, not so much your upload speed.
You can check your Internet download speed in many different ways.
If you use Google Chrome or Firefox with Google as your default search engine, just type SPEEDTEST in the address bar and press Enter. You’ll see some information and a “Run Speed Test” button.
Now, my ISP once told me that this particular test is not very accurate, but I think that’s because it didn’t say what my ISP wanted it to say at the time. They recommended Ookla Speed Test at https://speedtest.net/.
And then we discovered another test that quick … FAST! It’s owned by Netflix. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? We don’t know, but one thing is for sure, it’s a quick way to find your Internet download speed.
If you want to check your Internet speed quickly and without any webpage clutter, you won’t find any cleaner, quicker way than by visiting Fast.com.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Anyway, we’ll show you:
What can I say? I can certainly read that. While we are only showing my download speed, it’s what most of us want to see when we want to know how fast our connection is. But, if you want to see more details like your upload speed, no problem. Just click “Show more info”.
You’ll see my download speed is 590 Mbps according to FAST.com.
MBPS vs. Mbps
And just for the record, Mbps is not the same as MBps. Mbps is “Megabits per second” not “Megabytes per second”. So, what’s the difference? We are thrilled you asked:
A Megabit is 1/8 as big as a Megabyte. This means that to download a 1 MB file in 1 second you would need a download speed of 8 Mbps. Mbps means megabits per second – not megabytes per second.
As you can see from the screenshots we’ve shown that you can use different speed testing sites and get vastly different results.
Having fun? Then wait… there’s more!
If you are having fun testing your internet speed (bless your heart) here are some other sites you can visit to check your speed or lack thereof…
Xfinitity
https://speedtest.xfinity.com/
Spectrum (looks suspiciously like Ookla’s Speedtest.net)
https://www.spectrum.com/internet/speed-test
Speakeasy (love the name!)
https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Google Fiber
https://fiber.google.com/speedtest/
And there are dozens more – if you’re really having fun with this, do a search for “SPEEDTEST SITES”.
Wait, What is jitter?
OK, now you’re wondering what the heck is jitter. You’d think, especially in Speakeasy it would be a dance like the Jitterbug, but you’d be wrong. According to Speedtest…”Jitter: Also called Packet Delay Variation (PDV), jitter frequency is a measure of the variability in ping over time. Jitter is not usually noticeable when reading text, but when streaming and gaming a high jitter can result in buffering and other interruptions…”
So what is considered a high jitter? Well, we are so glad you asked because, not being gamers, we didn’t know but Dialpad does. “Jitter is measured in milliseconds (ms), and ideally, an acceptable jitter level should stay below 30 ms. Anything higher than 30, and you may start to see issues with audio or video quality.”
Why it’s important you have an idea of what your download speed is.
You can see, in all the screenshots we’ve shown you in this article, that my internet speed (generally my download speed), based on several different testing sites is somewhere between 421 Mbps and 590 Mbps. So I know that I am averaging close to the 500 Mbps internet speed that I’m paying for.
Are you getting the internet download speed you’re paying for?
If you’re not sure what speed you’re paying for, check with your Internet Service Provider to find out.
In this article, we showed you several FAST ways you can make sure that you’re getting the speed you’re paying for.
I have been fighting with my provider for a month because since this new service provider bought out our other net work provider, I am paying more and getting less speed. I am in the process of changing nstwork providers.
this is my speed results
DOWNLOAD Mbps
5.18
UPLOAD Mbps
0.69
I am paying 80.00 plus taxes I have inquired about other providers in my are and can get a better deal with any of them . Uploading a video is almost impossible and before the buyout, it didn’t take very long
There are, indeed, lots of them. I like this one that I just discovered, because it seems to be the most complete, and gives you many kinds of details, such as latency, jitter, upload, download, and more:
https://speed.cloudflare.com/
I use and like Fast.com, because it’s fast! I also use “analiti”- it gives useful information about your wifi…
Funny thing, my speed is consistently around 400Mbps as read on my PC and TVs, but I still experience buffering when more than two devices are in use (two TVs, and a PC)- I don’t get it!
Thanks for your tips! Always enjoy reading your “stuff”
Tim (Pgh)
Your Internet speed refers to the maximum rate at which you can download data. This rate is measured as megabits per second (Mbps). Bandwidth refers to the maximum amount of data your connection can handle at any one time. It can be confusing because bandwidth is also measured as megabits per second (Mbps).
Imagine a garden hose vs. a fire hose. Water flows fast through both, but the firehose has much more capacity. You couldn’t easily put out a house fire with a garden hose, you need a firehose. A fire hose has much more bandwidth than a garden hose.
You may have excellent speed on one or two devices, but the more devices you are using, and the type of data your downloading (streaming takes huge amounts of bandwidth, whereas downloading a 10 MB or browsing the web does not.
Apparently, you don’t have enough bandwidth available to do the multitasking you want to do. Streaming shows and movies take up a whole lot more bandwidth than a PC that is used primarily for surfing the web and reading emails. running apps & programs and occasionally downloading files.
It could be your modem or router; it could be your ISP. But if you’re at 400 Mbps you have plenty of speed. Your TVs should not be buffering if your speed is 400 Mbps, the only thing it could be is your bandwidth. You should check with your ISP.
Hi Guys,
I was looking at your interned speed tests.
I was wondering, if you are using WiFi, doesn’t the maximum speed you see be dependent on the WiFi connection speed and not necessarily the HUB Speed?
Most people don’t use “hubs”, I’ve never seen one or used one. Do you mean routers? Most routers and modems these days support I just looked briefly at routers on Best Buy and Amazon and even the cheapest ones support gigabit speeds (1000 Mbps +). Here’s the cheapest Wi-Fi router at Amazon ($30) -supports up to 867 Mbps which is faster than most ISPs provide. Your internet connection can’t be higher than what your ISP provides, but Wi-Fi speeds are also dependent on the limitations of the equipment you’re using (your router, your PC’s wireless card, etc.), the distance between the router and your PC, the number of connected devices (Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, streaming devices, computers, etc.) that are using Wi-Fi, and others. But generally speaking, your ISP charges you a monthly fee for your internet service… mine offers 200 Mbps, 500 Mbps, and 1 Gbps. I am paying for 500 Mbps service and that’s what I’m getting.
I am using an older laptop with Windows 10. I just switched to a new internet provider that supplied a modem with WiFi in it. I am paying for 100 megabytes. If I use an ethernet cable the speed is nearly 100. But if I use WiFi the speed is less that 60 megabytes. I am told that I need G5 in my laptop. Also, I am told that the WiFi capacity in the modem is only up to 65 megabytes. I am lost at what this all means and am wondering if I am getting what I am paying for. This is all Greek to me, so I hope I explained myself clearly so you understand what I am asking. I would appreciate your explanation so I an understand this better. Thank you for all you do for us, especially for us ‘oldsters’.
An Ethernet connection will always be faster than a Wireless connection even if your computer is close to your router. If your router or modem only supports speeds up to 65 Mbps that’s as fast as your connection will ever be using wireless. I am not sure if you meant to say modem or router or if you’re using a combo modem/router. But your wireless speed is limited by:
1. The speed of your connection.
2. The proximity of your PC to your router.
3. The limits of your modem or router.
Most routers sold currently support at least 300 Mbps connections – even the cheapest ones. Most support 1200 (gigabit) connections.