Speedtest.net More Than Just a Bandwidth Test

March 21, 2007

I am a bandwidth whore. It’s true, I pay good money for my bandwidth and I am not a happy camper when I am crawling along. Where I live, I pay extra-extra money for the “Broadband Plus” package from my ISP. This will give me speeds up to 15mbps, with ideal conditions. There are many broadband tests out there, but Speedtest.net has been my favorite for since it arrived on the scene a while ago.

A little background, Speedtest.net makes great use of Flash giving you that sexy eye candy while testing your bandwidth speed. That’s just the beginning of the goodness, as Speedtest.net is loaded with features and functionality. They have servers to test all over the world, and have been continuing to improve the service. Speedtest.net will also keep your test history, a feature I personally love.

One thing I recently noticed was the amount of data that they make available for you to view. You can compare your test results with people in your area, but even better yet you can see the break down of ISP’s for anywhere in the world.

This information is incredible useful. There are a ton of websites and services out there that will give you information about ISP’s in your area, but this data is from people taking the bandwidth test on those ISP’s pipes. The data will give you a really good picture of what an ISP can offer you. ISP’s will use tricky language and marketing by saying you can get “up to” a certain speed, when in reality you will probably never see those speeds as they are best case scenario.

I have been sorting through some of the data here, and the difference between what DSL and cable can offer is great. I have always been a fan of cable internet over DSL, even though it’s shared bandwidth it’s just always been faster. A coworker has FIOS, addition he has a redundant connection with a Cable internet connection (drool); not sure when FIOS is going to be available in my area, I have been told not for a long time.

Anyway take a trip over to Speedtest.net and run a test, see how you measure up to others in your area. Post your results here in the comments of your speeds, I would be interested in where everyone stands. I am going to go back and sort through some more data.