Trouble is the more sites you try the more confused one gets... I have had many variations and not one giving the same result.
A better bet would be to download test files of known sizes from 'Think broadband' (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html).... the only caveat is you'll need a stop watch or be able count the minutes and seconds.
Start the timing from when you see 'Start download' page... not on the file selection page, these are test files only.
On Nov 8, 5:02 am, davy <davy.41c...@no.email.invalid> wrote:
> Trouble is the more sites you try the more confused one gets... I have > had many variations and not one giving the same result.
> A better bet would be to download test files of known sizes from 'Think > broadband' (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html).... the only > caveat is you'll need a stop watch or be able count the minutes and > seconds.
> Start the timing from when you see 'Start download' page... not on the > file selection page, these are test files only.
> davy
Like the old saying...A man who has one watch knows the time, a man who has two watches is never sure. Larry
davy wrote: > Trouble is the more sites you try the more confused one gets... I have > had many variations and not one giving the same result.
> A better bet would be to download test files of known sizes from 'Think > broadband' (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html).... the only > caveat is you'll need a stop watch or be able count the minutes and > seconds.
> Start the timing from when you see 'Start download' page... not on the > file selection page, these are test files only.
> davy
Actually, you don't necessarily need the stopwatch. All you need to do is open Task Manager (this is for Windows XP; I assume that Vista/Win 7 have the same capability) and select the Networking tab. This will show you graphically the download speed as a percentage of the computer's network interface. If your modem is connected via 100 Mbps Ethernet, then a 10% Network Utilization represents 10 Mbps. If you download a large file from a site that can keep up with your max rate you should see the graph flatten out out at the maximum rate. If the graph is not flat on top, then you need to find a download site with greater capacity. One advantage of this method is that as long as the graph is generally flat on top you can ignore occasional dips--the flat part is your max rate and the dips are just network congestion.
I see that everyone else who responded assumed you meant to ask for network speed test, and you may indeed be interested in that. On the other hand, as this is a Dell group as opposed to any of the several networking groups, you may want to test/evaluate the speed of your system and components such as processor, memory, hard-drives, ... in which case you could try SiSoftware Sandra with trial and Lite versions at: http://www.sisoftware.net/
> davy wrote: >> Trouble is the more sites you try the more confused one gets... I have >> had many variations and not one giving the same result.
>> A better bet would be to download test files of known sizes from 'Think >> broadband' (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html).... the only >> caveat is you'll need a stop watch or be able count the minutes and >> seconds.
>> Start the timing from when you see 'Start download' page... not on the >> file selection page, these are test files only.
>> davy
> Actually, you don't necessarily need the stopwatch. All you need to do > is open Task Manager (this is for Windows XP; I assume that Vista/Win 7 > have the same capability) and select the Networking tab. This will show > you graphically the download speed as a percentage of the computer's > network interface. If your modem is connected via 100 Mbps Ethernet, > then a 10% Network Utilization represents 10 Mbps. If you download a > large file from a site that can keep up with your max rate you should > see the graph flatten out out at the maximum rate. If the graph is not > flat on top, then you need to find a download site with greater > capacity. One advantage of this method is that as long as the graph is > generally flat on top you can ignore occasional dips--the flat part is > your max rate and the dips are just network congestion.
Being a US Robotics fan for decades, I use their iBand bandwidth monitor. It works in the Taskbar or can be dragged off and auto hide and all. Although for a number of years now, it has been made free to all. It sure works better than the Task Manager. Those that finds this interesting, just might want to check it out.
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