How to get reliable information about the speed of the Internet

Due to the complexity of the WAN infrastructure, there are many reasons why the Internet does not work well. Problems can be caused by many factors, the most popular of which we will consider in this article. In addition, we will give various ways to check the speed of Internet access.

HERE ARE THE MAIN FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE OPERATION OF THE INTERNET:

• the quality of home network equipment owned by the subscriber (router, network adapters in devices);
• the quality of communications conducted by the subscriber during the repair of the apartment (cable, Internet sockets, cable connections);
• parameters of the computer (laptop, tablet, smartphone) of the subscriber – for example, support for the Wi-Fi laptop adapter of the Wi-Fi 802.11n standard;
• the presence of software that actively affects the speed of the Internet and restricts access to network resources – for example, an antivirus with an incorrectly configured firewall (firewall) or a working torrent client;
• the presence on the computer of hidden malicious programs (viruses, trojans);
• the power and workload of servers on the Internet – the quality of communication lines outside the provider's network (for example, an intercontinental cable at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean);
• in the case of Wi-Fi – interference from other Wi-Fi networks and household appliances, walls, doors, the power of the router transmitters and receivers on the client's device, the router’s location in the room and its remoteness from the area where the Wi-Fi network is used.

To determine the network speed of an Internet connection from an ISP, you need to measure the speed of a direct wired connection. The speed of a Wi-Fi connection is affected by external factors that do not depend on the provider, and such a test will not provide reliable information.

The most reliable way to check the speed of a wired connection is to connect an Internet cable to your computer or laptop (without using a router). If the results correspond to the tariff rate, then if there is a problem, it is not related to the quality of the provider's services, but to the operation of the Wi-Fi network.

Let's do a speed test using a torrent client. First you need to find a torrent that has a lot of seeds (2000+) and, on the other hand, few liches (downloaders). Put this torrent on download, after stopping all other downloads and distributions. After one or two minutes, the download speed will rise to the maximum possible, given the capabilities of the Internet distributors.

Important! In torrent clients, the speed is indicated in megabytes per second, not in megabits. Their ratio is 1:8, that is, if your client shows a speed of 1 MB/s, then the speed in megabits will be 8 Mbps. Looking at our example (image above), the file was downloading at 12.9 megabytes per second, which means about 103 Mbps.

Perhaps one of the most popular ways to check the connection speed is the speedtest.net service. When you enter this site on the page you will see a simple window with a button «Start test». After clicking this button, you will be able to observe the process of analyzing the speed of sending and downloading data.

In addition, before proceeding directly to the speed test on speedtest.net, you can select the server that will be used on the map. As a rule, if you choose a server that is closer to you or is served by the same provider as you, then the result will be faster and closer to the advertised speed.

It is worth noting that if during the test you are connected to the network via Wi-Fi using a router, then most likely the speed will be lower than that which would be obtained with a direct connection (the cable is connected directly to the computer's network card).

We also recommend that you check out our video on this topic: