Checking the speed of the Internet and decoding the received data. Checking the Internet speed and decoding the received data

Users rarely think about the quality of the Internet connection until they encounter problems. Only in those situations when they experience interruptions in their network connection and the loading time of sites increases dramatically, they think about how honestly the provider is doing their own work. To make sure that the quality of the connection corresponds to the one stated in the contract, it is worth conducting a free Internet speed test at Speedtest.net. The mentioned service noticeably surpasses the rest in popularity and fame and guarantees that the received numbers will correspond to reality as much as possible. And users will have to find out why the connection quality turned out to be lower than the declared level, and try to restore the connection.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Speedtest.net service

Among the main positive qualities of the site www.speedtest.net/ru stands out:

high accuracy of the obtained indicators and measurements;
the presence of a Russian-language version of the portal (not all sites support the Russian language);
a simple interface that allows you to quickly understand the features of using the service;
the ability to fix the result;
availability of information about the provider and automatic detection of IP;
availability of desktop and mobile applications;
confidence in the test results from providers.

Of the shortcomings, one can single out only the location of the servers. Most of them are located in the USA and Europe. In addition, visitors to the portal will not be pleased with pop-up advertising blocks. But the latter is easily solved by using the appropriate browser extensions.

What does the service show?

The global speed test on Speedtest.net allows you to find out 3 main parameters:

quality of outgoing traffic (Mbps);
incoming connection level (Mbps);
ping.

The speed of incoming traffic - downloads, demonstrates how quickly a user can download something. It also affects the loading time of pages on the Internet.

The outgoing connection layer is responsible for sending files. In addition, the quality of video calls depends on it.

Ping - the response time - is most relevant for gamers, since it is important for them how quickly the game will respond to their actions. The lower this indicator, the better. The rest of the parameters should be as high as possible.

Instructions for using the Speedtest.net service

To measure the speed of the Internet on Speedtest.net, you will need:

go to the official page of the service;
find a large button offering to start a network test;
wait while the program performs the calculation;
see the result;
record indicators if necessary.

For the convenience of visitors, the service offers to independently select the desired testing server.

Using the mobile application does not differ from the procedure described above. The only difference is that the user will have to install the program in advance. It can be downloaded from the official Speedtest website or from official app stores.

Speedtest alternatives

If the user wants to verify the results, he should re-measure on another site. Finding the right portal in 2020 will not cause difficulties, since there are many independent services offering to test and find out the quality of data transfer:

website;
Yandex.Internetometer;
2IP.ru.

Special mention deserves the fact that many providers have their own verification system. Don't stop using it.

Computer programs

The main advantage of the Ookla desktop application for speed testing is the absence of extraneous functions. The user does not have to understand the interface and look for the right button to check the quality of the cable connection. Most alternative programs have a large number of additional features, which is not always convenient.

These computer programs include:

Networkx;
BWMeter;
JDast
LAN Speed Test.

Smartphone applications

Mobile device owners should take a closer look at the following programs:

Network Master;
wTest;
meteor.

There are other programs that allow you to find out how the quality of traffic corresponds to the level declared by the operator. They are extremely easy to use and allow you to get the right results. But before installing them, it is recommended to read the reviews and make sure that the selected services will not cause harm.

A standard Internet connection speed test takes about 1 minute and is carried out in the following order:

Server selection

The service automatically determines the server closest to you, with which it will interact in order to test the Internet speed. If you wish, in most services you can choose the appropriate server yourself. The closer it is to you, the more accurate the measurement of the quality of network access will be.

Ping

The service determines the network response time from the moment a request is sent from your computer or smartphone to the server until the download starts. This delay is measured in milliseconds (ms). The lower this number, the better. A good ping is considered to be up to 120 ms, excellent - up to 45 ms. This parameter is especially important for online games like CS, World of Tanks or Heroes of the storm, where extra milliseconds of delay can deprive you of victory.

Incoming speed (download speed)

In the background, empty data packets with a total volume of 10 to 100 MB are downloaded from the server closest to you. Based on their download time, a conclusion is made about the reception speed. Speed is measured in megabits per second, or Mbps (mbps). Do not confuse with megabytes, this unit is 8 times larger: 1 megabit = 0.125 megabytes. The higher the speed, the better: browser pages, videos, music, pictures will load faster.

Upload speed

The final stage of checking the speed of the Internet connection, during which empty data packets are transmitted in the opposite direction: now the traffic goes from you to the server. The units of measurement for the outgoing speed are the same as for the incoming speed: megabits per second (mbps). The higher the actual upload speed, the faster you can upload information and upload files to the Internet.

Attention!
To obtain an accurate test result, close or disable all data transfer programs (for example, downloading music, listening to online radio or watching a movie, download programs such as emule, reget, flashget, bittorrent, etc.), only if there is no data transmission, the result will be reliable.

Wait for test results.

What determines the "speed of the Internet"

The Internet is a huge network of computers and servers that are connected by communication channels. They have different bandwidth, but they are united by common rules for receiving and transmitting information, the so-called Internet protocols. The way data travels on the Web is also constantly changing. This introduces instability into the Internet, so subscribers can often be sure of only one thing: if the server with the desired site is working, then you can get to it, but how fast is the question.

If some sites open quickly and some slowly, then the problem is on the site you are opening - it means it is heavily loaded or it has speed limits.

Check the speed of opening pages on sites byfly.by mail.ru yandex.ru google.by If these sites open quickly, but yours does not, then the problem is in your site, and not in the speed of connection to the network.

The Internet provider controls only the last section of the network from the subscriber's equipment to its equipment, it cannot control the channels and routes of traffic outside its network. The provider can guarantee high speed only when downloading information from its server, content portals and internal trackers. However, even here the speed may decrease. For example, in cases where several users want to download a popular movie at the same time. Then the load on the sending server will increase, and the speed will decrease.

It often happens that the problem that affects the speed is not in the operator itself, but in the subscriber's computer. One of these problems, imperceptible to an inexperienced user, are computer viruses. Many of them are set up to establish shady connections with so-called botnets. They are a collection of personal computers connected by a virus into a single network. As a rule, it is controlled by the hackers who wrote the malicious program. Such networks can be used in different ways, from making money to massive information attacks, regarded as network terrorism. All these actions somehow consume a part of the user's Internet traffic, taking away the speed from useful processes. Less dangerous viruses may simply be in the business of sending spam to various addresses via mail or social networks. The external effect is the same decrease in the apparent connection speed.

However, this problem has a solution and, moreover, a very simple one. Firewalls perform the functions of controlling the connections of a personal computer to the World Wide Web. With their help, you can at any time get acquainted with all Internet processes in which the PC takes part. There is also the other side of the coin. Incorrect firewall settings can by themselves take a significant portion of the machine's power, reducing traffic speed. The use of these programs requires a preliminary acquaintance with them and some work skills. No software can protect a computer if the user does not learn how to use it correctly. After all, the determining link in the chain of any processes is the owner of the computer.

It is also not uncommon to encounter incorrect operating system settings. Often the problem can be solved simply by installing new drivers for the network card. Sometimes it's a matter of inept handling of the programs for setting hidden system parameters. In the end, the speed may be limited by the program or site used.

Thus, problems with connection speed are not always purely technical in nature. To adequately assess the situation and eliminate possible problems on their own, the user must simply raise the general level of literacy in handling a personal computer.

When buying the services of a provider, we hope that the speed of the Internet connection will be exactly the same as specified in the contract. Well, or almost like that. However, in practice, it extremely rarely corresponds to numbers on paper, because it is influenced by a lot of factors - from network congestion to the state of the client device - a computer, smartphone, tablet or Smart TV. In addition, in the contract, the provider indicates the maximum, and not the actual connection speed. However, if the latter is constantly and much lower than the former, the quality of the service can be called into question.

To control the work of the provider and just be aware of the real speed of the Internet, you need to know how to determine it. Fortunately, there are a large number of special software and free web services for this, which we will get acquainted with today. But let's start with what opportunities the Windows operating system has in this regard. And also find out how to get the most reliable result.

Built-in Windows features

The easiest and fastest way to see the current Internet connection speed is in the task manager on the "Performance" tab. If the network is weakly loaded, the graph in the "Bandwidth" window will be low; if it is strong, the window will be almost completely filled with it, and the speed shown in the upper right corner will approach what is indicated in the contract with the provider. That should be the norm. If, with a heavy network load, the speed remains low, it means that an obstacle has arisen somewhere. But where is it - with you or with him?

To find out the maximum achievable (in theory) Internet speed within a particular type of connection, open the "Network Connections" folder and select the "Status" section in the context menu of your network.

The information you need is on the General tab.

The actual speed is usually 2-3 times lower than the maximum. By the way, when transferring data via Wi-Fi and via cable, it can differ significantly.

Let's say you have determined that the Internet on your computer should be faster. The next task is to find out who is to blame for the slowdown - your devices or the provider.

How to manually test your Internet connection speed

To get the most reliable result, you need to check the Internet speed on the computer to which the provider's network cable is connected. If it is not possible to insert the cable directly into the computer, for example, if it only supports wireless connections or if the connection is tied to the MAC address of the router, disconnect all other devices from the Internet during the test.

Prepare a 1 GB file and select any cloud web service to which you will upload it, for example, Yandex Disk or Google Drive. It is important that the service does not limit the speed of uploading and downloading content.
Close all programs that use the network and the Internet to unload the channel as much as possible.
Disable VPN and proxy clients unless they are required to establish access to the WAN.
Record the time and start uploading the file to the cloud server. Mark the end time of the download.
Under time control, download the file back to the PC.

Knowing the file size in megabytes and the number of seconds it took to transfer it, you can easily calculate the Internet speed in Mbps. If it is close to that specified in the contract, then the provider will fulfill its obligations to you, and the reason for the slowdown is in your devices. If not, then vice versa.

For those of you who don't want to do the math, you can test your Internet speeds using the methods below. For reliability, we advise you to check several times within an hour.

Web services

Checking the speed of the Internet using the 2ip service is as easy as shelling pears: press the "Test" button and wait 1-2 minutes.

In addition to ping indicators, as well as incoming and outgoing speeds, 2ip allows you to find out:

Average internet speed in your city.
Average speed indicators among subscribers of your provider.
The best tests for all providers for the current day.
The total number of measurements across all providers.

Such a kind of benchmark. Below on the page is a table of the last ten measurements.

By the way, as of the date of the audit, none of the largest leaders in the provider services market in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan - Rostelecom, ByFly, Ukrtelecom, Kazakhtelecom, MTS, Beeline, Akado, Iota, Dom.ru, Citylink and TTK, did not record holder. The first places were taken by small and not too well-known companies.

And further. If you have something to tell about the services of your Internet provider to other users, you can leave a review about it on the site.

- Another simple free service of a similar purpose. To start the test, just click the "Start" button. The result will be displayed on the screen in a couple of minutes.

By the way, if you register for the Speedtest (it's also free), you can save the test results in your account and share links to them with other users.

In addition to being a web service accessible online through a browser from any device, SpeedTest exists as an application for stationary (Windows, Mac OS X) and mobile (iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Amazon) platforms.

Yandex.Internetometer

The Yandex.Internetometer service determines the speed of incoming and outgoing connections without ping. However, in addition to that, it shows detailed information about your internet connection, operating system, and the browser in which you ran the check. The only pity is that benchmarks and the ability to save test results are not provided here.

To start the test, click the "Measure" button. The result, like that of competitors, appears on the screen in 1-2 minutes.

It is very reminiscent of the set of functions of the service of the same name in the “ru” domain and differs from it only in the design style. In addition to the Internet speed test button, this resource contains a rating of Ukrainian providers and indicators of the last 20 checks.

For users with Russian IPs, the 2ip.ua site opens in Russian, for residents of Ukraine - in Ukrainian.

To start testing, click the "Test" button. The result will be displayed after the same time as the others.

Banki.ru

Banki.ru uses 2 tests provided by the telecommunications company Wellink. One of them is the traditional check of the response time (ping), incoming and outgoing Internet speeds, the second is checking the quality of online video viewing. Based on the test results, the service displays a brief description of your connection: how quickly a new movie series will open, how long it will take to download an album and upload a photo to a social network, what video quality is optimal for your connection, whether the picture will freeze when watching videos through a browser.

Using the service on Banki.ru is no different from the rest.

Free programs to test the speed of the Internet on PC and mobile devices

If you use the above services several times in a row, you will notice that the Internet bandwidth indicators will always be different. This is normal, but not entirely informative, especially when the connection is intermittent. Applications, unlike web services, allow you to monitor network traffic continuously. And this is their main advantage.

NetTraffic for Windows

The utility, available in installation and portable versions, is a small window that constantly hangs in the corner of the screen, where the connection speed is displayed in real time.

In addition to current data, it collects traffic statistics for user-specified time intervals. Can monitor multiple network interfaces at the same time.

TMeter for Windows

- a more advanced Internet traffic control tool than the previous utility, but also very simple to understand and use. In addition to speed parameters, it collects statistics about the IP addresses of visited resources, ports, protocols, etc.

Tmeter has a built-in firewall and traffic distributor (traffic shaper) between LAN devices. These functions become available if the program is running on a computer that is used as a gateway for other devices to connect to the Internet.

The utility is designed to monitor the entire flow of information passing through the network adapter, including the data transfer rate. Initially, it is in English, but a crack has been released for it (available on the download page), which is enough to copy to the folder with the executable file or program archive.

NetworkTrafficView works without installation and does not require special settings. Connection data is displayed as a table in the main and only window of the utility.

Internet Speed Test for Android

The mobile application "Internet Speed Test" is not only stylishly designed, but also very functional. In addition to collecting the main speed characteristics of Wi-Fi and 2 / 3G networks, it displays the delay time for sending packets, allows you to select a test server (its availability and remoteness affect performance), accumulates statistics and publishes the results of checks on social networks.

The application is also convenient because it supports even very old versions of Android.

Meteor - speed test for Android

Meteor - speed test - one of the few mobile applications that has received the highest user rating - 4.8 points. It not only shows the real speed of the Internet connection, but also determines how fast popular network programs will work with the current connection quality. Among such programs are social network clients, browsers, Gmail, YouTube, Skype, WhatsApp, Wase navigator, Google Maps, Uber taxi service, etc. There are 16 different applications in total.

Other advantages of Meteor are that it supports all types of network connections, including 4G, and does not contain ads.

The speed test is the best way to check the speed and quality of your internet connection. Have you noticed that your files are loading at a slower speed? Do you feel that the sites you visit are loading too slowly? Check your Internet connection settings. With our tester you can now measure:

latency testing (ping, latency) – the average time of sending data packets to different servers at the same time is checked. Most testers only measure the time to send small data packets (less than 500 bytes), but in fact, browsers and web applications usually transfer and download large data packets, so our tester also checks the time to send large data packets (about 2-5 kilobytes). Result: the lower the ping, the better, i.e. makes it easier to use the Internet. This parameter is especially important in online games.
download testing - testing the download speed, which is measured as the total amount of downloaded data for a certain period of time (about 10 seconds) and expressed in units of Mbps Testing is carried out for different places at the same time, since using only one server is not reflects the actual throughput of the connection. the site tries to show measurements that are speed measurements outside of border routers. Download speed is an important parameter that determines the quality when watching movies on the Internet and the speed of downloading files.
Upload testing - the speed of sending data is checked, just like in the case of upload testing, the parameter is important, for example, when sending data to the server and mail messages with especially large attachments, such as photos.

Latest Speed Test News

Currently, fierce discussions about the security of the 5G network are underway around the world. The Huawei corporation is also suspected of transmitting sensitive data to the Chinese Intelligence Agency. Germany does not want t...

Unlocking the smartphone by recognizing the user\"s face has recently become quite a popular convenience. However, most of the mechanisms available on Android are not secure enough. That\"s why Google started working on its own F...

It might seem that the scandal related to Huawei\"s suspicions of spying for the Chinese intelligence agency is on hand with the Chinese company\"s competitors. However, Ericsson\"s CEO sees this as a problem that may delay the i...

Everyone laughed at Apple for the "budget" iPhone XR. After all, who would like to buy so expensive "budget" smartphone? It turns out that the iPhone XR is currently the most-bought smartphone with the logo of a bitten apple. ...

Huawei has further problems in the United States. The Chinese have long ago become used to the fact that they can not count on signing a contract with any American mobile network operator. However, this time the US authorities ha...

The G2A website has several controversies. This time, the players did not like the controversial provision in the regulations, which concerns payment for… not using the account. G2A tempts players to acquire a digital version...