There are two measured elements that determine the speed of your Internet connection. They are: The download rate and the data upload rate measured in bits per second. It is usually expressed in Kilobits per second.
A bit is the smallest piece of data that can be stored on a computer. The bit can be “0” or “1”. The byte is eight bits. Example of a byte and bits are as follows:
bit= 0 or 1
byte = 8 bits
1 byte = 10011101 (eight bits)
A single character takes one byte or eight bits to store in a computer. So when the data rate is 1 byte/sec, that means one character per second is the rate at which data is transferred over your connection.
This is very slow, and is only meant to be an example. To browse the Internet, you must have at least a dial-up connection with a 56 kb/s modem, to obtain a meaningful and practical result.
There are different types of Internet connection. First they introduced dial-up connection using your phone line, then broadband was introduced.
Broadband Internet connections are DSL, cable, or satellite Internet services. They are widely used and expanding due to high bandwidth.
When you get internet service, your provider sets your speed to be certain numbers. They usually give you a good idea, but not exact. frequently asked questions
among Internet users is:
How can I know what my connection speed is and if I am getting what I was promised?
If I can test my connection anyway, do I need to buy expensive software to test it?
The answer is simple. There are two ways to test the speed of your Internet connection:
1- The simple manual calculation test that you can do by yourself without any third party software or services.
2- You can find a service that allows you to run a test through their servers and display your numbers on their website.
1-The manual method:
Since I mentioned that the connection speed consists of two numbers, the download speed and the upload speed. So what you need to do is download any free software from the internet and see the result box with the result showing the file size and how many seconds the tool needs to download.
When you’re done logging your download speed, upload a file of a specific size (1Mb, 2Mb) and set your watch when it starts. When the file uploads, check your clock and record the time it took for the task. Then divide your file size by the seconds it took.
If the file was 2 Mb that took 5 minutes to upload, then its upload speed is 2 Mb/300 sec. or 6,826 Kbits/sec. You can run the above test a couple of times and then take the average to get a better result.
2-The automated test in a third party service:
This is my favorite, where you go to a website where the test is done for you. It is done by using a script installed on your server and allowing you to download and upload a test file (invisible to you) to your server. The result is then displayed on your web page. You just have to register for free using your email. It’s free. This is the address of a website where they offer you a free internet connection test:
http://www.visualware.com.
In short, do not settle for numbers that your services give you, do the tests whenever you can. You enjoy it and feel that your money is worth it. This is because some services charge you $35 or more for high-speed internet service.
Thank you,
Jorge Chamoun