We’ve all been there, wondering why our computer is “soooo slow” and not knowing what to do about it. Well this month we look at how you can check the speed of your Internet connection to see if that is the issue.
Firstly its worth pointing out that your Internet speed will only affect the speed of your computer or laptop whilst you’re actually using the Internet, many people think that they can make their computer “go faster” by upgrading their Internet connection speed – this will only work if your Facebook or email web page are slow and usually anyone with a connection speed of over 4mbps (megabits per second) will not have problems loading websites – generally speaking.
So, how do you check your Internet speed, well the first thing to know is that all Internet connections have two speeds, an upload speed and a download speed. Usually the download speed is much quicker than the upload speed and THIS is the thing that you are usually interested in, it’s also the connection speed that Internet service providers tell you that you will receive.
Of course, you need to know what this speed is before you start your test, else you’ll have no idea whether the results of the test are good or bad. Once you know what connection speed you should be receiving, you should make sure that the computer that you’re using to do the test on is connected to your Internet router by ethernet cable (i.e. not via Wi-Fi) as its only by doing this that you will get a good, fair test; you see Wi-Fi speed can be affected dramatically by obstacles and people in between the computer and the router. Also ensure that no other computers, phones, laptops, IP TV or voice call (Whats app or Facebook video call etc.) are being used when you perform the test as all of these things will use part of your Internet connection and make the test results invalid.
Once you’re all set and ready, head over to https://www.speedtest.net on the computer that you’re using to do the test and click on the “go” button in the middle of the screen, the website will test your Internet connection and give you two numbers, an upload and a download figure. Compare the download number with what you’re paying your ISP for and as long as you are within around 80% of their figure then you’re getting what you should be, if your figures are dramatically different then repeat the test over several days at different times of the day and try to build a picture of what you find, when you contact them this will help them figure out why you’re not receiving what you are paying for.