There are two measured items 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 generally expressed in kilobits per second.
A bit is the smallest piece of data that can be stored in 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 needs one byte or eight bits to be stored 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 only serves as an example. To surf the Internet, you must have at least a dial-up access with a 56kb / s modem, in order to obtain a meaningful and practical result.
There are different types of Internet connection. First they introduced dial-up connection using their phone line, then broadband was introduced.
Broadband Internet connections are DSL, Cable, or Satellite Internet services. They are widely used and are expanding due to high bandwidth.
When you get an Internet service, your provider indicates that your speed will be of certain numbers. Usually they give you a good idea, but not an exact one. Frequently asked questions
among Internet users is:
How do I know what my connection speed is and if I am getting what I was promised?
If I can still test my connection, 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 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 their 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 size of the file and how many seconds to download the tool.
When you have finished recording the download speed, upload a file of a specific size (1Mb, 2Mb) and time your clock when it starts. When the file loads, check your watch and record how long the task took. Then divide the size of your file by the seconds it took.
If your file was 2 Mb. Which took 5 minutes to load, then your 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 for a better result.
2-The automated test in a third-party service:
This is my favorite, where you access a website where the test is performed for you. It is done using a script installed on your server, and allowing you to download and upload a test file (invisible to you) to your server. Then the result is 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 the numbers your services give you, do the tests whenever you can. You enjoy it and feel like you are making your money worthwhile. This is because some services charge you $ 35 or more for high-speed Internet service.
Thanks,
George chamoun