![]() ![]() The configuration on your side of the router also matters when assessing throughput. These things matter when it comes to network throughput. Comcast measured my speed by connecting me to a host over 2,400 miles away, presumably on its own network, while Speedtest connected me to a server in a city 62 miles away and on my ISP's network. ![]() Similarly, Comcast said I uploaded at 22Mbps, but Speedtest put it at over 10 times that. Still, you can also get independent versions like Ookla's (which also happens to power AT&T's network testing site).īroadband speed testing tools won't all deliver equal results, which is why it's best to use either your ISP's testing tool or an independent speed testing tool like Ookla's.įor example, the Comcast Business testing tool put my latency at 67ms, whereas Speedtest said it was at just 4ms. You'll find plenty of broadband testing tools online, some of which come directly from carriers like Comcast and Xfinity. As a rule, you want ping speeds of 20ms or less for VoIP calls, although you can get tolerable results at up to 150ms. The best testing tools will break these out for you.Īnother common metric is the ping speed, which measures the round trip for packet delivery. Some wide-area broadband connections will often offer asymmetric bandwidth, meaning you get more capacity for data downloads than for uploads. Most throughput tests use a similar method, sending a series of packets to a destination and measuring the response time over a set period to get an average.īroadband throughput measurement tools often give you different metrics. When people talk about measuring bandwidth, they're often really talking about throughput. You might find this on Wi-Fi or cellular connections, but electrical activity from storms and even high-powered electrical motors can affect copper cabling. Jitter stems from factors like network interference or poor network signals. If latency varies too much across a session, you might experience jitter, which is a problem for sensitive applications such as VoIP or video conferencing. Having lots of devices on the connection route or other bottlenecks along the way can increase latency, affecting network speed. This is the time it takes for a packet to reach its destination, and it's critical to some applications like voice over internet protocol (VoIP). ![]() These include contention between many clients using that connection, which can slow individual users’ throughout to a trickle.Īnother potential issue is high latency. However, just as a six-lane highway suffers jams that bring traffic to a standstill, factors can decrease throughput on a high-bandwidth network. High bandwidth often means high throughput. Throughput measures the speed at which traffic is passing over the network, and is generally reported in data units per second - typically megabytes per second (Mbps). ![]()
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