| Like most home computer users, you are likely paying for a high-speed internet connection at your home. Your internet access may be provided by the cable company, the phone company (DSL) or satellite provider. Most of these providers tell you that you will get some minimum download speed like 3Mbps (Mega Bits Per Second) but that you may see faster speeds, but how do you know what you are really getting? There is a really easy to use internet speed test at http://speakeasy.net/speedtest. Open your web browser and go to that web site. If you have trouble loading the site, it may be that you do not have the Flash player installed. Once the page has loaded, you will see a list of servers on the left. Click on Dallas since that is the closest one to the Houston area. The test will begin to run first showing your download speed and then your upload speed. The speeds displayed at the end of the test may be in Kbps (Kilo bits per second). Just divide that number by 1000 to know how many Mbbps (Mega bits per second) your connection is running. So if the speed test indicates that your download speed is 4837 Kbps, then you know you are getting about 4.8 Mbps. |
