What do the numbers mean when checking the speed of the Internet. What is considered normal internet speed for various tasks and how to measure it. Internet meter from Yandex

Check internet speed for free

Turn off downloaders!

For the most accurate result, it is recommended to disable programs for downloading files (emule, flashget, bittorrent, etc.), Internet radio, email clients, IRC, ICQ, Google Talk and other programs that use internet traffic. After that, it remains only to click the "Start test" button. Ideally, it is better to repeat the test several times and compare the data obtained.

What is an Internet connection speed test?

Today is high internet connection speed- one of the most important factors for ensuring high-quality and comfortable work on the Internet.

Internet speed test allows you to check the status of the channel, measure its functionality. Thanks to our test, you will be able to find out and check the real connection speed provided by your Internet provider! And you can also tell other users about it by leaving your . After all, cases are not rare when one speed is declared, and we get a completely different one!

What determines the speed of the Internet connection

Connection speed varies depending on many factors. This is the type of communication line (fiber-optic communication lines, cable communication lines, etc.), provider, number of visitors at the moment, and others. If the result obtained deviates from the value declared by the provider by more than 10%, network problems are likely, for example, an accident on highways and main routers. If this happens, just repeat the test after a while.

Internet speed test determines:

Incoming internet speed
– broadcasting data from the Internet to your personal computer.
Outgoing internet speed
– broadcasting data from your personal computer to the Internet
Find out PING quickly
- your ping from the provider to the verification server.
Test time
- the time when the speed test was performed.

Hello site readers.IT lessons. Today we will deal with the popular question " how to measure internet connection speed?» Everyone is interested to know if we get those megabits per second that we paid for and why sometimes files or sites load oh-oh-very slowly ...

In this IT lesson, you will use the knowledge gained in the previous two lessons: "" and ""

Of course, you would like to press one button and quickly find out your speed ... this is also possible, but the accuracy will not be high. In addition, you need to take into account some factors that affect the data transfer rate and the result of its testing.

The lesson is great, if you need to find something specific, you can use the content:

What affects internet speed?

First, let's look at what can affect the quality of measuring the speed of an Internet connection. And there are many such factors:

Speed, with which you are contacting, checking the speed of the Internet (this may include the speed of access to the site from which you download something)
Speed and settings if your computer is connected to the local network through it
Working on the computer at the time of checking
Antiviruses and firewalls running in the background
Computer and operating system settings

In most cases, the most important item on this list will be the first item - server speed. Let's give some illustrative examples.

Example 1
If you connect your computer to a local area network using a cable (twisted pair), then connection speed with another computer on the same network(in your city) will be very large, for example, 70 Mbps .

Example 2
Now we measure the speed between our computer and some server on the other side of the country. Maybe we'll get about 20 Mbps .

Example 3
Imagine that all 800 regular readers of the IT-lessons site connected to this server at once and started downloading different files. Connection speed with loaded server will decrease and for you it will be, for example, 3 Mbps .

Example 4
Now let's try to download the file from a server in another country, for example, in Australia, we get less 1 Mbps!

Now, I think it is clear that the measured speed depends on which server you have chosen to test: its location, its own maximum speed and its workload affect. That is, you need to understand that:

The speed of all servers (containing sites and files) is different and depends on the capabilities of these servers.

The same applies to other items (for example, the connection speed will be different when connecting to the network directly or through a router, and will also depend on the characteristics of this router).

How to improve the accuracy of the check

It is advisable to complete these points if you want to get the most accurate result of checking the speed of the Internet connection. If approximate measurements are enough for you, then you can proceed to the next section of the lesson.

Connect the network cable directly to the computer(V )
Close all programs, except for the browser (in which there should be one bookmark with this IT lesson)
Stop programs that are downloading in the background(torrent clients, download managers, etc.), except for those that you have chosen to test the Internet speed
Temporarily disable your antivirus (do not forget to enable it later), because. in some cases, it can affect the readings of online tests.
Launch the Task Manager (simultaneously hold down the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys) and go to the "Network" tab. Make sure the network is not busy ("Network Usage" should be less than 1%). If the network is being actively used, a program or Windows update may be in progress. In this case, wait for the downloads to finish or restart your computer.

Network Usage in Task Manager (Green line jump - Internet connection speed check process)

In addition, each measurements must be taken several times. to improve testing accuracy.

How to measure internet connection speed

There are several ways to measure the speed of an Internet connection. Consider them in order of increasing complexity of use.

Online services

Since we are now at the “Beginner” level, we will consider the first method in detail, and for experienced users I will briefly describe the remaining two.

Method 1. Measuring speed using online services

This is the one the easiest way to measure"Press one button and find out everything quickly." Accuracy is relative, but simplicity attracts. 🙂

note that online tests have different accuracy!

I will tell you only about the most popular services.

SPEEDTEST.NET

Let's start with the most popular and most accurate online internet speed test(plus it's free). I will dwell on it in more detail and advise all readers of the site to start using this particular method.

Here is a short guide:

2. Find the button " Start verification» and press it:

Click the "Start Check" button

3. At the end of testing, you see three results:

First number indicated by the word "Ping" (read "ping"), denotes network packet transmission time. The smaller this number, the better the quality of the connection (preferably less than 100 ms).

The second number is the data acquisition speed. It is this figure that providers advertise when connecting (it is for these megabits per second that you pay your honestly earned rubles / hryvnia / dollars / yuan 🙂).

The third number is the data rate. As you can see, it can be noticeably less than the download speed, and the provider is silent about this (but, in most cases, a high outgoing Internet speed is rarely required).

If you want to measure the speed of an Internet connection with a particular city, then select it on the map (all major cities on the planet are available) and click the "Start Test" button again.

Thus, you can check the examples I have given for yourself.

The creator of the “speedtest” has another interesting online service that checks internet connection qualityhttp://pingtest.net/.
On the company's main website there are many more interesting opportunities for testing network connections http://www.ookla.com/.

Other Online Internet Speed Test Services

The principle of operation for all services is the same: they pressed a button, waited, got a number ... but the results are different.

2. Add multiple downloads from different fast file servers, like this one (test archive) and this one (Linux distribution)

3. We set in the settings maximum number of threads(sections to download)

4. Keeping track of top speed file uploads:

The maximum achieved speed is highlighted in the image with a red rectangle.

It should be noted here that if users from your network are among the distributors, then the maximum speed within the local network will be shown! This can also be taken into account, and the program can be adjusted accordingly.

What speed is needed to download movies?

We learned how to measure the speed of data transfer over the Internet, now let's see where it can be applied.

Let's say we want to download average quality movie, which usually takes 1.4 GB. Let's calculate at different speeds:

Speed 100 kbps- about 32 hours (we'd better not wait until the movie is downloaded using mobile Internet)
Speed 1 Mbps- It will take 3 hours to download such a movie
Speed 3 Mbps– 1 hour download
Speed 15 Mbps- less than 15 minutes to download
Speed 50 Mbps– about 4 minutes
Speed 100 Mbps– about 2 minutes

Compare with time music downloads(for example, an mp3 file in good quality, about 10 MB in size):

Speed 100 kbps– less than 15 minutes of loading
Speed 1 Mbps- 1.5 minutes download
Speed 3 Mbps– 0.5 minutes

At the same time, it is worth remembering that there is a guaranteed speed and a speed not guaranteed by the provider (we dealt with this in the IT lesson).

Outcome

So, today we learned how to check the speed of the Internet (Internet connection) in three ways. We learned that in addition to speed, you need to take into account the quality of the connection, which is indicated by “ping” (we will deal with it separately). And yet, we clearly estimated what speed would be sufficient to download the movie. Thus, we have completed the topic of information units and data transfer rates. What's next?

Copying prohibited but you can share links.

WikiHow carefully monitors the work of editors to ensure that each article meets our high quality standards.

Velocity indicates how fast an object is moving. The speed of an object is the distance traveled in a given time. Speed is usually measured in meters per second (m/s), kilometers per hour (km/h), or centimeters per second (cm/s). To measure speed, you need to determine the distance an object traveled and the time it took, and then divide the distance by the time.

Steps

How to measure a runner's speed

Find the distance the runner needs to cover. This distance can be determined from a running track of known length (e.g. 100 meters) or by direct measurements.

To determine an unknown distance, use a measuring tape or staff.
Mark the start and finish with ribbons or signal cones.

Prepare for the experiment. To determine the speed of a runner, it is necessary to measure the time it takes him to overcome the intended distance. Ask the runner to wait until you say "Go!" - this will allow you to accurately fix the time using a stopwatch. Set the stopwatch to zero and ask the runner to take the starting position.
- Time can also be measured with a regular watch, although the measurement result will be less accurate.
Signal the runner to start and start the stopwatch at the same time. Try to synchronize these actions as closely as possible. Shout "March!" - and immediately turn on the stopwatch. If you can't do both at the same time, give the runner a clear signal and try again.

Stop the stopwatch as soon as the runner crosses the finish line. Keep a close eye on the runner so as not to miss the moment when he crosses the finish line. Try to capture this moment as accurately as possible and immediately stop the stopwatch.

Divide the distance covered by the runner by the number of seconds elapsed. As a result, you will get the speed of the runner. The formula for determining the speed is as follows: distance traveled / time elapsed. Suppose a runner ran 100 meters in 10 seconds. Then its speed is 10 m/s (100 divided by 10).
- To express the speed of a runner in kilometers per hour, multiply 10 m/s by 3600 (the number of seconds in one hour). The result is 36,000 meters per hour, or 36 kilometers per hour (1 kilometer equals 1,000 meters).
Measure at least 50 meters from the wall. This distance is necessary so that you have enough time for fairly accurate measurements. Since the sound will first travel from you to the wall and then back to you, the actual distance is 100 meters.
- Determine the distance with a measuring tape. Try to be as precise as possible.
Clap your hands as you hear the echo from the wall. Stand at a measured distance from the wall and begin to slowly clap your hands. When you do this, you will hear an echo. Speed up or slow down and find a rhythm so that each next clap matches the sound of the echo from the previous clap.
- When you achieve perfect synchrony, you will hear only your own clapping and stop hearing the sound of the echo.
Clap your hands 11 times and record this time with a stopwatch. Ask your friend to start the stopwatch at the moment of the first bang and stop at the same time as the last one. If you clap 11 times, then the sound will have time to reach the wall 10 times, bounce off it and return back as an echo. Thus, sound travels 100 meters 10 times.
- Plus, 11 claps will give your friend enough time to accurately start and stop the stopwatch.
- To get more accurate results, do this several times and find the average value. To find the average value, add all the obtained time intervals and divide by the number of measurements.
Multiply the distance by 10. Because you clapped your hands 11 times, the sound traveled 10 times. Multiply 100 meters by 10 to get 1000 meters.

Divide the distance traveled by the sound by the time it took you to make 11 hand claps. As a result, you will get the speed of sound with which it covered the distance from your palms to the wall, and then back to your ears.

How to measure wind speed

Take out the anemometer. An anemometer is a device for measuring wind speed. It consists of 3 or 4 cups, which are mounted on spokes that rotate around a central axis. The wind blows into the cups and rotates the spokes. The higher the wind speed, the faster the cups rotate around their axis.

Calculate circumference anemometer. This length is equal to the distance that one of the cups travels during a full revolution of the anemometer. To calculate the circumference of a circle, you need to measure its diameter.

Measure the distance from the central axis of the anemometer to the center of one of the cups. This is the radius of the anemometer. Multiply the radius by two and you get the desired diameter.
The circumference of a circle is equal to its diameter (or twice the radius) multiplied by pi.
For example, if the distance between the center of the cup and the central axis of the anemometer is 30 centimeters, in one complete revolution the cup travels a distance of 2 x 30 x 3.14 (here pi is rounded to two decimal places), or 188.4 centimeters.

Position the anemometer where the wind is blowing. The wind must be strong enough to rotate the axis of the anemometer without blowing it off or overturning it. It may be worth attaching the anemometer to the ground or a rigid rod so that the pencil is vertical.
Count the number of revolutions of the anemometer for a certain period of time. Stand next to the anemometer and count how many revolutions the painted cup will make. The time interval can be 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 seconds, or even a whole minute. For greater accuracy, use a timer.
- If you don't have a timer, ask a friend to time it while you count the number of revolutions.
- If you're using a commercial anemometer, mark one cup somehow so you can count the number of revolutions correctly.
- For example, if you counted the number of revolutions in 10 seconds, you should divide the total distance by 10 seconds. Speed \u003d (9420 cm / 10 s) \u003d 942 cm / s.
- If you multiply 942 cm/s by 3600, you get 3,391,200 cm/h, and if you divide by 100,000 (the number of centimeters in one kilometer), you get 33.9 km/h.

In physics, speed is a vector quantity, that is, it is given not only by a numerical value, but also by the direction in which an object is moving. The anemometer rotates in a circle, so it only shows the wind speed and does not give information about its direction. The direction and approximate speed of the wind can be judged by the windsock, which is inflated with air and rises in the direction the wind is blowing.

“Connection speed” refers to the amount of information downloaded per second.

Bits per second are used as units for this value. A bit is a binary value (1 or 0).

Using single bits to measure the connection speed would give too cumbersome values.

Therefore, to designate a large number of bits, metric prefixes are used: kilo-, mega-, giga-, tera-.

That is, a speed of 1 Kb / s (Kbps) means that the device receives 1000 bits of information per second. How to measure internet speed yourself?

Modern communication technologies allow the use of the megabit as a standard unit, at the user level.

The average Internet connection speed in the world in 2014 was 3.9 Mbps.

Modern providers provide tariff plans up to 100 Mbps. This is the maximum limit of most home ports, at least as of today.

The most common connection technology is broadband cable connection. This type of connection has replaced dial-up modem connections.

The use of our own fiber optic lines, instead of the telephone network, has significantly increased traffic volumes.

So the modem connection provided no more than 56 Kbps.

Note! The standard home broadband connection is 10 Mbps. That is, for most users who do not have special requirements for connection speed, this is enough. This value is enough to download files, work with cloud services and feel comfortable online.

With commercial networks, things are somewhat more complicated. Each company has its own needs and, most often, an individual contract is formed on certain conditions.

For small companies and offices, a household connection is enough.

Important: Providers prefer to remain silent about the fact that the speed of outgoing traffic is an order of magnitude lower than the speed of incoming traffic. For ordinary people, this is not so critical, but if you need to send large amounts of data, then this circumstance is better taken into account.

In any case, the connection speed declared in the tariff is somewhat less in practice. The quality of communication at any given time depends on many factors.

The workload of the provider's nodes and the quality of home device settings affect the connection speed.

Wi-Fi connectivity is affected by even more circumstances:

Distance to access point;
Physical barriers to the signal path and their material;
The presence of radio interference;
Quality and receiving device.

And this is in addition to the features of the wired connection. As a result, it turns out that the actual connection speed will always be slightly lower than stated in the tariff.

Measuring the actual speed of the Internet

He has more than seven billion checks on his account.

The service allows not only to measure the speed, but also to save the test results in a profile, publish them on social networks and in a public comparison.

By the way, the average value based on the results of all checks is 22.7 Mbps.

Let's proceed directly to the process of measuring speed.

The example uses an ADSL connection via a Wi-Fi router with another active user. Tariff speed 5 Mbps.

First you need to go to the speedtest website.

After downloading, it will look like this (pictured below).

The determination of the region and the most suitable server occurs automatically, but each user can independently select any one of the servers available around the world (1 choice on the world map, 2 - navigation around the site).

The white dots on the map indicate the available servers.

In addition, the counter of the number of checks (4) is displayed, as well as the current IP address with the name of the provider (5). The check can be started (3) immediately after loading the interface, or after determining the required server.

First of all, the service measures the ping (1). Ping is the time it takes for a data packet to travel from the user's PC to the server and back.

This value is measured in milliseconds.

The higher the indicator, the slower the connection, the longer the sites load and the worse the games work.

This indicator reflects the amount of data received from the server per second. Here you can clearly see how the tariff speed (5 Mbps) differs from the actual one.

The example used an ADSL connection, which is why the spread in values is so large.

In broadband wired connections, it will be an order of magnitude smaller.

Internet speed test completed.

In addition, you can send the results to the public rating (2). There, the results of all checks are collected and compared.

Gratitude to the creators of the resource for the services provided can be expressed not only by good karma, but also by quite material means (3).

The most objective results are usually obtained after several checks. D

To optimize the process, a new check button (4) is provided. It is possible to initiate a check with another server (5).

Interesting! There is a mini version of the service that can be embedded into websites. Distributed for free. It can be used both for personal needs and with registration in the Ookla service, then the load on the channel will increase, because measurements from all over the world will take place using the registered server.

There is also a version for mobile platforms. Download for free in the AppStore or GogglePlay. A mobile version is available for smartphones and tablets that support Internet access.

Once you have determined your connection speed, there are some steps you can take to improve it. Of course, if the values suit you, then there is nothing to worry about.

Connection acceleration options will be discussed later.

Increasing internet speed

The first thing that comes to mind is changing the tariff plan or provider. But these are cardinal steps designed to significantly increase the speed.

Some increase in speed can also be obtained due to small manipulations with your own computer.

Here are a few ways to help increase your internet speed.

In fact, the number of downloaded megabits will remain the same, but by optimizing the work with traffic, you can achieve better browser performance:

Dosing the load on the network. While surfing, you do not need to open many tabs with different sites at once. The load on the network leads to a slowdown. In systems with small RAM, the drop in speed is also caused by the fact that its volume is not enough;
Disable automatic updates. This item is most true for automatic Windows updates. Other programs can also occupy traffic by searching for and downloading updates. Disabling updates will help offload the network;
Disabling torrent managers. The operation of such programs and, in general, various downloads "eat" a lot of traffic. Disabling unnecessary downloads in a timely manner can save a lot of traffic;
Disabling ads. Many pages are overloaded with advertising banners and other marketing tricks, and their loading also affects the speed. With the help of special browser extensions, you can reduce the amount of downloaded advertising content;
Turbo mode of the browser. Most browsers have it. Enabling it reduces the quality of images, otherwise it turns them off completely. This move allows you to reduce the page load time;
Reduce the distance between the access point and the device. The signal will cover a shorter distance, therefore, the Internet speed will increase slightly. Reducing the number of obstacles in the signal path will also lead to an increase in speed;
The speed of Wi-Fi connections drops when many users connect to the same router. Changing the access password will help eliminate the possibility of unauthorized connections.

With the information given in the material, managing the connection speed, measuring it and optimizing the work with the Internet will not be difficult.

How to check internet speed

How to measure internet speed yourself?

It seems to you that the Internet is too slow, although the provider claims that the speed is in accordance with the contract. How to check the veracity of these assurances? Unfortunately, the services available on the network for measuring connection speed do not always give accurate results. Sometimes this is because the measurement method is not the most efficient, but often the problem is “on our side”.

Here are four rules to follow in order to measure your Internet speed more accurately.

1. Always reboot your modem and router

Restarting the device is a standard first step, usually suggested to solve almost any technical problem, especially important for routers and high-speed digital modems. Both devices are essentially mini-computers. Tiny computers that perform serious functions, such as ensuring that all kinds of traffic from all your desktop and mobile devices connected to the Internet are properly routed. Like desktops or smartphones, they also start to fail over time. This manifests itself in slow loading of web pages or “slowdown” of streaming video. Therefore, rebooting helps to return devices to a fully functional state.

2. Do not use the Internet for other purposes during the verification

You probably guessed this most important rule yourself. Obviously, a dozen web pages open on a computer will skew the measurement results, but also make sure that all other programs and devices using the Internet are turned off. Here are a few examples off the top of my head: music services running in the background, automatic patch downloads via Windows Update, TV streaming on the TV in the next room, and so on.

Don't forget about mobile devices. Most smartphones detect a wireless network and automatically connect to it. Therefore, for the duration of the test, put your favorite gadget into airplane mode (unless you are using it to measure Internet speed). When you are not sure if a device is currently using the Internet, it is best to disable it before taking measurements.

3. Don't forget to clear your browser cache

Another sensible thing to do before conducting an Internet connection speed test is to clear your browser's cache. And you have to do this every time if you want to take several measurements in a row. Most Internet speed tests work by uploading and downloading one or more files of a certain size, and then calculating the connection speed from the amount of time it takes.

Therefore, if you check several times in a row, each subsequent result may be distorted, because. these files remain on your computer after the previous test (i.e. they are cached).

Obviously, you can skip this step if you are using a special application or other (non-browser) method to check the Internet speed.

4. Use HTML5 based services

Last but not least, use HTML5-based internet speed measurement services. Experts believe that tests based on Flash technology have an error of up to 40%.

The most popular speed tester, Speedtest, is currently powered by Flash, but the service will soon switch completely to using HTML5. Although you can try out the beta version of Speedtest based on HTML5 now.

Conclusion: Remember No Test Is Perfect

With the help of the above tips, you will be able to minimize the errors in measuring the speed of the Internet connection, which will certainly increase the accuracy of the results. However, keep in mind that you will receive a momentary assessment of the quality of the current connection between your device and the testing server. That is, you will have a general idea of how fast (or slow) your Internet is, but this does not mean that the same bandwidth will be maintained when connecting between your device and any other point on the network.

Have a great day!