What Service Has The Fastest Internet Speed

Your home internet speeds can't magically be increased with a speed exam. They depend on the specific net program you lot signed up for from your ISP, but there are lots of reasons why your actual Wi-Fi speeds might be lower than you'd expect. For instance, speeds will drop as you motility further abroad from your router, specially if there are a lot of walls and obstructions in between. Speeds can likewise fluctuate during hours of pinnacle usage, or if your net providerenforces data caps or throttles connections to aid maintain overall network performance.

If you're curious to know your home'due south truthful internet speeds, in that location'southward an easy manner to cheque. Running an internet speed test is quick and like shooting fish in a barrel, and you've got lots of free options to choose from. You might fifty-fifty be able to run one from the same app that y'all used to set upwardly yourrouter. In most cases, running a examination is as easy equally pressing "Go," and won't have more than a minute or so.

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A skilful speed test volition make it easy to see your current download speeds, upload speeds and latency (or ping) for whatever device you're running the examination on -- but with so many options promising to practise exactly that, which one should you trust?

Glad yous asked. Here are the ones nosotros turn to first and why.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

Ane of our favorites is the Ookla speed test, which has a strong reputation for consistency and for beingness 1 of the start speed tests on the web. Popularity aside, we like Ookla for having everything a bones user needs from a speed examination: accuracy, the ability to view your speed test history (when y'all create an business relationship), a wide array of servers to connect to, and even a handy app for speed testing from your Android or iOS device. Incidentally, Ookla's speed test is also the i we use when we're testing Wi-Fi routers.

Ookla'due south done a good job of keeping upwardly with the times by adding new features and capabilities over the years. Nearly recently, the service released a video-specific speed test that measures your network'due south power to handle 4K video streams. In addition to the website and the smartphone apps, Ookla also has apps that you tin run on Windows or on Mac. You can fifty-fifty run the Ookla speed test on an Apple TV.

All of that said, Ookla does display banner ads while you lot run basic speed tests. That's non surprising, just it might make a slight bear on on your results depending on the strength of your connection at the time of the test.

Screenshot past Ry Crist/CNET

Fast.com is another corking broadband test, and the interface is about every bit elementary and straightforward equally it gets. However, one of its biggest advantages is that it's owned by Netflix. That might seem odd at commencement, but it's actually what makes information technology a corking pick for online streamers, because the test is structured around checking to see if your connection is strong enough to stream Netflix in maximum resolution without buffering.

While Fast.com is a great tool for some, it won't exist the most helpful test for all users. The bones interface is like shooting fish in a barrel to use, yes, but it also lacks some of the advanced settings and metrics you lot'll detect with other speed tests. About notably, you tin can't specify which server you'd like to connect with for your test.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

None of these speed tests are hard to use, only the M-Lab Internet Speed Test is probably the easiest one to observe. Short for Measurement Lab, the open up-source Chiliad-Lab test was developed by a collection of computer scientists and academic researchers with Google's backing -- and it's the test that pops up whenever you type "internet speed test" into the Google search bar. Just click the blueish "RUN SPEED Test" button to see your download speed, upload speed and latency inside a thing of seconds.

That's about as simple as information technology gets, because you won't need to bookmark it or remember exactly what information technology'southward chosen. There are no ads while you run the examination, and the but data that gets shared with M-Lab is your IP address. Just know that the M-Lab exam doesn't allow you pick which server y'all'll use during the test, and it's simply designed for internet speeds of upwards to 700 Mbps. If you're trying to speed test a gigabit connection, you'll want to plow elsewhere.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

If you lot're looking for a test that offers a await not just at speeds, but at consistency, Speedof.me is the way to get. Similar to Ookla, the exam interface does a great job of showing fluctuations in your upload and download speeds. Over time, that can make information technology easier to spot when something is amiss with your connection, especially since Speedof.me lets you compare your results with previous tests. Its mobile-friendly website is great for running tests on your phone, besides, allowing you to practice a quick speed exam on the go without downloading an app.

Speedof.me isn't a perfect option, though. For starters, at that place'due south no choice for manually selecting which server you connect with. And if home networking isn't your forte, the visualized information might seem more confusing or overwhelming than something like Fast.com, which simply gives yous a number.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

Testmy.net is an cyberspace speed exam that runs entirely on HTML5 and PHP. What that means is that it doesn't crave 3rd-party software like Java or Flash to run your test, which can brand for more accurate results. That as well makes it a useful tool for comparing performance between unlike browsers. You can as well create an account to track your internet speed for time to come reference or comparison.

It's not the almost convenient tool, withal. With a proficient bargain of in-depth data, y'all'll have quite a bit of information to await through, much of which might not be relevant to yous. The design is likewise a piffling ugly by speed exam standards, and it takes a few clicks earlier you really begin a examination, which obviously isn't as streamlined as other speed tests that characteristic big "Become" buttons as shortly as you load the folio.

Speed test FAQs

What'due south a good net speed?

The Federal Communications Commission defines broadband speeds as having downloads of at to the lowest degree 25 megabits per 2d and uploads of at least 3Mbps, but by the FCC's own speed guide, that's basically the bare minimum for things like streaming 4K video and sharing large files over the web.

Internet plans with multigig speeds equally high as ii, three or even 5 gigabits per 2d (that's five,000Mbps) are starting to emerge from a number of providers, including AT&T, Comcast, Frontier, Verizon Fios, Ziply Cobweb and others, only plans similar those are overkill for most homes, at least for now. Most platonic is a symmetrical cyberspace connection with uploads that are just every bit fast as the downloads -- speeds of 100Mbps would be perfectly fine for most homes.

What does ping hateful?

In addition to showing you the electric current upload and download speeds for whatever device y'all're running the test on, most internet speed tests will also give y'all a figure chosen ping, which is a latency measurement measured in milliseconds. Only put, the ping number is the time that it took for your device to transport a signal to whatever distant server you connected to during the speed exam, and so receive a response. Recall of information technology like a round-trip flight fourth dimension for your internet connection.

Ping will go up if you're connecting to a server that'due south very far abroad, or if there's some sort of interference somewhere in the connection. Your ping might also rise slightly if you're connecting through something like a mesh router or a range extender, where your data needs to make multiple wireless jumps before reaching the modem.

In near cases, ping differences are pretty minor, enough and then that you won't notice them without running a speed test. That said, you lot will first to find high ping if you're trying to brand split-second decisions in an online multiplayer game, and it can as well cause abrasive delays during video call conversations.

What is jitter?

Like ping, jitter is measured in milliseconds, merely instead of measuring the time it takes your device to ship information to a remote server and receive a response, jitter describes latency differences between the flow of data to diverse client devices on your network. If jitter gets besides loftier, it means that information isn't flowing to your device as efficiently equally it probably should, and that tin can cause problems similar buffering during streaming and video calls.

Tin can speed tests assist improve my net speeds?

Speed tests won't do anything to change the speed of your dwelling house's Wi-Fi network, but they're a great diagnostic tool -- a quick way to cheque how your network is performing in various spots effectually your home.

The best way to put speed tests to utilise is to run them on your telephone or laptop in various rooms throughout your firm. If you find a expressionless zone where speeds come crashing downward, you might want to consider putting a range extender in the closest room to that dead zone where speeds are strong -- from there, it'll rebroadcast your Wi-Fi betoken and potentially speed things up. If you find multiple expressionless zones in places where yous'd like to connect, it might be time to upgrade your router. For the best whole-home Wi-Fi coverage, consider going with a mesh router that uses multiple devices.