How fast am I?

A lot of Internet users are switching to broadband cable or DSL. Many wonder just how much faster broadband is than a modem. So I decided to look into it. I think I found some interesting information that might be of interest.
Note: this info was created in 2000. Web sites may have changed. Search for "bandwidth testing, DSL testing or cable speed test" to find latest info.

As a result of a question about the speed of my cable service compared to what we expected it to be, I decided to do some comparisons. What I discovered is that the speeds reflect more the speed of the server and the path between us than our ability. I got speeds from as low as 250 to as high as 1900 depending on the server. These are the sites I found from a search on Yahoo. Many explain bandwidth and show comparisons of what to expect from different connection types. Earlier tests were run when I was on Cox Cable Las Vegas. 2005 tests were run on Keyon over the air system in Pahrump. I switched to WiMax in 2006 & to DSL in Dec 2008.

2007 note. In November 2006, I switched to a new experimental service with AT&T called WiMax available only in Pahrump and somewhere in Texas. Click here to read about it. 2008, December- AT&T is dropping the Wi-Max service. I switched to DSL which just became available here.

Bandwidth testing sites

Note:

Some sites require you to delete Temporary Internet Files before repeating test
Download speeds are usually much higher and represent data being received on your computer.
Uploads are slower and represent the signals you send out to load a new site or information.
Most of the workload is downloading. Very little time is spent on uploading.
Unless otherwise noted, the numbers reflect download.

My favorite has always been Speakeasy.net

http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/bandwidth.asp

http://home.cfl.rr.com/eaa/Bandwidth.htm has links to many test sites

http://www.beelinebandwidthtest.com/

http://www.dslreports.com/stest

http://bandwidthtest.info/ has links to test sites, info and software to download

www.2wire.com/meter/bm.html

http://www.toast.net/performance/ Tests different servers. First 12 are free. Select "Both Image & Text". Click the radio button on a server & click Run Test

http://nyc.speakeasy.net/

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~leslie/testpage.htm results are in cps

http://specials.zdnet.co.uk/misc/band-test/

www.austin.rr.com/speedtest/speed.asp was really slow repeatedly.

http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Communications_and_Networking/Benchmarking/Bandwidth_Tests/ has links to the following & others

http://www.polycom.com/common/scripts/band_start.html

http://www.testmy.net/

http://www.cable-modem.net/perf.html

http://www.testmyspeed.com/ provides a list of test servers all over the US with a link for International test sites.

http://www.numion.com/YourSpeed/ gives nice results and explanations. It checks a lot of servers, but gave a rather slow results.

and my latest addition http://helpme.att.net/dsl/speedtest/