I have been working in with computers for over twenty years. This work has taken me from corporate sites to residential locations and all over. No matter where I go though if I want to run a reliable and fast broadband speed test I will always use the one from DSLReports. A part of it may be that I have used them for so long, and another may be that they have the best broadband speed test on the market, but regardless which it is I still have yet to find one that works as fast and as well as theirs.
Features Of The Broadband Speed Test
The first thing you need to know is just how long DSLReports has been in business. The page was started in the owners home as a way to let people test to make sure they were getting the guaranteed throughput that was offered to them by their broadband providers. Today in addition to the broadband speed tests that are offered on the site there are many other cool utilities you can use to make sure that your internet connection is performing properly. As with all the tests on their site, the free broadband speed test is easy to use and can be run by just about anyone. However, as you can see from professionals all the way down to casual users this test has value.
The test is simple to run, and as long as you have Flash 8 or higher installed on your system you should be able to run it no problem. Simply go to www.dlsreports.com then click the tools link at the top. From there you can select the speed test. The broadband speed test will start with a list of different servers to connect to. I would suggest connecting to the server closest physically to your current location, but if that one is not available any of the servers will do. Once you pick the server the broadband speed test will begin. You should see something that looks like a thermometer that will measure your total download over a set time. After it finishes it will show you an upload and download total speed. These numbers will probably be very different, but that is OK. For the most part systems need a lot more download bandwidth then upload bandwidth. Unless you are hosting a website, your upload speed does not need to be nearly as much as your download. That should do it for your broadband speed test.