01-04-2007, 02:09 PM

Does anyone know where I can find out what speed my wireless broadband is running at?

I've been looking everywhere and can't seem to find it.

Thanks

Shark

01-04-2007, 02:20 PM

http://www.speedtest.net/

Very easy to use.

01-04-2007, 02:52 PM

Its a very good site, it just has no idea where you are. It thinks I am in kansas city, and wants me to use that server instead of the new york one. So choose based on where you really live to get the best results.

01-04-2007, 04:11 PM

I tried a number of these sites, and was never really happy with the result.

Then a technician at my ISP suggested the obvious - if you have access to an FTP server anywhere (at your ISP, at work, a friend's Mac/PC/Linux box with an FTP server) create a really big file (example: create an archive out of your iTunes library) and ftp it to the FTP server. Pretty much every ftp client out there reports the transmit speed. If nothing else, I know that the humble Terminal-based ftp command does.

Now turn around and reverse the process. FTP the file back to yourself. You now have real world transmit and receive benchmarks from a local destination, which helps eliminate speed declines caused by lengthy transits across the country; hopefully the results are more indicative of YOUR broadband link, not the internet as a whole.

01-04-2007, 05:38 PM

That's a really good site, thanks. Visually great too.

However, when I used a PC I used to hover the mouse over the internet connection icon and the speed would be shown. Surely there's a way of checking without having to go to a website.

01-04-2007, 06:30 PM

Hmm, all mine shows on my work PC is max network speed, not the actual throughput. It says 100Mbps, but I can tell you I am getting nowhere NEAR that speed.

01-04-2007, 06:49 PM

Another good one is at http://www.dslreports.com

01-04-2007, 09:49 PM

Shark Trager and baggss, if you want a real time readout of network speed (up and down), get MenuMeters, available at http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters. It will place all sorts of interesting real time meters in your menu bar. I use it to keep an eye on network speed up and down, CPU occupancy and memory usage.

Of course you can also get the iStatPro widget, which is capable of displaying much of the same information, but only via Dashboard. It is hard to beat having this stuff available all the time, updating in real time, on your menu bar. I couldn't live without it.

As always when endorsing a commercial product, I have to state that I am not associated with Raging Menace Software, just a satisfied customer.