Friday, September 25, 2009

Internet Connection Speed Test

 
I think I have a pretty good internet connection but many of my friends tell they have much faster connections. Here's a site that tests your upload and download speeds: Speedtest.net.

I don't know how reliable these are, but here are my results (avg. of five trials):

          DOWNLOAD:  8290 kbps
          UPLOAD:        8080 kbps

I'm pretty happy with my connection through the University of Toronto. Are there better ones out there?



There's another speed test at InterFrog.com. It gives a difference result for upload speeds.

In the first student labs we ran back in 1987 we downloaded DNA sequence files via a 28.8 kbps modem. That was 22 years ago and the connection speed has only increased about 300×. Doesn't Moore's Law say that the improvement should have been more than 1000-fold?




8 comments:

  1. 25994 down, 14919 up.... Santa Monica FIOS

    ReplyDelete
  2. 10715 down 4402 up Dalhousie University.

    And Moore's Law really only talks about transistor density, which tends to be closely correlated with processor clock speed but inexactly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dribble. I salivate at the thought of Mbps speeds. Things are abysmal here in the pointy end of Africa.
    Cape Town: Down 517; Up: 283

    ReplyDelete
  4. In 1987, a 28.8kbps modem would have been insanely fast; I bought my first 2400bps modem in 1990, and I remember 14.4kbps (or 16.8kbps at most) being what everyone lusted after at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Using SpeedTest.mini, avg of 5 trials:
    Download: 11042 kbps
    Upload: 9979 kbps

    Using an "official server at Speedtest.net," avg of 5 trials:
    Download 89.96 Mbps
    Upload: 19.12 Mbps

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oops, I think the pigeon dropped the memory stick.

    Anyone have a spare homing pigeon?

    Anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fine, 2500 down, 1000 up, or about 4-5 Cape Town Units.

    My understanding was the pointy end of Africa was the best place for Internet access (although maybe that was specific to wireless...)

    I spent my first paycheck ever on a sound card, and my second on a 14.4 modem. Which I then used to connect to 2400 baud BBSs.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Are there better ones out there?

    :-)

    My home connection is as fast as your university's (UL only; cable subscription limits DL at 1/4 of capacity). My work connection is ~4X of your DL and ~2X of your upload. And that's because kids at our IT support run this really shitty firewall that significantly slows things down.

    ReplyDelete