How Do Internet Speed Tests Work ?

A Speed Test is a test to measure the access performance metrices, such as connection data rate and latency.

As follow there is a short list of some web services used to test the connection speed & parameters:

1. Speedtest.net
2. Broadband reports
3. SpeedOf.Me
4. Speakeasy Speed-Test
5. BroadbandspeedTest
6. YourSpeed
7. WUGNET
8. Bandwidthplace Speed-Test
9. McAfee Internet Connection Speedometer
10. CNET Bandwidth Meter

Now,Let’s see how exactly they work —

when we visit any of this website to check our internet speed, first of all ping test is performed.

Ping Test -:In ping test our computer/mobile send packet signal to all closest test server and then calculate a ping i.e At which server,time require to send and receive the packet is less as well as which server is located at minimum distance.In this way ping is calculated which is referred as ‘Latency’. Afterthat download test and upload test are performed using that server which has minimum latency.

Download Test -: In which,The client make multiple connections to the server and attempts to download a small piece of data. At this point, two things are measured first is how long it took to grab the fragment of data, and secondly how much of your network resources it used.

If the client detects you have room to spare, it opens more connections to the server and downloads more data. The general idea is to tax your internet connection and see how much it can do simultaneously.

Once the client determines it has the correct connections to test your internet service, it downloads additional chunks of data, measures the amount downloaded in the time allotted, and presents a download speed.

Upload Test -: After downloading the small chunk of data,now its time to upload that data.Using the network connections made during downloading that data will send to the server.

It is very similar to downloading,first small data is send and then large data is send.finally when all data reach to server then client will calculate time.Upload test is also performed for particular time.

In this way internet speed test work.