Is Your Internet Healthy? What does It Mean and How to Check It?
Nothing is more frustrating than a slow internet connection. Even if you can appear not to notice the lights flashing on your vehicle’s dashboard or the creaking of the kitchen window, internet problems make our emotions boil. ISPs can limit your speed, block particular services, and transfer your surfing information to advertisers. How could you know if they are exploiting your freedom to unrestricted internet access?
What is an internet health test?
The Internet health check is a free online application that assesses the health of your internet service by measuring a variety of indicators. For example, this test will inform you whether you are moving at a slower rate than you should be.
How does a network health test work?
There are several speed tests available on the web, and doing them takes only a few clicks. But, unfortunately, the majority of them would instead display your connection speed, which is useless information.
You must evaluate your connectivity to that of other people to see if your ISP is limiting it. The internet health test routes data from or to your computer through a monitoring point outside your ISP system. It is simple to identify variances in network speed when numerous users conduct the test from various places. The test determines how fast you could link to specific measurement sites in particular areas.
Because connection speed may fluctuate during the day, one should test their internet connection several times to have the most reliable data. All of the information obtained is saved in a system to analyze users’ experiences in other areas.
How can I check the health of my internet?
A free online app, generally given by Internet Providers, is the simplest method of testing your WiFi connection. However, if you have a data-based use plan via your ISP, consider that speed tests require anywhere between 30 seconds to a few minutes and transfer around 40 MB of data.
Another way includes checking through various applications to prevent your internet health.
A competent speed test shows you the actual download, upload, or latency (or ping) for whichever device you are testing on — but with all these alternatives professing to do just that, how do you know which to consult?
Ookla
The well-known Ookla Speedtest calculates the time taken for sending data from your device to a distant server via your current ISP connection. The main benefit of utilizing Speedtest.net is that it allows you to create a profile. With a login, you may change settings by selecting a host for tests and remembering them for future visits. In addition, you can check your whole test record to observe how your broadband connection fluctuates, which is useful when you go in via a network upgrade and downgrade but want to witness the difference in actual situations rather than just on the invoice.
Even if you do not have a profile, Speedtest remains useful. It locates you and connects you to a nearby Speedtest server. It is as simple as pressing the “Go” click. Everything must take as little as a minute to finish the procedure, and you can watch it done in real-time.
Check your connection’s access speeds in Mbit / s when it is finished. After that, you may share the material on social networks by pressing the social sharing buttons on the main page. There is also a link symbol that lets you take a link to share as a picture, a weblink, and even embedded into a page.
Carry out the test a few rounds by repeatedly pressing the “Go” option; you can see that the data rate varies from tests, based on network traffic at the moment.
After running it a few rounds, hit the “Results” hyperlink to put the figures into perspective. You may compare your findings to worldwide average readings even if you do not have a profile with Speedtest. To convert from downloading to network speeds, hit the tab when you utilize more than one network or connecting server (for example, you moved from hotspots to your house and did testing in both places), press “Filter Results” to limit down the test results you wish to view.
Other Options for Speed
When it comes to assessing connection speeds, Speedtest may not be the only show in town. However, some are worthy of going; the more you evaluate, the more alternatives you will have when complaining about your reported speed to your ISP.
Netflix, for instance, which has a great interest in ensuring that its users’ internet connections are lightning quick, has its test run. You wouldn’t even have to hit the button to get to FAST.com. It instantly started a fast download test. One may quickly share the data on Twitter or Facebook by clicking for additional results, checking latency, and uploading test findings. FAST.com, on the other hand, does not allow you to choose which server you want to test with.
Although SpeedOf.I may not have the same professional appearance as Speedtest and Fast.com; most would argue this is a selling factor. The little testing runs on both desktop and mobile devices give an account at the base if you perform several tests and display an “instant look” chart while the test performs numerous upload speed passes. This one has 116 web servers across North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and South America, with a handful in each. It chooses the quickest server, not typically the nearest.
Conclusion
If the test does not work, VeePN has answers on how to solve it. VPNs can boost the speed of some services under certain conditions. For example, when an ISP throttles the connection speeds of a particular provider, a VPN might help you get around it since VPN encryption prevents the ISP to know which services you are interacting with.