Nothing much comes free in this world, and when it comes to technology and internet related stuff, you can be sure to feel the pinch. We can’t do without the internet and being connected is our lifeline to the world outside our homes, but how can we be sure we are getting the speeds we pay for?
You can be sure that your ISP is charging you a fair bit for receiving certain upload and download speeds – In fact, the better speeds you want, the higher the rates. With that being said, how can you monitor your internet speed to know what you pay for is actually what you are receiving?
While it has been reported that ISPs on an average basis do tend to meet their advertised internet speeds, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re amongst the lucky ones who do receive exactly what they pay for. Following these steps will help you be aware of your internet speed:
1. Check with your ISP
This may seem pretty straightforward, but why beat around the bush? Give your ISP a call and find out. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can dig around for your past bills to know exactly what your speeds are. However, your ISP may have some fancy names to the speed tier you subscribe to. If the speeds are not given, and all you have on your bill are names like Roadrunner, Blast, Performance Starter, then your best bet would be to head to your ISPs website.
2. Do an Online Speed Test
Honestly, we don’t bother with hunting down past bills or researching what our ISP is supposed to deliver. Who knows, at times what you see on paper isn’t what you actually get and the best way (and our preferred way) is to do an online speed test. Search online for the best speedtest, and then make sure that no processes are running in the background that could affect the accuracy of the test (like heavy downloads etc). Your speed test should give you your current Download speed, upload speed and ping test results. This is perhaps the best way to know what you actually get and to know if it’s time to give your ISP another call.
3. Check if your ISP is shaping your traffic
When you exceed your data cap or you are an active torrent user, your ISP may throttle your internet connection, causing you to experience slower download speeds. Even if your speed test shows favourable results, you should check out Neubot, a useful tool that will let you know if your ISP is slowing down your BitTorrent traffic. It may not be as easy as running a Speedtest, but those who are active torrent users may find this tool to be a great way of identifying if your BitTorrent traffic is getting throttled by your ISP. You do have to run a series of Speedtests as well as bittorrent tests to get as accurate a result.)
Are you getting the speeds you pay for? Write in and let us know!