Want to know your real-world internet connection speed as compared to what your provider advertised to you? Here is one cool tool to do it. Speedtest.net is a free, simple and straight-forward web tool to check your internet connection speed. It has scattered several hundreds of testing servers around the world to analyze global internet performance.
In starting a test, Speedtest.net initially recommends the geographically-closest server from you to test your connection. Once you chose the server, it automatically test how fast the Download (the speed of data from the server to your computer) and Upload (the speed of sending data from your computer to the server) that your connection is capable of reaching. The tests are performed completely within your web browser over HTTP (just like normal web browsing).
After the test, your speed test result is shown where your download and upload speeds are indicated as kb/s (kilo bits per second or kbps). You will also be able to share your results through the links provided for blogs, forums or a direct link. The link directs to the .png image of your unique test result. Here's what I got:
The good thing about the results page is that you can rate your ISP. It's like another way of saying your happy or not happy with your internet performance. From this rating and the ratings of other people of the same provider, the ISP's rank is determined locally or globally based on user feedback.
You can also browse test results from around the globe and compare what your internet service provider actually gives you against other ISPs available in your area. You can check which ISP ranks BEST in your location. For those who's interested in global statistics, you can analyze broadband speeds around the world.
Another brilliant thing about Speedtest.net is that every test you make, the result is stored by Speedtest.net. Every test is not gone into waste. You can view your past results summarized in your fastest download/upload, average download/upload, number of test taken, your ISP and your IP address. 
You will also have an idea of what your internet connection's country and global ranks are. Moreover, you will also see your ISP's average speed, your country's average speed, global average speed and more! There is a lot of information to see if you are interested in it.
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