About Connection Speeds

Our Bandwidth and Ping tests can help you pinpoint problems with your connection. 

However, it's important to remember that several factors may affect a connection at any given time.

As a result, you may see very different results from repeated tests. To get an accurate picture of how your connection is performing, test several different servers, several times at once, and at different times of the day. You should also monitor your connection across a period of weeks to watch for any ongoing trends or problems.

Three factors outside of your computer, control how quickly you can view Web pages:

1. The Internet bandwidth between your computer and the website you're viewing.

2. The round-trip time between your computer and the website you're viewing.

3. The response time of the website you're viewing.

 

Average Ping measures the round-trip time in milliseconds for a packet to travel from the PC being tested to s Web sites and back; lower numbers indicate better performance. Ping Loss indicates what percent of the packets sent did not return; ideally this should be zero, indicating that all the packets were returned.

Ping times and losses can vary greatly depending on the speed and quality of your Internet connection, congestion on the Internet, and the load being handled by the server. In general, ping times under 100ms are typical of T1, DSL, or cable modems. Consistent ping times of more than 500ms should only be seen in connections that span continents (e.g., USA to Europe) and/or are linked by satellite. Ping losses usually indicate Internet congestion.

The Bandwidth measurement is, in simple terms, the transmission speed or throughput of your connection to the Internet. However, measuring bandwidth can be tricky, since the lowest bandwidth point between your computer and the site you're looking at determines the effective transmission speed at any moment. Our tests measure the Internet bandwidth between your computer and Heavenwire's server.

In general, if your bandwidth result is roughly 85% of the rated connection speed for your modem or device, you're receiving acceptable throughput (though shared connections may affect this, too). However, since Internet performance can be erratic and you can't expect to get nominal bandwidth every time you test, you should test several times, and at different times of the day, to get the most accurate rating.

About Internet Bandwidth

Internet bandwidth is, in simple terms, the transmission speed or throughput of your connection to the Internet. However, measuring bandwidth can be tricky, since the lowest bandwidth point between your computer and the site you're looking at determines the effective transmission speed at any moment.

Three factors outside of your computer, control how quickly you can view Web pages:

1. The Internet bandwidth between your computer and the site you're viewing.

2. The round-trip time between your computer and the site you're viewing.

3. The response time of the site you're viewing.

The tests referenced on this page address the first issue and measures the Internet bandwidth between your computer and Heavenwire's server.
 

Tests: Download vs. Upload

The differences between our Download and Upload tests aren't as obvious as they may initially seem. Yes, the basic difference is the direction of the data transfer: Simply put, the Download test measures your connection speed for viewing Web pages; the upload test measures the speed for maintaining them--or sending data over your connection.

However, the rated upload and download speeds may not be the same for your connection.

Occasionally, you may even see opposite results, especially during the evening hours. If your connection has a heavy user load, the download times may suffer, while the upload times remain unchanged. This is because most Internet users download data instead of uploading it.

About Bandwidth Units

You will often see bandwidth and transfer speed quoted in two different units: kilobits per second, abbreviated kbps or Kb/s, and kilobytes per second, abbreviated KB/s. The difference between the two units is the number of bits in a byte, which is 8. The small 'b' stands for bits, and the big 'B' stands for bytes. Transfer speeds are often shown in KB/s, and connect speeds are usually quoted in Kb/s.

So, for instance, if a progress dialog for a modem shows you a download speed of 4.3 KB/s, it is the same as 34.4 Kb/s.

We display our measured transfer speeds in Kb/s, to make them easier to compare with your rated line speed.

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About Throughput and Reproducibility

The Internet changes from one moment to the next in ways that are impossible to predict. You cannot expect to see the same bandwidth value every time you measure it. Furthermore, you cannot expect to see the full nominal speed of your connection for your bandwidth measurement: There are always delays somewhere. As a rule of thumb, if you can measure throughput that is 85% of your nominal bandwidth, more often than not your connection is performing at par.

To get the best picture of your Internet bandwidth, test several times. Also test at different times of the day: Your bandwidth measurement at 7 AM may be much better than your bandwidth measurement at 10 PM

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  Internet & Network Glossary

 

Bandwidth

The transmission speed or throughput of your connection to the Internet. Measured in Kbps or Mbps (56Kbps, 1.4Mbps for instance).

DHCP server

(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). A server in a network or Internet service that assigns IP addresses to the multiple stations on the network.

DNS (Domain Name System)

A DNS server lets you locate computers on a network or the Internet by domain name. The DNS server maintains a database of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses.

Hop

The link between two network/Internet nodes or network devices. Typically, an IP packet travelling from coast to coast via the Internet can "hop" through more than a dozen routers.

IP Address (Internet Protocol address)

The address of a computer attached to a network. Every client and server station must have a unique IP address. IP addresses are written as four sets of numbers separated by periods; for example, 198.144.49.140 (Heavenwire's speedtest server address).

Latency

An expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. In some environments latency is measured by sending a packet that is returned to the sender; the round-trip time is considered the latency. Ideally latency is as close to zero as possible.

Ping

A common Internet utility used to determine whether an IP address is online by sending out a packet (block of data) and waiting for a response.

Router

A device that forwards data packets from one local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) to another. A router sends the packets based on the most expedient route (traffic load, line costs, speed, bad lines, etc.).

Traceroute

An Internet utility that traces the route from the client machine to the remote host being contacted. It reports the IP addresses of all the routers in between.

Jitter 

A variation in the delay of received packets. The sending side transmits packets in a continuous stream and spaces them evenly apart. Because of network congestion, improper queuing, or configuration errors, the delay between packets can vary instead of remaining constant, as shown in the figure.