At some point, you have probably checked the gas mileage on your car or made sure your home alarm system works, but unless you are a hardcore Internet user you probably have never thought about performing a DSL speed test. Your connection seems to be working as it should, so why would you? The most important reason is to make sure you are getting the service you are paying for, like you would with other products or services you have purchased. You do not want to be paying for a certain level of service only to find out that you are not even getting half the download speed you should. It is also good information to know when trying to troubleshoot why certain Web applications are not functioning as expected.
First, you need to understand what the numbers mean for your particular package. Most service providers will advertise their DSL services using the download and upload speeds a package offers. For example, you will see something like "3 Mbps / 512 Kbps" which means you will get 3 megabytes per second when downloading and 512 kilobytes per second when uploading. Most DSL providers will offer lower upload speeds for non-commercial customers since these types of clients usually download more than they upload. Now let's take a look at how DSL speed tests are performed.
Typically when you start a speed test a file is downloaded or uploaded, depending on the test you are doing, and the time it took to download or upload the file will be used to calculate the speed of your DSL connection. When performing the test it is best to make sure that you are not using any applications that could give you artificial results since you want them to be as accurate as possible. It is important to keep in mind that your results may not be exactly what your service provider advertises, but your speeds should fall within 5 - 10% of what your provider offers.
There are two main factors that will affect the speeds you get with DSL. The first is the quality of the phone line being used, neighborhoods with higher quality wiring will experience better speeds. Next, the speed of DSL is affected by distance so the further your residence is from the phone company's central office or hub the slower your connection will be. If you are considering DSL you will want to check in to both of these before signing up for service.
Overall it is recommended that you test your DSL speed a minimum of once a week. Doing so will ensure you are getting what you paid for and that there are no other problems with your network or computer. Since DSL speed tests are so easy to do there is no reason not to keep track of this information.
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