Estimate Download Speed of Your Home : Complete Guide
A throughput test allows you to measure the speed of your internet connection, and at the same time understand why your connection is slow, if that’s the case.
This speed, expressed in megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbits/s), depends on the connection technology used by your installation(ADSL,VDSL, fiber, satellite…) but also your location in relation to the network coverage of your internet service provider.
What is the purpose of an internet debit test? What precautions should be taken? How do you understand your results and improve your connection speed? A quick round-up.
Why is it important to do a debit test?
The main purpose of a throughput test is to determine the bandwidth width of your connection, i.e. the maximum amount of data transmitted per time units between your computer and the server used for the test.
More often than not, internet service providers such as SFR, Free, Bouygues or Orange only communicate to their customers the theoretical maximum speed available on their networks for each type of subscription.
However, this value is purely speculative, it is not the result of any testing. It is simply an estimate based on technical information such as the length or diameter of the connecting cables.
In practice, therefore, it is unlikely that your real-world connection will actually reach the speeds advertised by your provider.
Measuring your actual throughput will allow you to estimate the possibilities that your connection really offers.
For example, downloading a movie in HD (High Definition) may take you:
- 1. up to 6 hours with an ADSL connection of 2Mbs/s,
- 2. about an hour and a half with an ADSL connection of 8Mbs/s,
- 3. just over 30 minutes with an ADSL connection of 20Mbs/s,
- 4. just under 15 minutes in VDSL2 technology with 50Mbps,
- 5. between one and two minutes with fibre optics with a speed of 500Mbps.
Doing a debit test can determine how quickly your web pages will appear, how fast you can download a file and send data.
How does a flow test work?
Perform a fibre debit test or an adsl debit test is done on the internet,on the website of one of the various internet service providers or through an online debit test.
So just go to the website of your choice and click “Start the test”.
In a matter of seconds or even minutes, your internet connection is scanned and you can view the results according to several parameters.
All you have to do is compare your results with the theoretical speeds announced by your operator.
Depending on the test, the results are calculated either by measuring the time it takes to download a given volume file, or by raising the volume of data transmitted for a fixed period of time (1 second, 10 seconds, etc.).
Some debit test applications offer the measurement of additional parameters such as jitter or latency.
These measures are more or less interesting for you depending on your use of the internet.
Some tips before launching your internet debit test
The performance of your connection is affected by multiple parameters:
- connectivity used for the local network (wifi, CPL, Ethernet cables),
- processes on your computer (virus, antivirus, software in the background in general, downloading…),
- your internet service provider’s connection features: sync mode, poorly sized connectivity, throughput levels, poorly maintained network, etc.
For more reliability as to the measurement of the actual maximum throughput to which you can claim, certain precautions must be taken before launching your flow test:
- 1. Cut your peer-to-peer sharing software and pause all your downloads. 2. Generally, close all apps that use an internet resource and close all other pages in your browser.
- 2. Disconnect or turn off all other devices that consume bandwidth (computer, console, TV, smartphone, tablet, etc.).
- 3. Connect your computer to the internet modem with an Ethernet cable and turn off the wifi, which is more prone to speed variations.
- Also be aware that, to be reliable, the result of a test must be the average of a series of successive tests.
- It is recommended to repeat the measurement of your flow at different times of the day and at different days of the week.
- This will give you an average value independent of the time of the test.
How do I decrypt the results of a flow test?
Rising throughput
Table of Contents
The rising throughput,or broadcast bandwidth, measures how quickly a file is emitted by your computer over the internet.
The operators’ ADSL update is generally less than 1Mbit/s and can reach 8Mbts/s in VDSL if you have a very short line, that is, which is less than a km from the connection node.
In fibre, suppliers offer a maximum throughput of 600Mbps.
The flow down
The downstream,or receiving bandwidth, determines how fast a file can be downloaded to your computer.
Internet service providers offer an average ADSL top-down rate between 1 and 15Mbs/s and can go up more thanks to the VDSL:
- Free adsl: Like Orange, the average throughput is between 1 and 15Mbps and can reach 50Mbs/s in VDSL.
- Bouygues ADSL: ADSL speeds up to 28Mbps and up to 100Mbs/s in VDSL.
- SFR box adsl: ADSL speeds up to 20Mbps and up to 70Mbs/s in VDSL.
- Orange internet adsl: The average throughput is between 1 and 15Mbs/s and can reach 50Mbs/s in VDSL.
With fiber, you can claim a much higher rate, up to 1Gbit/s or 8Gbits/s depending on the operator chosen.
Latency or ping
The latency rate, also known as ping, is the response time of your connection, that is, the time it takes the internet data to go back and forth between your computer and the server used for the test.
Depending on your usage, latency can be a very important parameter since it allows for example to play online without jerking or cutting.
Latency is considered to be:
- excellent if it is less than 30ms,
- very good quality if it is between 30 and 60ms,
- good if its value is between 60 and 100ms,
- acceptable if its flow is between 100 and 200 ms,
- on the other hand, latency is bad if the throughput is greater than 200ms, so you won’t be able to play online video games.
The jitter
The jitter, on the other hand, assesses the variation in latency. Indeed, it is possible that your latency rate is at times excellent but also very bad at other times. This is the case when your jitter is very high.
Therefore, if you frequently use communicative applications (voice, video, etc.), the variation in this latency over time, referred to as “jitter,” will be just as important to you.
A high jitter value indeed reflects the existence of variations in the connection that can be heavily disabling.
If the up and down throughputs must be high to be qualitative, latency and jitter must have low throughputs to be of good quality.
The Mbit/s
The speed of bandwidth is measured in megabits per second (Mbps). This unit of measurement is the number of data transmitted in a second.
This is the measurement of up and down debits. The higher the measured throughput, the better your connection will be.
What can affect the speed of an internet connection?
The information obtained as a result of a flow test remains purely indicative.
In addition to the timing of the measurement, the performance of your connection also depends on multiple external factors:
- your computer hardware and the quality of it,
- local network used (Wi-Fi, CPL, Ethernet…),
- the operator’s quality of service (bridging, overloading, etc.),
- Maintenance of cables and connections,
- network saturation,
- the “path” travelled by the signal during the flow test.
The tests only account for the speed of a specific link consisting of the computer of the subscriber wishing to test its speed (with its own memory, disk and network port), the test server but also the path connecting the two.
This path itself includes:
- 1. the local network (with its or its switches, plugs…) and the modem of the subscriber,
- 2. The operator/customer connection network,
- 3. possible inter-operator links (in this case the link also includes the network of other operators involved),
- 4. the connection to the test server, the modem associated with this server and finally its local network with its possible firewalls, routers, etc.
Beware, there is no indication that the results obtained apply in the majority of cases!
The speed of data exchange will vary depending on the geographical situation of the data sending and receiving points, but also depending on the path used for the transfer.
How can you improve the speed of your internet connection?
If, after launching your test debit procedures to evaluate your internet connection, your results turn out to be weak, you can try to remedy it in different ways.
Before you try anything, start by resetting your box. Sometimes this is enough to remedy some of the problems of connection speed.
To avoid network interference, you can use an Ethernet cable.
All you need to do is connect your computer to your internet box to get a qualitative connection.
If your connection is good but you have trouble searching or downloading in certain rooms of your home, you can use an internet amplifier.
Finally, if you can’t fix your slow connection problems, you can change your offer (to benefit from fiber for example) or even switch providers.
