Is it really important to know your Internet speed? How to test your internet speed online? These are some questions that most Internet users neglect to answer or find out.
As far as I’m concern, it is very important to know your internet speed. For the main reason for you to know if you’re getting the right speed you’ve been promised by your Internet Service Provider. As a consumer it is always wise to know if you’re getting the right value for your money.
As of now, my service provider is SmartBro plan 999. Their advertised speed is up to 384 kbps. At first, I seldom reach their advertise speed (not even half of it). Often times I called their customer service hotline(*1888) and complained a lot. There’s not much they can do about it but just to make and submit reports to their line engineers to fix or make upgrades to their base station. In short, I was ripped of my hard earned money paying them my monthly dues.
There are many free Internet Speed test online. In my case I use testmy.net and speedtest.net. You can never have an accurate speed test results that is why I rely on two different websites that offer speed test. From there you could have an estimate how fast or slow your internet connection may be.
testmy.net
This website offers separate test for download speed or upload speed. You can also choose dual speed test to show you your download and upload speed at the same time. I like this site because they have a forum which members share their knowledge on how to boost our internet connection.
This is an example of speed result you get from testmy.net
speedtest.net
This site has a cool flash interface that test your internet speed. What I like most about this site is that you could choose which severs in your local area you want to have your download and upload speed be tested.
This is an example of speed result you get from your speedtest.net
Test your Internet speed now and show off your Top Speed.
How to test your internet speed online?
How Fast is your Smartbro internet connection?
The Speed I get from Smartbro
One of the reason why come up with this blog "share a software" is because there are softwares out there that can be used to optimize our computer performance. These go as well to optimize Internet speed.
I've been a subscriber of SmartBro for a month now, and to be honest, I'm not satisfied with it.
I always keep track of my Internet Speed by visiting websites that would measure my bandwidth. These website run a test to measure your upload and download speed.
I ran a test for the first time with testmy.net and here's the result:
April 27 8:48pm
:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 108 Kbps about 0.11 Mbps (tested with 512 kB)
Download Speed is:: 13 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 146 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 18 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
Test Time:: 2009/04/27 - 6:30am
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-ZBYV4SHAN
U-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-DI5XL3WAG
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.9) Gecko/2009040821 Firefox/3.0.9 [!]
I know patience is a virtue but I also know for sure that time is money. Having download speed as less as 13 kB/s would take you forever when you are going to download large files. This is going to waste much of your valuable time. That's not the worst speed that I got because my Smartbro speed continues to drop the succeeding days.
April 28 1:36pm
:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 110 Kbps about 0.11 Mbps (tested with 97 kB)
Download Speed is:: 13 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 128 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 16 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
May 3 11:53am
:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 63 Kbps about 0.06 Mbps (tested with 512 kB)
Download Speed is:: 8 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 153 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 19 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
May 3 7:15pm
:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 48 Kbps about 0.05 Mbps (tested with 512 kB)
Download Speed is:: 6 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 165 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 20 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
May 5 1:56pm
:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 45 Kbps about 0.05 Mbps (tested with 97 kB)
Download Speed is:: 5 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 181 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 22 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net (Main)
These are the speed test results I get from my Internet provider SmartBro without doing any optimization procedures or tweaks. That is not even half of their advertise speed such as 384
It saddens me that we, the subscribers have to do a lot of research and work just to have quality Internet connection where the personnel of these Internet providers should be the ones doing all these for us.
In your case, how much speed do you get with your SmartBro connection?
My Smartbro Experience
Smartbo was the most advertised Internet broadband connection here in the Philippines I think. That is why people who wants to have broadband installed in their homes, Smartbro is among their list of choices.
I'm not in any way advertising their products and services here in this post, but this is only to share to you my Internet experience with Smartbro.
I badly need to have Internet connection in my house only because of my new found career. I'm working as an on-line teacher by the way and fortunately it was home based.
I can't think of any good Internet service provider at that time so I ask my neighbor who apparently owns a computer shop few blocks away. My neighbor then told me that they have Smartbo connection. I was a bit curious and ask them why they didn't have DSL connection instead? He then told me that our community(barangay) still can't have DSL connection now. Maybe it can but we have to pay as much as 15thousand pesos just for the cable to reach our place.
With a slight hesitation, I went to Smart office and applied for Smartbro 999 plan. It was really easy to apply since they don't need any documents. All I need to present them was a valid I.D. that's all. After I fill up their form and paid for the initial payment of P999, I was told to wait for a call to confirm their line technicians to install the antenna at my place.
It didn't take them long, I only waited for 2 days for the Smartbro line technicians to install the antenna. They made a lot of test to look for a good signal from their base station. After an hour of testing and relocating the antenna, still they have no luck of getting good signal. They're about to give up already and told me that I can have a refund. Nevertheless I insist them to try again since I can see their base station from our house. Sometimes you have to push them to work harder. They have the tendency to rush things in order for them to accommodate their next clients, since they are paid every successful installation. I understand them but they also have to understand my situation that having my Internet connection is not just about updating my Friendster, Facebook or just watching clips from Youtube, but it is mostly about my Job.
After nearly two hours of this and that, I told them that I can't see no problem with my location. Maybe it's your antenna that need to be replaced (good thing I thought about that, but why the hell they didn't think about that first). It's good they have a spare antenna with them. After replacing it with their spare, it finally showed some good stats. After the hard work, I let them stay for a while to enjoy a sumptuous meal.
I would suggest to anyone who wants Smartbro to be installed to their place to ready some cash when they're about to install. This is because sometimes the cable or the steel pipe would not be enough so you have to pay extra for those. In my case I paid P500 more for the cable. Initially they're asking me P800, but I haggle and told them I only have 500 bucks. Eventually they agree with the price.
This post is getting long already so I have to cut it short. Follow me in my next post where I have to share to you my experiences about the Speed and Quality I get from Smartbro.
Thank you for your time and hope you visit this site once again.
