Just a note.
Take all these readings with a grain of salt. even though you can choose a server close to you, you still may travel a different route to get there nearly every time giving you different results each time.
That being said, if you do it often enough to get a realtively consistant reading, it can be useful. If your ISP offers a server actually on your 'network' so to speak, that is going to be the only true test.
You are always at the mercy of the world when you travel the internet. One bad hop through an abnormally vusy router in some city and your test can look miserable. But since there realy isn't much of a better way to test, I'm not dissing these too much. They are probably about the best test you can do for now.
If you want to realy make it interesting. Learn how to use the TRACERT command and you will be able to see the path your data is traveling and see where it slows down along the way. Also interesting to see how your path from one city to the next will often change and thus so will your speed.
Pretty easy to do. Find out the IP address of where you want to test to and Open a DOS window and type in
TRACERT [ip address].
IN fact, you can even use a URL
TRACERT
www.google.caJust something for when you are bored. Or at least as bored as I am to type this out at 1 in the am. heh heh
Goodnight!
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