Are you really getting the broadband speeds you’re paying for? Learning how to test and monitor your internet speed accurately is the only way to find out for sure. While a quick visit to a speed test website is a good start, a more thorough approach involves using dedicated applications that can provide a more detailed and consistent picture of your connection’s performance over time. This data is invaluable for troubleshooting problems or holding your ISP accountable.
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🌐 The Basics of a Good Speed Test
To get the most accurate results from any speed test, there are a few rules you should follow. First, for the most reliable measurement, you should always test your connection using a computer that is connected directly to your router with an Ethernet cable. A Wi-Fi connection can be affected by many variables, like signal strength and interference, which can give you a misleadingly low result. You should also ensure that no other devices on your network are using a significant amount of bandwidth, like streaming video or downloading large files, during the test.
🖥️ How to Use the Official Speedtest App for Windows
While the Speedtest.net website is popular, for more consistent and detailed results, it’s better to use the official Speedtest by Ookla application, which you can download for free from the Microsoft Store on Windows. The app provides the same core functionality—measuring your download speed, upload speed, and ping—but it keeps a detailed history of all your previous tests. This allows you to easily track your connection’s performance over time and see if your speeds are consistent or if they drop at certain times of the day.
📈 How to Continuously Monitor Your Connection with a Widget
For even more proactive monitoring, you can use a tool that keeps a constant eye on your connection. A free and lightweight application called NetSpeedMonitor is perfect for this. After installing it, it adds a small widget to your Windows taskbar that provides a real-time display of your current download and upload speeds. This is incredibly useful for instantly seeing if a background process is hogging your bandwidth or for confirming that you are getting your expected speeds while downloading a large file. It’s a powerful tool for understanding exactly how your internet connection is being used at any given moment.
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