More of this Feature • Part 2: Toast.net Evaluation

Join the Discussion "Does anyone have suggestions for some free or cheap software tools/utilities for testing throughput and bandwidth from the desktop to the server in a LAN?" -MAESTROG

Related Resources • Introduction to Bandwidth and Latency • Bandwidth/Speed Tweaks

1. Measure of performance at the application level rather than the network protocol level.

2. Ability to create a synthetic (artificially controlled) workload.

Online speed testers generally offer both of these features. A typical speed testing service allows one to specify their connection type (traditional dial-up, broadband, and so on) and a workload, usually represented by a file download of a fixed size. To the extent speed testers actually "work," they serve as a useful complement to other network monitoring tools.

Benchmarking the Testing Services

Many technical factors affect a person's network performance. From the current workload, processing power and amount of memory on either end of the connection, to the protocols supported by the modem, to bottlenecks at intermediate devices or "hops," performance monitoring involves many variables. No one monitoring tool can fully capture all of these nuances.

On subsequent pages, results of benchmarking for one of the available speed testers will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of this type of tool.

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