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app for checking "internet speed"?

djsound

djsound

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2006
791
17
I live in Canada and just bought Shaw's "Extreme-I" internet instead of the normal cable internet. It is supposedly about twice as fast. I am wondering if there is some way I can test this...I know it is not very Mac related but I will need to use some Mac App I'm guessing. So far I do not see any increase at all. Do you guys think I would benefit from getting a Airport Express or whatever? To use the wireless N. I don't think that should matter because at the moment I have my Imac hooked up with the normal ethernet cable for internet and that should be faster right?...anyways Id like to test my speeds im getting ..any ideas? thanks
 
thanks guys..I just tried it and I got a download speed of 4640 kbps and an upload speed of 141 kbps..That is nowhere near the "up to 10 mbps DL and up to 1 mbps upload....anyone know what could be wrong?
 
I get 13mbps down and 7 up on a bad day here (college), but it fluctuates. If you're consistently under what they tell you your maximum is, then call and ask what's going on.
 
djsound said:
thanks guys..I just tried it and I got a download speed of 4640 kbps and an upload speed of 141 kbps..That is nowhere near the "up to 10 mbps DL and up to 1 mbps upload....anyone know what could be wrong?
Click to expand...

It kind of depends on whats going on around you. If your local ISP is busy, there's not a lot of spare bandwidth. That's why they say "up to". I just upgraded my cable modem today and early this afternoon I got 28mbps. This evening, when everyone and his dog are online, I got 4mbps. I am paying for 10mbps.

Keep an eye on it and complain to your ISP if it stays too low.
 
hmm today my speed was better..weird hehe. this brings me to another question...since that does not make my web pages load faster while browsing..what would? I have a top of the line Imac with 3 gigs of ram....fast internet...and still pages do not load faster while browsing the web. That is really what I was looking for when I bought the faster internet speed...Is there anything that can actually make websites load faster. We have a T1 connection at work and it still doesnt make pages load 'instantly'. =)
 
djsound said:
hmm today my speed was better..weird hehe. this brings me to another question...since that does not make my web pages load faster while browsing..what would? I have a top of the line Imac with 3 gigs of ram....fast internet...and still pages do not load faster while browsing the web. That is really what I was looking for when I bought the faster internet speed...Is there anything that can actually make websites load faster. We have a T1 connection at work and it still doesnt make pages load 'instantly'. =)
Click to expand...

The problem is not you but the source. The servers serving up the pages are probably bogged down. If you are using Firefox 2.0 you could try the Fasterfox addon. This will prefetch links on your pages making your subsequent click-throughs a little faster.
 
I keep hearing about Firefox but I have never tried it. I guess because Im pretty happy with Safari. Also I like to stick to anything thats 'mac only' hehe...Do you recommend using Firefox over Safari?? maybe i'll have to give it a go..
 
djsound said:
I keep hearing about Firefox but I have never tried it. I guess because Im pretty happy with Safari. Also I like to stick to anything thats 'mac only' hehe...Do you recommend using Firefox over Safari?? maybe i'll have to give it a go..
Click to expand...
Some people prefer Safari, some Firefox. The problem with Firefox in 2.0 is that its not very Mac-like but the coming 3.0 release should fix that.
 
well its just browsing the internet so I dont know how bad Firefox could be hehe...but I am definatly excited to try the faster fox plugin....first thing when I get home tonight...FasterFox and Hieneken :D
 
Gotcha. But what if you are viewing some site that has endless sub-pages with tons of pics....will it load the WHOLE site? That would actually be cool but would take a lot of cashe or space or whatever?
 
ok im at home now and using Firefox with Fasterfox and it actually does seem a bit faster loading sites...pretty happy with it so far. Thanks for the idea =)
 
djsound said:
ok im at home now and using Firefox with Fasterfox and it actually does seem a bit faster loading sites...pretty happy with it so far. Thanks for the idea =)
Click to expand...
Its true that Firefox isn't terribly Mac-like, hopefully a 3.0 release will address that. OTOH, its solid and supports my two favorite plug-ins; FlashBlock and AdBlock Plus (I use the combined "EasyElement+EasyList" filters as well as the "ABP Tracking Filter" which is actually an anti-tracking filter). Its amazing how fast webpages load when they don't fire off eight flash crapware widgets. ;)
 
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