How can I benchmark upload and download speeds?

[Eldiablojoe]

How can I benchmark upload and download speeds. I strongly suspect my ISP is not delivering the speeds they promise.

Thanks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

http://www.speedtest.net

 

[Eldiablojoe]

http://www.speedtest.net

Very cool, thank you simslaldimbamba.

 

[Eldiablojoe]

Okay, I'm getting the 30 Mbps (approximately) that the ISP is claiming I'm getting (and for which they are charging $62/month!). However, just how much faster is it than 15 Mbps? For $15/month less, I will only get the 15 Mbps, but how actually noticeable will that be to me, the regular user, the casual surfer who doesn't download a lot of video, streaming or otherwise?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Okay, I'm getting the 30 Mbps (approximately) that the ISP is claiming I'm getting (and for which they are charging $62/month!). However, just how much faster is it than 15 Mbps? For $15/month less, I will only get the 15 Mbps, but how actually noticeable will that be to me, the regular user, the casual surfer who doesn't download a lot of video, streaming or otherwise?

I have a 16Mb/s connection for 30€ (14 USD) and it is more than fast enough as I get download speeds of up to 1.8MB/s, meaning I could download a movie in ten minutes if I wanted to.
For normal browsing even 10Mb/s or slower would suffice.
30Mb/s is twice as fast as 15Mb/s, theoretically, but it might only be 1.8 times faster.

Btw, 8Mb/s = 1MB/s.