Broadband Internet Speed test

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has an article on how broadband operators screw their customers by not delivering the rated speed.

Like tens of thousands of others, Claud Zacharias signed up with Telia for their fastest broadband, 24 Mbps.
-The service I had before was too slow, especially when the children and I were online at the same time, he says.
When he tested his new broadband connection he only got 11 Mbps at the most. He called up his broadband provider Telia, who responded that that’s as fast as he can get. And that his service agreement only guarantees up to 24 Mbps.
-I was mad. Not getting even half the speed you’re paying for is just fraud.

You can test your speed of your Internet connection with the Internet Speed test, and see if your ISP deliver what you pay for.

In January 2004 IEEE announced that it had formed a new 802.11 Task Group (TGn) to develop a new amendment to the 802.11 standard for local-area wireless networks. The real data throughput is estimated to reach a theoretical 540 Mbit/s (which may require an even higher raw data rate at the physical layer), and should be up to 40 times faster than 802.11b, and near 10 times faster than 802.11a or 802.11g. It is projected that 802.11n will also offer a better operating distance than current networks.

There are two competing proposals of the 802.11n standard, expected to be ratified: WWiSE (World-Wide Spectrum Efficiency), backed by companies including Broadcom, and TGn Sync backed by Intel and Philips.

Previous competitors TGnSync, WWiSE, and a third group, MITMOT, said in late July 2005 that they would merge their respective proposals as a draft which would be sent to the IEEE in September; a final version will be submitted in November.

802.11n builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity, perhaps through coding schemes like Alamouti coding.

The Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) was formed to help accelerate the IEEE 802.11n development process and promote a technology specification for interoperability of next-generation wireless local area networking (WLAN) products.

In the vote yesterday (Jan. 11), forty members voted for the compromise proposals, none against, and two companies abstained.
This far exceeds the JP’s required quorum of 60 percent of the membership voting, and the IEEE working group’s adoption rule of 75 percent affirmative among those voting).

This proposal is being finalized over the next two days before being submitted to the IEEE meeting in Hawaii, which kicks off January 16. All proponents seem hopeful it will get the required 75 percent majority before it can become the standard for the high data-rate Wi-Fi.

802.11n is predicated on MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) techniques, and much of the technology developed by Airgo Networks, to boost bandwidth by an order of magnitude above the standard of today’s Wi-Fi networks. The technique makes use of “multi-path” interference that might once have been minimised to drive up the network’s range.

Happy New Year!

Best Wishes from the Broadband Internet Speed test!
May 2006 be a year of high speed Internet access for all of you!

Having top speed available when online is essential in the rich media environment of the Internet today. While the prices of broadband access have come down in recent years, Internet service providers still charge premium for their services.

So when paying hard earned money for broadband you want to make sure you get what you pay for. You want to take the Broadband Internet Speed test to find out if your actual download speed matches the theoretical one your ISP sells you.

How fast is your broadband? Fast enough?

You are buying bandwidth from your Internet Service Provider. The bandwidth you buy is only guaranteed within the ISP network. Once you hit the outer boundary of your ISP and you hop over to the tier-one provider and “rest of the Internet” it’s pretty much vigilante territory and your speed is arbitrary with no guaranteed bandwidth. So while you may be sitting on your fancy business DSL rated at 2 Mbps, your browsing may crawl to a halt when accessing that remote website far, far away.

So when deciding on an ISP, make sure you pick one that is well connected to the tier one network, also known as the backbone. Most ISPs oversell their bandwidth; some more than others. Make sure your ISP does not oversell by too much.

You can test your Internet connection with our Internet Speed test.