Internet Connection Reliability Test
Online services such as Pingtest or Speedtest enable you to test the reliability of your device's Internet connection by running various tests.
Internet users can experience a variety of problems when connecting to websites or when they are using services on the Internet. Sites may not open at all, videos may buffer more than they should, you may experience connection issues in video or voice chat sessions, or that download speeds are nowhere near the advertised upper limit of the Internet connection.
Some of these problems are related to the user's Internet connection while others to viruses, background programs that do transfer data or communicate with servers, or unresponsive or slow servers.
It is always a good idea to test the Internet connection itself before contacting the Internet Service Provider for troubleshooting help.
There are quite a few ways to analyze and troubleshoot Internet connections. Two of the most common ones are traceroute and ping commands which you can execute locally or online as they are part of Windows and other operating systems.
Internet Connection Reliability Test
Update: Some services mentioned below are no longer available. We suggest you use one of the following services to run connection and speed tests on your devices:
- Internet Connection Speed test on Fast.com (by Netflix)
- Speedtest by Ookla
- Broadband Line Quality Test by Freeola
- Internet Health Test
The Internet service Pingtest offers another perspective on the quality of an Internet connection.
Pingtest runs tests on a server near the user's physical location in the world to analyze the connection's packet loss, ping and jitter.
It rates the Internet connection based on those factors which should give you a solid understanding of what's wrong with the Internet connection.
You can of course run those commands from the command line as well, using ping and tracert commands but the visual presentation and the one-click to test approach is certainly appealing.
The reliability test has been created by the same company that runs the Internet connection speed test over at Speedtest which can also be helpful at determining the quality of an Internet connection.
It will run a quick test to display your PC's ping, download and upload speed which can provide you with interesting information. Note that it is recommended to select a test server that is close to your physical connection to improve the reliability of the test.
It is recommended to run the tests several times, especially at times when you are usually using the device.
Pingtest requires Adobe Flash, while Speedtest may be switched over to using HTML5 instead for running the tests. It is unclear right now if Pingtest will be updated as well to remove the Flash requirement.
Now You:Which tools do you use if you want to test the reliability of an Internet connection? Let us know in the comments.
Sites like Speedtest or Pingtes are valid ways to test connection’s reliability for a common user; the first requires Adobe Flash Player and Pingtest requires a Java Virtual Machine.
Unfortunately I’ve been experiencing different results on the same internet connection using different O.S., probably because the Windows version of the Flash Plugin is poorly implemented under Linux O.S.
A console based version of these test ( in Python, maybe ?) , using the same dadicated servers but without a graphical interface could be a more reliable way to determine the internet connection quality.
I agree, a command line would be real nice :-)
Nevertheless I don’t think the flash will falsify the results since it should be fully cached locally..
Reliability is a long term thing, isn’t it? If you have intermittent dropouts this isn’t going to tell you anything. Net Uptime Monitor is a cheap ($10) utility that will continuously test your connection and log every failure with start time and duration. Very helpful for convincing your ISP that you have a real problem! Download it at http://bit.ly/JfbXHP
So with what tool I can check reliability?
I need to run an online software that needs stability meaning permanent connection to the internet…
So for example can I run the tester 10 hours and see if there is any or many cuts in the middle of those 10 hours?
Neither pingtest of Speedtest can help me with what I need
Hummm… I just found the solution in the comments I believe…
Let me know.
Ben Saint
Why is internet reliability synonymous with download and upload speeds? If the connection totally fails on a regular basis, THAT is what stops me working from home. It also means I’m paying for a service I’m not getting.
What I want is a monitor that checks speed AND availability… and an honest ISP who rates speed over a full 24 hours, and then refunds based on delivered performance.