Check how rapidly your computer is downloading information from the Internet:

• Toast.net -- test download speed, several options.  See caution about "byte" below.

• Compare Top 10 ISPs -- via Toastnet

• CNET -- test download speed

• Test My Net -- test download and upload speed

• Speedtest.Net -- test download and upload speed

Check how well your firewall is protecting you:

• Audit My PC Scan

Terms Used in Describing Connection Speeds

• Kbps or kbps -- one thousand (10³) bits per second.  "Bit" stands for "binary digit," the smallest unit of info on a computer (value 0 or 1).  This term was coined by statistician John Tukey, who has coined quite a few unusual words and phrases.
• Mbps -- one million (10⁶) bits per second, that is, one thousand kbps -- take the kbps and move the decimal point three places to the left.
• Gbps -- one billion (10⁹) bits per seconds.  Some might dispute my use of the word "billion" here.  In the US, "billion" is 10⁹, a thousand million.  In Europe 10⁹ is called a "milliard," or simply a "thousand million," and 10¹² is called a "billion," that is, a million million, which Americans call a "trillion."  Are you confused yet?  Just give me the exponent of 10, please.
• Byte -- a "binary term," the number of bits (generally 8) necessary to store one computer character (such as a blank space or a letter in ASCII).  Toast.net mistakenly uses the word "byte" when they should use "bit."  This is a common error.  Don't even ask why a KB = 1024 bytes when describing data storage but 1000 bytes when describing data transfer rates.

My Connection Speeds

    I had nothing to complain about the speeds I got from Cox Communications.  For the package I had they said I was supposed to get "up to" 4 Mbps download and up to 512 Kbps upload.  A series of tests I ran in December of 2004 and January of 2005 gave me the following means:

• Toastnet Download:  5650 kbps
• Toastnet Upload:  426 kbps
• CNET Download:  3680 kbps

    Cox sold our service to Suddenlink, but my good high throughput remained until May of 2007 when it dropped to about 182 kbps up and down.  That was miserable.  It turns out this was a problem easily fixed.  The technician they sent to my house checking the cable and found that it was feeding at 5 Mbps to my modem.  The throughput I was getting, about 180 kbps, is the default rate for my modem, the rate at which it receives/transmits if not otherwise "provisioned."  All the technician had to do was call the office, give them the serial and mac numbers of my modem, and ask them to provision it properly.  After proper provisioning, I started getting throughput of about 4000 down, about 500 up.

    In December of 2009, Suddenlink announced that my 8 mbps service would be increased to 10 mbps.  They now offer three levels of service:  1.5, 10, and 15 mbps.  I currently (August 2010) pay $41.95 a month for the 10 mbps service.  Of course, my throughput is generally less than that:

• Toastnet Download from their Canadian server:  6.39 mbps
• TestMyNet Upload:  1.1 mbps

The Dog Ate My Cable

    In October of 2007 I discovered that the cable that leads to my house had been chewed up badly where it entered the conduit leading underground from the pole -- the insulation was broken and wires were sticking out and shredded.  I am nearly certain which neighbor's dog did this, a dog whose mission in life is to chew everything it can get in its mouth and defecate on all the rest.  It had even pulled the cable out of the conduit.  This dog went into my next-door neighbor's garage and ate his shoes.  I had Suddenlink repair the cable and extend the conduit to about eight feet up the pole.  Since then a series of tests with files of different sizes and different test programs/destinations has shown my throughput to average

• 6139 Download -- Range 3579 (CNET) to 7920 (Test My Net)
• 789 Upload -- Range 527 (Test My Net) to 934 (ToastNet)

    I have Suddenlink "Preferred High Speed Internet" for about $40 a month.  They have been advertising it gives 8 Mbps, which is close to the highest throughput I have achieved recently.

Others' Connection Speeds

    An instruction technology consultant in the School of Business advised :  I have Embarq 5 MB/640 KB DSL. Here are the results I got this morning. Download : 4729 Kbps,  Upload: 359 Kbps.

    A colleague in Psychology has Embarq DSL.  His throughput was 1260-1520 kbps down, 662 up.  His plan is supposed to provide 1500 down, which is about what he is getting.  He pays $30 a month.

    A retired faculty member using Road Runner in the RTP area reporting getting between 500 and 1000 kbps download and only 60 kbps upload.  Back home in Greenville he got, from Suddenlink, between 1500 and 4000 kbps download and about 500 up.

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Contact Information for the Webmaster,
Dr. Karl L. Wuensch


This page most recently revised on 21. August 2010