Short Circuits

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday March 11, 2008

GR

Q MY broadband internet connection seems to be slower than advertised and is noticeably poky at certain times. What might be causing this slowness, and how can I find out how fast my connection really is?

A MANY factors can affect your speed, like general internet congestion, slow websites, the number of other users on the provider's network or your computer's own network settings.

If you are using a wireless connection, weak signals or interference from microwave ovens and cordless phones could be slowing things down.

But internet service providers also advertise higher connection speeds than those you might possibly expect to get in regular use. Many providers give you faster speeds to download data than you get for uploading files.

There are ways to test both your download and upload speeds. One of the best is to use a website that offers to test your connection speed, typically by sending a small bit of data between the site and your computer and clocking the transfer time. There are several such sites around the web. Two options are www.speedtest.net, and the page of broadband tests and tools at www.dslreports.com/tools.

Your ISP may also have its own tools you can use to check your connection.

If you use those little desktop programs known as widgets or gadgets, you can usually find a few at your favorite widget site that test your network speed - like the Speed Test sidebar gadget for Windows Vista (free to download at www.widgipedia.com). Utilities like the MenuMeters tool for Mac OS X (www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters) also give you speed and other information about your computer, like current memory usage.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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