Internet speed slowdowns are the worst. Imagine you are in the middle of an important Zoom meeting with an international client and you are pitching to them. Suddenly, your video goes out of proportion, freezes all over, and ultimately, disconnects just as your client is about to show signs of affirmation. What would you do besides staring at your screen in horror?
Now that the entire world is moving towards remote work in the face of a deadly pandemic, you need the support of a high-speed and consistent internet connection like Cox internet, to get through the day more than ever. If you have signed up for a fast internet plan, yet you are receiving slow speeds, then it is better to confirm your internet speed situation before picking up your phone in anger to call your ISP. How can you do that? With the help of an internet speed tool. Here are the best internet speed tools for desktops and phones.
What is an Internet Speed Test Tool?
An internet speed test tool verifies the current rate of download speed, upload speed, and ping time of your internet connection. It gives you a real-time value, which you can measure against your subscribed internet plan to see if you are getting the speeds you’re paying for. Some internet service providers promise you a 100 Mbps fast broadband in the advertised offers and deliver only 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps. This wastes your time, money, and resources. Other internet carriers, especially cable providers, choke your bandwidth via data caps, which you may not even know about.
An internet speed test can bring everything to light. So, whenever you face an internet slowdown, run a speed test to get a solid grasp of the facts.
What Should You Do Before Running a Speed Test?
Accuracy is of the essence, here. To get accurate speed test results, you need to move things around a little bit. For starters, turn off the internet on all devices except the one you’re conducting the internet speed test on. Close all background programs and applications, as they will eat up data under the radar and mislead the speed test. Switch the Wi-Fi frequency band of the router to 5 GHz, since it is less crowded and faces minimal interference.
If you are running the speed test on your phone, then remove all obstructions between your device and the router. Also, try sitting close to the router, so the signals don’t have to travel a long way to reach you.
If, however, you are running the speed test on your desktop, then the best way to ensure correct results is to physically connect the router/modem to the PC or laptop via an Ethernet wire.
What are the Top Internet Speed Test Tools for Your Phone?
Most people prefer to surf the internet over their smartphones. Consequently, they come across internet lags on their compact devices. It is easy to run a speed test on your phone. The following are the top internet speed test apps for smartphones:
Meteor By OpenSignal
This is a free Internet speed test tool app with a simple design and a smooth interface. It is available to download on both Android and iOS devices. Meteor informs about the download speed, the upload speed, and the ping rate, without going into the technical depths. So, the results are easier to understand for people who are not particularly tech-savvy. It also gives you ping response information for separate apps, too.
SpeedTest Master
SpeedTest Master not only shows you the download speed, the upload speed, and the ping response time of your internet connection, but it also gives you an insight into the strength of the Wi-Fi signal. It analyzes and compares various wireless access points, and highlights the source with the most powerful connectivity, so you can suffer minimum latency. SpeedTest Master is not a free tool. It is available to download on both iOS and Android.
Fast by Netflix
Fast is a light speed-test app that is easy on the eyes and takes less space on your phone’s storage. It has an eye-friendly design and starts the test automatically just as you enable the application from your phone’s menu. The app is currently available to download on both Android and iOS smartphones.
What are the Top Internet Speed Test Tools for Your Desktop?
Working from home, gaming, and even streaming require desktop usage. You can run a speed test on your desktop to see the status of your internet speed. Check out the top internet speed test tools for desktop below:
SpeedOf.Me
Nobody likes a program that puts a burden on the system. SpeedOf.Me is the exact opposite. This speed test tool uses HTML5 to work, which is already built into your browser. In other words, you don’t have to install a plugin. It is faster to load and doesn’t use up system resources. SpeedOf.Me graphically displays the download speed and upload speed, so it is easy for you to understand your current internet situation in one glance.
Ookla Speed Test
Ookla is one of the pioneer speed test tools on the web. It laid the foundation of online speed tests at the time of its inception and has added numerous features overtime to make the user experience as seamless as possible. You can accurately verify the current download and upload speed of your overall connection, get the calculated ping, view your network test history, connect to a wide assortment of servers, and recently, run a video-specific speed test to see if your connection can handle videos in 4K quality and how well.
Wrapping Up
Running a speed test of your internet helps you identify the bandwidth flow you’re receiving and correctly estimate the cause of network slowdown. Use the tools mentioned in this post to conduct a speed test on your own today!
