It's important to be able to assess your organization's Internet connectivity.

Why do you need to check your speed? Because there is a difference between the bandwidth your ISP offers you and the actual Internet speed you get. The bandwidth is the maximum transfer rate allocated by your ISP. The speed is the actual rate at which data is transmitted or received on your internet connection.

It is good practice to monitor your ISP’s performance by measuring it regularly and documenting the results. This is for you to discover how reliable your ISP is and if you get the performance you buy. This will also help you be more factual when your users say that the internet is “slow”. 

To check your internet speed, you can use various methods and tools. For example, online speed test websites, browser extensions or apps. 

speedtest.net is one the most well known, but there are others, such as speedof.me. You might find others closer to your location. 

Your ISP is likely to provide this kind of testing tool too. This can be either a dedicated website they provide, or by connecting to the router's admin panel. You should have the credentials to log in to your router and check for bandwidth information there.

Should you use a Firewalla, you can run speed and quality tests from there. Watch our webinar.

Alternatively you can install third-Party software such as NetWorx. With NetWorx, you can run connection speed tests on demand or on a schedule.

When performing speed tests, it's a good idea to run multiple tests at different times of the day to get a better understanding of your internet speed's consistency. Even with a fiber channel, the connection is shared among users at some points (unless you get professional fiber). So, depending on the time of day, and network congestion, the results can differ.

In speed tests, there is a measurement for download traffic and upload. Internet plans are usually asymmetrical; the upload speed is usually much slower than the download speed. A slow upload speed might be problematic for video conferencing.

Notice that the speed is typically measured in Mbps (megabits per second), not MBps (megabytes per second). A byte is eight bits. The size of files is given in MB. So transferring 100MB over a 100Mbps port will not take 1 second, but eight seconds. This is obviously also true for Ethernet, both wired and wireless. The speed is always given in megabits, but your files are in megabytes. So for example, 100Mb/s allows you to transfer 12MB/s. 

Pay attention not to measure your Internet speed while connected to a 100Mb/s Ethernet switch if your Internet speed is more than that. Otherwise, the speed of the port will limit the speed of the connection.

Speed is not the only important factor. It is also important to check the latency. The latency is the time it takes for data to travel from your device to a server and back. Latency is usually given in milliseconds (ms). Low latency is crucial for video conferencing, and VoIP calls, where delays can be noticeable and disruptive.

The latency depends on many factors, like the distance (which impacts the propagation delay), the network equipment (which impacts the transmission delay), the protocols used for routing packets (which impact the processing delay), as well as network congestion, which can add queueing delay.

You can measure latency using the "ping" and “tracert” commands (or “traceroute” on macOS and Linux), which will display the round-trip latency in milliseconds.

Be aware of any data caps on your internet plan. Always prefer unlimited data plans. Make sure there is no limitation on the number of devices that can use the connection simultaneously.

We recommend performing regular research on new offers from various ISPs, even for the ISP you are currently using. This can help you negotiate new prices or find interesting new offers. Should you need assistance for funding an internet upgrade or migration, please be aware that Africa ICT Services has an Africa Internet Improvement Program. Feel free to fill in a project request.