When it comes to broadband Internet connections, there is no such thing as too much speed. As more and more people download games, movies, and other large files from the web, the need for speed has spawned entire industries and multi-tiered marketing campaigns that entice consumers to pay premium prices for faster and faster connections.
If you are paying a premium for your Internet connection, you may want to see if you are getting what you are paying for. Using a free online broadband speed test is one way to test your connection for both download and upload speeds.
Why Test Your Internet Connection Speed?
Other than being a novel way to see your connection speed, free broadband speed tests can help you identify problems with your connection and can even provide evidence to your ISP should you need to file a complaint that you aren’t getting the speed you are paying for.
Speed tests are also a way to troubleshoot why downloads and uploads are taking so long or why your ping to a particular gaming server seems too high. If you regularly download and upload large files for your home business, free online speed tests can help you determine the optimal time during the day to transfer your files.
Whatever your reasons, online speed tests are fast, free, easy to use, and provide you with solid data with which to judge your Internet connection.
Speedtest.net
Speedtest.net offers an easy-to-use, information-rich speed test with which you can test your broadband connection. When the main page loads, Speedtest.net has already determined your location. To begin a speed test, simply choose a destination server node and the speed test begins automatically.
When the test is complete, Speedtest.net gives you several useful metrics. First, your raw download speed and upload speed in Mbps are displayed. Notice that Mbps is Megabits per second and not Megabytes per second.
In addition, the website tells you your ping in milliseconds (ms) to the test server. Speedtest.net even tells you the distance in miles between your connection and the test server.
To help you make sense of the results, Speedtest.net estimates how long it would take you to download an MP3 (5MB), a video clip (35MB), and an entire movie (800MB). However, the most useful metric is the comparison of the results of your speed test with your ISP’s average.
If your speed test results are significantly lower than the average for your ISP, you now have some evidence to motivate your ISP to look into the matter.
Speakeasy.net
Another useful free online broadband speed test is Speakeasy.net. Unlike Speedtest.net, the speed test at speakeasy.net only offers eight test servers in major cities throughout the United States. Still, it is interesting to see how your bandwidth holds up as the test servers get farther and farther from your location.
The metrics reported to you by Speakeast.net are sparse compared to Speedtest.net’s but it is great for when you just want to quickly learn you download and upload speeds. One nice feature of Speakeasy.net’s speed test is that is translates your Kilobits per second (Kbps) download and upload scores into Kilobytes per second (KBps) in case you are more familiar with using bytes than bits.
Bandwidthplace.com
Bandwidthplace.com’s speed test is great when you just want the bare essentials in a bandwidth speed test. Offering no choice of test server, this speed test is the simplest of the three to use. Simply press the Start Test button, and Bandwidthplace.com will estimate your download and upload speeds.
When the test is complete, you are presented with only your download and upload speeds in Kbps. Like Speaskeasy.net’s speed test, Bandwidthplace.com also computes your Kilobytes per second at the bottom of the test results page.
Whether you are just curious or you are collecting information to present to your ISP, each of the bandwidth speed tests above offers something that should appeal to everyone. Ranging from complicated to simple, a speed test can help you determine both the short and long-term quality of your Internet connection.
Monday, March 15, 2010
End Unresponsive Programs in Windows with Process Assassin
Software hang-ups are a source of immeasurable frustration. It is amazing to think how many hours we waste waiting on an unresponsive program to either do something or close. The Windows Task Manager can take eons to close a program, and if it cannot close it, the only recourse is to restart the entire computer.
Process Assassin is a small piece of software designed to kill unresponsive programs immediately, without closing any of your other open programs. This means software hang-ups are a minor glitch in your day, rather than a banging-head-against-keyboard travesty.
Specific options are available for each kind of potential unresponsive offender. For basic Windows programs, there is a button to kill Explorer, Command Line, Task Manager, Kernel processes, Media Player and even Live Messenger.
Microsoft Office’s applications can be particularly ornery, especially for those of us who stack multiple, huge video files into our PowerPoint presentations. Besides the normal offenders (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), Process Assassin can kill Outlook, Onenote, Picture Manager, Access and even Publisher.
Web browsers crash probably more than any of the other programs on our computers. Process Assassin has a button for each of our favorites, including Chrome, FireFox and Internet Explorer.
The final tab in Process Assassin’s repertoire is simply called other programs, and is designed to kill a select few of the other programs we use, such as Pidgin, Nero, BitTorrent and Thunderbird.
For those programs not on the pre-defined lists, you can simply click the great big Assassinate button and choose the non-responsive program from the list of running programs.
The program downloads as a zip file, and once extracted, it runs straight from its folder. So, as long as you can easily reach the folder where you store it, you can terminate programs quickly.
Process Assassin is available on Software Dynanmic’s Web site. It is designed to work with Windows versions XP or later.
Process Assassin is a small piece of software designed to kill unresponsive programs immediately, without closing any of your other open programs. This means software hang-ups are a minor glitch in your day, rather than a banging-head-against-keyboard travesty.
Specific options are available for each kind of potential unresponsive offender. For basic Windows programs, there is a button to kill Explorer, Command Line, Task Manager, Kernel processes, Media Player and even Live Messenger.
Microsoft Office’s applications can be particularly ornery, especially for those of us who stack multiple, huge video files into our PowerPoint presentations. Besides the normal offenders (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), Process Assassin can kill Outlook, Onenote, Picture Manager, Access and even Publisher.
Web browsers crash probably more than any of the other programs on our computers. Process Assassin has a button for each of our favorites, including Chrome, FireFox and Internet Explorer.
The final tab in Process Assassin’s repertoire is simply called other programs, and is designed to kill a select few of the other programs we use, such as Pidgin, Nero, BitTorrent and Thunderbird.
For those programs not on the pre-defined lists, you can simply click the great big Assassinate button and choose the non-responsive program from the list of running programs.
The program downloads as a zip file, and once extracted, it runs straight from its folder. So, as long as you can easily reach the folder where you store it, you can terminate programs quickly.
Process Assassin is available on Software Dynanmic’s Web site. It is designed to work with Windows versions XP or later.
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