To the right is a live demo of the MySpeed test that is available through the MyConnection Server^® suite.

Go ahead and click the start button and perform a test right now....

Download speed: The actual throughput speed measured between the browser client and the speed test server as an average over the test duration.

Upload speed: The actual throughput speed measured between the browser client and the speed test server as an average over the test duration.

Quality of service: This is a measure of the data flow rate consistency based on the analysis of the slowest and highest throughput rates. For real-time applications such as streaming video, VoIP, IPTV and even gaming applications the key to a good quality service is a connection that constantly delivers a consistent throughput of data.

Download test type: Socket-to-socket or HTTP. The default test is socket-to-socket, if this connection cannot be established a HTTP test is performed. A direct socket-to-socket connection works at the lower TCP transport layer. A HTTP connection uses the Web Server which works at the application layer and is subject to factors such as browser caches and proxies which can affect results, particularly on networks with connection speeds in excess of 10Mbps.

Upload test type: Socket-to-socket or HTTP. The default test is socket-to-socket, if this connection cannot be established a HTTP test is performed. A direct socket-to-socket connection works at the lower TCP transport layer. A HTTP connection uses the Web Server which works at the application layer and is subject to factors such as browser caches and proxies which can affect results, particularly on networks with connection speeds in excess of 10Mbps.

Round Trip Time: The length of time it takes for a packet to travel to the destination and back. Round-trip delay time is significant in applications that require two-way communication such as VoIP, where the round-trip time directly affects the throughput rate.

Maximum download delay: The longest pause recorded between packet transfers during the download testing process. For a connection that has no inherent TCP delays associated with the route the packet delays should not exceed the number of milliseconds necessary to transmit a single packet at the default MTU size at the slowest connection speed for the route. However for routes where the transmit time is faster than the route time then the larger delays will be recorded as delays will encompass the TCP forced idle time. When data quality problems exist such as dropped packets or even packet shaping policies then much larger delays will be recorded.

Average download delay: The average pause recorded between packet transfers during the download testing process.

Estimated download bandwidth: The calculated maximum TCP connect speed that is supported by a network connection. The Max Attainable Speed identifies the client’s local connection speed, and helps users to better evaluate the performance of TCP over the route being tested. The measure provides better insight to the impact and degradation of connection problems that affect throughput quality and speed including the length of the route itself.

TCP max route speed: The maximum speed that may be attained on the route being tested between the client and testing server. The Max Route Speed is an important measure of the inherent latency in the route being tested to identify the limits imposed on the TCP stack. This measure enables users to validate that any degradation reported is a result of the route length as opposed to connection quality issues such as data loss, packet shaping and traffic congestion.

In addition, for established and permanent corporate backbone connections (such as between 2 corporate offices) the Max Route Speed identifies connection limits so the business can assess what level of connection speed (e.g. T1, T2, T3) for application use will deliver the best ROI.

Download TCP forced idle: This measure identifies inherent TCP idle time invoked because the end-to-end latency for the connection exceeds the TCP transmit time for the window size being used. The TCP stack is forced to idle for the length of this delay. The percentage of the route latency time that is forced TCP idle time allows users to assess the capacity for a connection to sustain more than one TCP session with little or no degradation to other TCP sessions.

For example, if a connection shows 50 percent forced idle another FTP download session could be run on the same route with little to no impact to the first download session. In this case, if a download service supports multiple connections the throughput could be doubled by allowing the transfer to use more than one connection. Forced idle time is also a benefit to HTTP as HTTP will operate more than one concurrent transfer simultaneously.

Max route concurrency: The number of concurrent TCP sessions that can be established before degradation of service occurs.