Internet connection is most often advertised and evaluated by single parameter – bandwidth. It is certainly important to get stuff fast, but poor connection quality can render speed irrelevant.
Speedtest is my test of choice for bandwidth and I had noticed yesterday that they had added (with beta tag) new Pingtest service that test connection quality.
What it does
Pingtest works in a manner similar to Speedtest. You choose server to test or let site determine that for you, wait and get results.
When choosing server Pingtest seems to not default to nearest geographically, but to test few of such and pick one with fastest response.
Requirements
Tests at Pingtest are bit more complex and so it requires Java Runtime to work. Also tests may fail, depends on network configuration. In my case it was unable to test for packet loss, possibly because computer is connected through wireless router.
Results
pingtest_result
In the end there are three stats:
- packet loss in percent – does data gets to destination;
- ping in milliseconds – how fast data moves;
- jitter in milliseconds – how stable is ping (in geek speak this would be packet delay variation).
Combining these site also calculates overall mark (A to F).
Overall
Not excessively scientific, but Pingtest makes basic connection quality test very convenient . While most people won’t care, it is important information for VoIP applications, online gaming and more.