HTML5-based speed tests such as those offered by and seem to have an advantage in that they require no additional software. Whether any of the speed tests I tried truly represent real-world network traffic is debatable.

One of the dozen-or-so tests recorded a download speed of 10.4Mbps, and several of Ookla's Flash-based test results exceeded 12.5Mbps for downloads.Īfter conducting more than 100 network speed tests from many different providers over the course of several days, I'm confident my ISP is delivering speeds approximating - and perhaps exceeding - those it promised when I signed up for the service. With only one exception, all the download tests I ran at the AT&T Internet Speed Test and at Ookla's indicated speeds of 11.5Mbps or greater. The FCC's test also requires that you supply your street address.) (Note that the Java-based network tester at the FCC's runs on the Measurement Labs platform, which doesn't support the Safari, Google Chrome, or Opera browsers. The company's speed tests are provided by Ookla, as are the tests at many other network providers.

Not surprisingly, the highest consistent speeds were reported when I ran the tests offered by my ISP, AT&T. The results of the HTML5-based speed tests conducted at Bandwidth Place ranged from 5Mbps to 11Mbps, those at exhibited a similar range, and the Flash-based tests at ZDNet's Broadband Speed Test recorded speeds from 5.8Mbps to 11.4Mbps. 's download scores in both its single- and multithread tests exhibited a bit more range than those of Speakeasy's Speed Test, but they averaged about 11.2Mbps. After running several tests over a span of days, all of Speed Test's download results were within a few kilobits of 11.5Mbps. Of course, the services' tests may be consistently wrong. The most consistent test results were recorded at Speakeasy's Flash-based Speed Test and at 's HTML5-based tester. Others point out that multithread tests such as those used by Ookla ( and branded by many ISPs) don't represent real-world network traffic as well as single-thread tests.

Many experts claim HTML5-based speed tests are more accurate than tests that use Java and Adobe Flash. Does the type of speed test make a difference?

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