Five HTML5 apps to gauge your ISP's speed - TechRepublic

Five HTML5 apps to gauge your ISP’s speed

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    Introduction

    Internet speed test apps have been around for a long\r\ntime.Most of us have visited SpeedTest.net, SpeakEasy.net/SpeedTest, or our ISP’s\r\nspeed test site at one time or another to check our bandwidth.However, most of those apps use Flash or Java\r\napplets to conduct the speed testing.In\r\nthe modern world of various platforms, only one solution will work on them all:\r\nHTML5.HTML5 is supported on all modern\r\nbrowsers — Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and\r\nApple Safari, as well as many others \u2013 which means your system doesn’t need\r\nanother piece of software to test your internet connection.

    But despite this advantage, some HTML5 apps are not yet as\r\neffective as their Flash or Java counterparts.Here are five HTML5-based Internet speed test apps, some that perform,\r\nand some that do not.

    Note: This gallery is also available as an article.

    Dan Collier
  • Bandwidth Place

    The standout feature is that it offers various servers\r\naround the world, therefore providing the best results for a global user base. Bandwidth\r\nPlace fares well as far as results. It’s comparable to the Flash and Java\r\ntesting sites I’ve used for years.

  • HTML5 Speed Test

    During all my attempts, I couldn’t get this product to\r\ndisplay results over 25-30% of the other products’ results. According to the\r\nsite, this was because my “browser likely isn’t fast enough” — but\r\nthat doesn’t correlate to the other HTML5 results. Another answer may be deeper\r\non the site: This test uses TCP, so retransmits may cause a problem. The reason\r\ncould also be that there is still some JavaScript used (it’s not pure HTML5) or\r\nit could simply be server load/congestion.

  • Open Speed Test

    Unfortunately,\r\nduring testing, this app returned a wide variety of speed results, when other\r\napps were much more consistent

  • SpeedOf.Me

    SpeedOf.Me has 44 worldwide servers near primary internet\r\nexchange points, which helps with accuracy. It is very consistent compared to\r\nother apps on this list and to Flash- and Java-based apps. On the downside,\r\nSpeedOf.Me’s Start button is not easy to spot, being tucked down into the\r\ncorner.

  • TestMy.Net

    This product’s best feature is the option to\r\ntest single-thread or multi-thread speeds, which simulates what many of the\r\nFlash- and Java-based apps do. None of the other products on this list share\r\nspecifically whether they use single- or multi-thread testing, but the\r\nimplication is that they offer only single-thread.

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