Bandwidth Meter DSL will check the bandwidth of your Internet connection and compare it against DSL, cable modem, and other broadband connections. It's easy as 1-2-3...
What the Bandwidth Meter does
When you click the 'Go' button, an image file is downloaded to your computer from VinDSL servers. Download times are then used to calculate the bandwidth speed from your computer to our Internet site. Your bandwidth speed may be affected by many factors (see details below).
What is the Bandwidth Meter?
The Bandwidth Meter DSL speed test measures the information-carrying capacity, or bandwidth, between the client and the server. In this case, the client is the user on the Bandwidth Meter, and the server is the VinDSL Internet site located in the United States, Houston, Texas.
What does the Bandwidth Meter do?
During the initial 'spike test', a 50K image file will be downloaded to help determine the throughput to your computer. Once the connection speed has been estimated, Bandwidth Meter DSL will then download a larger image file to your computer. The file size during final testing will vary between 50K to 3.0MB.
Once the 'final test' is executed, the amount of time it takes for the larger file to be completely downloaded will be reported to our servers. The results of your test will be displayed adjacent to the maximum speeds offered by various types of Internet service, from 28.8K dial-up to 6.0MB T3.
Why do I want to use the Bandwidth Meter speed test?
Often, users perform this test simply out of curiosity, to see what the actual throughput is from their computer to our Internet site. However, in some cases, users have been able to troubleshoot their connections to the Internet by performing tests on the Bandwidth Meter DSL speed test.
What can affect the Bandwidth Meter results?
The bandwidth rate between your computer and our servers could be affected by many factors. Some of the most common are:
Being outside of the United States or far away from the location of our servers.
Performing other downloads at the same time that this test is executed.
Executing programs that use your bandwidth while this test is being run.
Broadband users: The quality of your connection is paramount. In many cases, users will find they have 'line noise'. This is primarily caused by stray electromagnetic energy creeping into their wiring, which degrades the quality of signals in hard-wired circuits, e.g. telephone lines, cable systems, LAN connections. This causes data error correction to take place, thereby limiting the throughput to your computer.
Dial-up users: Please note, 56K modems are limited by FCC regulations to 53K.
