Since a while my broadband connection gets slow frequently, so I wanted to perform regular benchmarking probes and create a graph to illustrate the actual uplink and downlink speed.

Your first approach to this might be to download and upload a payload, measure the time this took, and divide the sizes of the files you downloaded and uploaded by the times it took. But this approach is seriously flawed… Why? Simple. In a usual scenario you have a router that terminates your internet connection, so eventually other LAN clients will cause traffic at the same time you’re performing your probe. This would “limit” the bandwidth you have for your probe, and thus artificially reduce the speed you calculate.

So how to do it properly? You should ask your internet gateway (your router) for the traffic it sees.

Continue reading How to properly benchmark your broadband connection →