Free resouces to help determine your Bandwidth

Bandwidth Speed Test

A wide aray of tests to find your true bandwidthspeed...

Why am I having problems with the my bandwidth speed test? Seems to be the common question and so we have created this page for those of you that may be having problems.

Symptom: I see a grey box with an x where the speed test should be.

Solution: This indicated that the Java class file is not being loaded. This can happen if you are not using the latest version of Java. You can find the latest version of the Sun Java Runtime Environment here. There are also reports that uninstalling, then reinstalling Java can also solve the problem.

Symptom: You receive an error message: Load: class 'JBM' not found.

Solution: Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine does not fully support all the features in the bandwidth speed test. Use the Sun Java Runtime Envirnment.

Symptom: You receive this error message on clicking start: Connection refused..

Solution: Usually caused by your firewall rules which may be blocking communication to our server testing ports. In order for the bandwidth speed test to function, you have to allow connections to port 8500, and also return data from that port.

Test Your Bandwidth

A brief overview of our internet speed tests...

Internet Speed Test

When reading the results of our bandwidth speed test, you'll notice a lot of terms and lingo that may seem confusing. We have taken every measure to make sure these bandwidth tests provide accurate results, but in just in case, we've included some information below that may help.

Bits and bytes, kilos, megas, gigas, Megs, Mbits MB's can be very confusing! Let me try to cover it:

A bit is a binary digit (placeholder) which contains a value of 0 or 1. A bit is abreviated with 'b'. It takes eight bits to make a Byte. A Byte is abreviated with 'B'

There are two types of Kilobytes:
Kilobyte (represented with 'k', as in 56k) in speed tests means 1000 bytes.
Kilobyte in computers (such as space on a hard drive) means 1024 bytes and is represented in 'K'.

There are also two types of Megabytes:
Megabyte (MB) is a kilobyte times itself. So, if you are talking Kilobyte in speed test results, it means 1,000,000 bytes or if we're talking in computer space, 1 MB = 1,048,576 bytes.

Of course, we have to have the same logic for gigibyte, so:
A gigabyte (GB) is again a multitude of a kilo bigger, so 1,000,000,000 bytes if we're talking speed as in bandwith speed or 1,073,741,824 bytes if we're talking computers (drive space, etc).

Bandwidth Testing - Quick Reference

Here is a quick reference to the terms used in our bandwidth speed test:

  • One bit = 1 b
  • One byte = 1 B (8 bits)
  • One kilobit = 1 kb (1,000 bits / 1,024 bits)
  • One kilobyte = 1 kB (8,000 bits / 8,192 bits)
  • One megabit = 1 Mb (1,000,000 bits / 1,048,576 bits)
  • One megabyte = 1 MB (8,000,000 bits / 8,388,608 bits)
  • One gigabit = 1 Gb (1,000,000,000 bits / 1,073,741,824 bits)
  • One gigabyte = 1 GB (8,000,000,000 bits / 8,589,934,592 bits)