If the speed and stability of your home network recently became more important than ever before, then you’ll need to learn how to test your local network speed with a LAN speed test tool.
The most common method that we use is by visiting a speed test website like speedtest.net. On that site, a javascript application is loaded in the web browser which selects the best (nearby) server based on the ping time and then the speed test results for that server are shown. Upload is the measure of how fast content is delivered from your computer or local area network to others on the Internet. For businesses or power-users, download and upload speed should match or at least be very close.
![Speedtest local network ubuntu Speedtest local network ubuntu](https://support.foundry.com/hc/article_attachments/115000815004/lst_lite1.jpg)
What is a speed test tool?
When sending and receiving files, documents and other data becomes a mission-critical, you’ll want to check to make sure your network is working as well as it possibly can. The thing is, this goes beyond the connection speed your ISP promises it provides, and also relies on other factors, such as:
- Where your router sits in the house. (Don’t put your router in a corner behind a large item of furniture if you want the best connection speeds).
- If you are using a wired or wireless connection to your system. (Wired over Ethernet is usually, but not always, faster).
- Local contention rates. (If you use ADSL and 30 of your neighbors are also online on the same exchange you may see slower speeds).
- Network congestion. (Wireless networks use different channels. So, if you and four neighbors all have routers set to broadcast on channel 8, you may have slow performance).
- The speed of the network itself. (What we’re looking at here).
In other words, there are two primary elements to your connectivitity: Your externally faced components, usually defined as your router and broadband connection; and your internal network, defined as your Wi-FI hub, router, extenders, wired network and so on. That’s the LAN, and that’s what we’re checking.
How to check your broadband speed
You can check the speed of your broadband connection (and get a sense of local contention rates) using any of the many online connectivity testing systems, such as this excellent, detailed test from Sourceforge. As a rule of thumb, a good fiber connection will nearly always beat standard ADSL.
How to check your Local Network (lAN) speed
The speed of your LAN (lan) is different from the speed of your broadband connection as it reflects how quickly data moves around your internal network. In an ideal world, you’d have both a fast internal network and a fast broadband connection.
I find that one of the best tools for checking the LAN is Network Speed Tester (around $4.99). Available for iOS, Mac, tvOS and Android, it provides you with the information you need in the form of nice, clear diagrams that provide a ton of useful data in formats that make sense. Another good tool for the task is the Oka Wi-Fi Speed Test (free).
These tools will offer up a host of data. Usually this will show a discrepancy between your promised 1Gbps connection to your local ISP and the performance you enjoy on your network, but you must consider that the speed of your network can be impacted by the slowest Wi-Fi devices you have on the network (802.11b slows everyone down), as well as the quality of Ethernet cables and routers you use.
How Network Speed Tester works
- You need to have at least 2 devices running on your local network to use the app.
- One becomes a server, the other becomes the client for visualizing the results.
- Open the application on both devices, one will be the server (it doesn’t matter which one).
- The client device will show the results.
- On the client device, open the app and select the other (server) device.
- Press Start and it will begin to figure out network performance.
- After a few minutes you’ll be able to see what kind of performance you’re getting,
What can you do with this information?
Understanding the efficiency of your LAN is helpful because the information may give you the insight you need to:
- Optimize where you put your router: If you find your network performance doesn’t meet your expectations try moving your router position, as other electronic devices, walls and household furniture can degrade this. Move it around to find the optimal point.
- Optimize use of Wi-Fi range extenders (if you have any): The same logic applies to any Wi-Fi range extenders you might have installed around your place – move these around to identify the best network performance you can yield.
- Optimize high-bandwidth applications: If you are using a MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPad or iPhone and need to transfer large files, engage in a (high bandwidth) video conference, or otherwise move lots of data around as efficiently as possible, using a network speed tester will help you find the best possible position in your home/office to do so. This also becomes the best place for watching streaming movies, of course..
- Check your hardware: The tool also helps you verify your network components, such as any network switches or routers you may have put in place where you are.
Now you’ll be able to figure out if there’s a problem on your network.
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Which is the better network speed testing app for Windows: Microsoft Network Speed Test or Ookla Speedtest? One wins by default as the other is entirely incompetent and created without much knowledge of decades old technologies!
Ookla Speedtest (OST) has a wide network of servers you can test your network speed against scattered all across the world. Through partnerships with large web hosting providers and internet service providers (ISP), Ookla can not only tell you how fast your internet connection is to servers in your region but anywhere in the world with over 6000 test servers to choose from.
Microsoft Network Speed Test (MNST) can only test against the geographically closest Microsoft Azure data center. That is still 34 regions around the world, but you’re limited to testing against only one. Azure has no local presence in Africa, Russia, and only one in South America.
When I run speed tests with the two apps, I get quite different results. Ookla Speedtest measures my download speed at 160 Mbps, which is slightly above the expected 150 Mbps my ISP promises. Microsoft Network Speed Test inexplicably measures 2,6 Gbps.
So what is going on here? After some digging, I found out that Microsoft tests download speeds against Azure Storage Blobs, part of Microsoft Azure “cloud offerings”. Files hosted on this platform aren’t assigned any caching policies out of the box, and Microsoft’s team working on the Network Speed Test app didn’t configure any caching headers for their test “blobs”/files. Since the test downloads don’t specify any caching headers, caches will just store these by default.
The result I get are between my local Windows PC and my local Squid web cache server over fiber optic cable and 10 gigabit network cards. The 2,5 Gbps speed is maxing out what my local network can perform rather than the external network; which is usually what you want these types of services to reliably test.
This may cause issues for anyone testing their network speeds behind a web cache/accelerator or other caching appliance, or who is running a web accelerator software on their computers. Quite a few ISPs still runs web caches to speed up networking for their customers (and save on costs if bandwidth is expensive in the area).
This makes the test results from Microsoft’s app entirely untrustworthy as you’re never sure what you’re testing against. Ookla’s app doesn’t have any such problems.
I’ve contacted Microsoft about the issue two times, first in through multiple channels but haven’t receive any sort of acknowledgment of the issue. The app has been updated four times in the Windows Store since the first time I alerted them about their incompetence .
I also find it telling that the “speedometer” user interface for Microsoft Network Speed Test app only goes up to 50 Mbps whereas Speedtest by Ookla can measure up to 500 Mbps before the needle surpasses the maximum value. This is probably the result of different design cultures. Microsoft designed an app for the United States market — where bandwidth is expensive and speeds are slow — and Ookla designed an app for the international market where speeds often exceed 50 Mbps.
There isn’t much else to these apps except for the networking speed tests; except that both apps keep histories of your previous test results. The Microsoft Network Speed Test app lists previous tests in a plain table and don’t utilize available screen space all that well. Ookla Speedtest is almost the same, but chooses to fill the whole screen with the three most recent results instead.
OST uses the regular Wi-Fi signal icon to represent networking throughout the app. This is a bit confusing when you’re testing with a device with both a wired Ethernet connected as well as a wireless Wi-Fi connection as there’s no way to determine what network interface is used. Both apps defer the decision as to what network interface to use for testing to Windows, but Ookla confuses the issue with a poor icon choice.
Speedtest Local Network Linux
Uses Wi-Fi signal icon for networking, even though I tested with Ethernet. A normal globe-means-internet or a router icon would be preferred, as it caused me some confusion as to which network interface was being used for testing.
Conclusion
Speedtest Local Network Ubuntu
Stick with the Ookla Speedtest app. Ookla has more experience with running a network speed testing service, through their popular SpeedTest.net tool. Don’t trust developers who are just “making another network speed testing app” to fill up their platform’s new App Store and who don’t have much experience with the problem their app is trying to solve.