Knowing how fast your broadband internet connection is important in ensuring that you are receiving the connection speed that you are paying for.
Oz Broadband Reviews has partnered with Open Speed Test to bring you this free internet connection speed test.
Just click the start button below and it will automatically test your upload and download speeds. Once the test is finished you can compare the speed test results with the speed of your plan. If you are having trouble deciphering your internet plan details (it can be confusing), we wrote a blog post on it here that may help.
Broadband speed is how fast data can be sent and received. In our broadband speed test it is measured in Mbps or Mb/s (Megabits per second). The higher the value the faster the speed.
Upload speed is the speed of data transmission from your house to the internet and download speed is the speed of data transmission from the internet to your house.
When viewing nbn internet plans, upload and download speeds are often displayed as 100/20 Mbps where the download speed is 100 Mbps and the upload speed is 20 Mbps.
The terms ping, latency and jitter often get grouped together but there are subtle differences between each of them.
Latency is the time it takes to send data and receive a response and is usually measured in milliseconds (ms).
Ping is the unit used to measure latency as an average time in milliseconds (ms). Latency and ping are often used interchangeably but technically ping refers to the signal sent from the device to the server and latency is the time it takes for the ping to return to the device.
Network jitter is the variation between ping times. Good connections have a reliable and consistent response time which equates to a lower jitter score. The higher the jitter score, the more inconsistent the response times are the higher the chance that you may experience buffering when streaming video content.
Ping and jitter are most important when streaming media eg. video streaming, online gaming, or voice over internet (VoIP). Web browsing is not really as affected by response times but if you need real time data, ping and jitter are important measures of your connection quality.
Below is a guide of the download speeds required for different activities:
Download Speed (Mbps) | Suitable for |
---|---|
12 | Low use, single person households, web browsing, email and light video steaming for a single device |
25 | Fine for singles or couples, HD video streaming and video conferencing, 4K video streaming may buffer |
50 | Good for families and working from home, allow multiple video streams and video conferencing |
100 | Great for large families or sharehouses, allows multiple simultaneous 4K video streaming, great for gamers |
250 | Super fast speeds for heavy internet users. Great for live streaming and gaming. |
1000 | The faster speed tier, faster than most people would use, only available for FTTP and HFC connections |
Check out our Ultimate guide to NBN, wireless and broadband internet in Australia
Our broadband plan finder can help you find a new fast internet plan that will improve your working from home experience. Check it out here.