Have you ever wondered just how much speed you are actually getting when you connect to the Internet? I have done some searching for good speed tests, and I have found that Speakeasy’s speed test seems to work the best.

It has a nice interface that looks like a speedometer. Just make sure that you aren’t doing anything else in the background while you do the test.

Internet service providers make sweeping claims of super fast speeds, and normally, you don’t get anything close to what you are paying for. This test will let you know exactly what you are getting.

Another neat thing is to test at different times of the day. It may give you a better idea of what the best time of the day to download that large file or have the least lag fragging people in Halo 2.

I know you net junkies out there already know about speed tests, but there are also a lot of people who are dropping a lot of cash on their internet connection without knowing exactly what they are getting. Have fun.

By the way, my ISP, Cox Communications, claims that I have 7 Mbps download. I really get some where just under 2 Mbps. That isn’t even close… it is good to know….