Because the Internet is a very difficult environment to test your speed - I recommend that you use one web location for downloading files from. In order to get the most meaningful results you will want to choose a company that has a 'world class' network with excellent monitoring and bandwidth allocation.

By doing this you will minimize the variance that is inherent in the Internet. I recommend that you use Microsoft's web site for your testing. There's a number of reasons for this. It's the most stable resource I can find on the Internet, Microsoft has massive amounts of bandwidth at it's disposal, they have a truly global network that is continually monitored and bandwidth is assigned dynamically. As such, you will see the least amount of difference from these Microsoft servers. Be sure to test with the Proxy server on and off. I find that Microsoft's high-speed network can overpower the Proxy server - it's that good.

It's important to only choose one main testing site. This way you will get used to the server you're connecting to. You will find out what a good speed is for that server, what hours it's busy etc. The Microsoft sites I've been mentioning are listed here;

Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (129 MB)

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (272 MB)

SQL Server 2000 Evaluation Edition Release A (267.63 MB)

Remember, in any form of testing it's very important that you eliminate any variables. This becomes crucial on the Internet due to it's flexible design. The best way to do this is to use one single, known-good web server/network to download from. I do not recommend the 'Speed Test Sites' Their 'testing' is subject to server load and many other variables. If you do one test followed immediately by another you'll see what I mean. The result is usually significantly different each time. The best yardsticks I can find are the links above :-)

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