If you’re living in a developing country like where I am now, one of the problems you may often encounter is intermittent internet connection. Seriously, it will probably take ages before internet connection speed whether at home or on mobile will be at par with that in the developed countries.
Hence, it’s a common practice among netizens such as your truly to monitor our staggering internet connection speed every now and so often. Thankfully, there are a number of good tools for checking Internet connection and one of the good one’s is Speedtest.net.
What started as a web-based tool is now on mobile and is available for both iOS and Android. The good thing is that the app is available on both the platforms and serves as a useful resource for knowing how fast your Internet connection speed is at any given time.
First Look at Speedtest.net Mobile App
Both version of the app is available as free downloads from the Android Market and App Store. If you’re an Android user, the app requires Android 1.6 and up. While all versions of iOS is supported for the iDevices.
So to get you started using this app, you already know the drill, right? Get the app installed on your respective devices and simply fire it up. You’ll be greeted by the app’s very nice and sleek interface, with the predominantly black skin.
Now here’s the best part – the app’s main interface is very simple and easy to use. In fact, you won’t be needing to go through complicated setup. You can use the app right there and then and know your current Internet connection speed.
Just make sure that you device is connected to the network and hit the Begin Test option. Then wait for the app to do its job and give you the results.
App Features
Speaking of results, the app gives you three speed results namely, Ping, Download and Upload. You’ll see a progress indicator for each of these three speed results before the app gives you the final results. The final speed results are displayed in kbps (kilobytes per second) by default. But you can change this unit to Mbps by going to the Tools option. While on that option, you may also choose to change the server as well as the order of the test history.
To view the test results, simply tap on the Results option and the app will display a list arranged chronologically with the most recent on top. Tap on individual test results to find out more information about the test conducted. This also lets you view your phone’s network connectivity type, server location, internal and external IP addresses as well as location as measured in latitude.
Exporting and Sharing the Test Results
While you’re still at the Results screen, you may also want to tap on the wrench icon located at the top right corner of your phone’s screen. This lets you choose whether you’ll want to export the test results in CSV format or delete all results. After saving the test results in CSV format, you can share this to anyone via e-mail. You may also choose to email individual test results.
Finally, the app also shows you the type of connection of your Android or iOS devices. You’ll know whether your phone is connected to the Internet via 3G, HSDPA or even 4G LTE.
Conclusion
While evaluating the app, I can now understand why Speedtest.net is the most-used application/tool for checking Internet connection speed. Simple as it may seem, this app gives fairly accurate data and performs flawlessly even if your network is not that fast.
The app’s simple, sleek and professional-looking interface is an added reason as to why you should get this app running on your iOS or Android devices especially if you’re experiencing intermittent Internet connection from time to time or just want to know if your internet service provider delivers the promised speed.
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