Recommended Tests

Hello. I'm not a techie, so I've always liked [this.site.has.been.blocked.for.spamming] for testing the speed of my connection, but I recently moved into and with my new broadband service found I was getting 25MB download speeds.  Unfortunately when I plugged in my wireless router to the modem the router was choking me down to 8MB  This was the same whether I plugged directly into the router or connected wirelessly.

After a call to the router manf's tech support I ended up buying a fancy new router and that only resulted in choking the speed down to 2MB wireless (though the hardwired connection was now a nice 25MB)... further the pingtest.net was showing 100% packet loss.

Another call to tech support and they INSIST that I ignore such online speedtests, as they "can't be trusted." In the end, the tech helped me make some config settings on the router (one of which was removing a firewall) and I am getting great speeds both wirelessly and hardwired, but speedtest is still telling me my upload speeds is wonky and pingtest is still showing packet loss (although my own ping tests show 100% packet received).

... what are your thoughts on free online speed tests, and what alternatives are there for a reliable upload/download speed tests and ping tests?

I'm on a mac so I'm not looking for windows or unix solutions.

Thanks so much for any feedback.

this site is the best for anything internet related, even help with stuff.   

and if you were getting 100% packet loss thats not a speed tests problem thats your isp or somewhere inbetween your computer and their servers...

You may have to configure your router to allow 'ping packets' to be let back through from the outgoing request, instead of dropping them. If you use the ping command via the run command, your router may stop the ping from getting in and out.

But depending on router, you can have it drop unsolicited pings from the Internet, while allowing the ping command to work.