Month: October 2020

The latest October 2020 Mobile Network Experience Report from Opensignal has once again named EE as the best overall UK mobile network operator for 3G and 4G (mobile broadband) performance. The operator was also the first to win the new Games Experience category, which looks at areas like latency, packet loss and jitter.

 

The new report used data gathered from a total of 376,499 devices and collected 3,095,512,380 measurements between 1st June and 29th August 2020. The results were then processed to reveal how EE, Three UK, O2 and Vodafone compared across the various categories.

Interestingly, Opensignal claims to have “used 5G measurements“, in addition to those from previous generations of mobile network technology, when determining the overall scores for each metric. But annoyingly they haven’t split the scores out to show how 5G performs, which they do offer for 3G and 4G networks.

Overall EE came top for video experience, games experience, download speed experience, upload speed check website experience, 4G availability and 4G coverage experience. The only category they lost was for voice app experience, which was won by arch rival Vodafone, although most operators were fairly close for voice apps (the lowest score was ‘75.9 out of 100’ on Three UK, while Vodafone got 78.2).

Meanwhile EE also became the first UK operator to win Opensignal’s new Games Experience award on a score of 72.3 out of 100. By comparison Vodafone was a close second on 71, which was followed by O2 on 67.6 and sadly Three UK was named the worst for mobile gaming on a score of 59.4. Otherwise the main mobile broadband speed (Mbps) and % availability results can be found below.

As usual there are caveats to this sort of data. For example, some operators have better 4G coverage, lots of spectrum bands and more advanced networks than others. Furthermore app-based crowd-sourced data could also be impacted by any limitations or locations of the devices being used, which at the same time removes the ability to adopt a common type of hardware and environment in order to form a solid baseline for testing.

Suffice to say that performance testing like this may not always tell the whole story, but Opensignal are one of the better organisations at analysing such data.

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If you feel your speed check network connection has the sign of a slowdown, you should run a speed test online to determine whether what you’re getting is worth what you paid. A lot of websites offer speed testing service with amazing features. 

We suggest using MySpeed, which is developed to provide you with an in-depth analysis of how fast your connections are. Checking the Internet on this site, you do not know the current condition of your connection but also figure out what causes your slow connection.

It is quite easy to use. All you need is access the website gospeedcheck.com, then hit the button “Go”. The process just takes you a few seconds. 

“Internet slow?” Here’s what speed test online users need to do?

Slow Internet is common problem Internet users face. Before running a speed test online to figure out the reasons, you should look at  4 things to deal with a slow connection. 

“Internet slow?” Here’s what speed test users need to do

What will you do if your Internet is slower than usual? Well, the first step suggested is to run a speed test. Of course, this task doesn’t take you much time and brain, but it’s never easy for you to get an accurate outcome. So below we’ve listed down 4 things users can do to make sure the test of the internet speed is as accurate as possible, as well as give some tips to speed up your Internet connection. Let’s check out! 

Tips to troubleshoot a slow connection

The speed test results show that you’re experiencing a slow internet connection, so what would you do? Below are some handy tricks you can take to troubleshoot a slow connection:

• Turn off the WiFi connection on your computer and plug your computer directly into your modem
• Check your laptop’s power settings to ensure your it is not in power save mode. 
• Check each end of the coaxial connection of the cable modem for damage
• Disconnect your computer, router, and modem from power for thirty seconds before you reconnect them. 

#1: Restart Your device and Modem 

Restarting your computer and modem is the first step when experiencing slow speed. This is very easy but has a real impact on the accuracy of your test. All you need to do is unplug the modem from the wall for 15-20 seconds. Then plug it back in and give it a few minutes to come back up.

Also, restart the device used to perform your speed test online. Bear in mind that turn on your device back, do not open any new apps or windows to make sure they don’t take up your bandwidth.

#2: Close all background apps

Well, background applications can be considered your worst enemy when it comes to maximizing your internet speed. For reliable results, you’re recommended to turn them off all when testing your internet speed. 

Either, don’t use your connection while running a speed test. That means you should close all other windows open on your computer.

Running a speed test online to know how good your Internet speed is

#3: Clear Your Browser’s Cache

Another thing you need to do before running a speed test online is to clear your browser’s cache. If you run the test multiple times in a row, make sure to clear the cache before each subsequent test. 

Most speed tests work by downloading and uploading one or more files of specific sizes and then using the time those files take to do that to calculate your connection’s speed.

If you don’t use a browser-based method to test speed, then skip this step. 

#4: Choose an HTML5 Speed Test

You are highly recommended to test bandwidth with an HTML5 based method instead of a Flash and Java-based one. Why? Flash-based tests, and most ISP-hosted tests, need to make adjustments to compensate for Flash that they use Flash. 

On contrary, HTML5 allows programmers to create complex multimedia experiences without any additional software. An HTML5 speed test will analyze bandwidth directly from the browser instead of the middleman (Flash), thus increasing the chance that the test is accurate.

Speed test online: How to tackle slow Internet?

Conclusion

Whenever having a feeling that your Internet speed is slow, you should conduct a speed test to figure out the reasons and ways for optimization. There are many attributes to your slow Internet connection. It could be a problem with Wi-Fi signals or your device. No matter what it is, you can try these troubleshooting steps, which will definitely help you improve your Internet connection.

See more: Internet speed test: useful tips to improve internet speed

Upload speed and download speed are 2 major parameters that are used to measure how fast an internet connection is. When you speed check your network connection, you will see the results of both download and upload speeds and of course, the higher the results, the faster the connection.

However, the download speed and upload speed are not equal in the majority of connections. The download speed is often higher than the upload speed. Well, there’s a reason behind that fact. But the question here is that “is download speed always more important than upload speed?”. Check out this article and you will know the answers. 

The download speed is often higher than the upload speed

Download speed and upload speed

Both download speed and upload speed is measured in Mbps (Megabits per second). While download speed measures how quickly the data is transmitted from a server on the internet to your devices, upload speed determines how rapidly your data and information is sent out from your devices to the internet. As we mentioned in the introduction, the higher the download and the upload speed, the better your internet connection.

When you speed check your internet connection, you will often see that the download speed is higher than the upload speed. This is because most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) design their system to give priority to downloading due to the fact that the majority of online activities these days need more than the download bandwidth than the upload bandwidth. From loading web pages to streaming videos, our most common online activities rely on downloading. That’s the reason why most ISPs offer higher download speeds than the upload speeds. But does that mean the upload is not important? Of course not. Keep reading on to know why and when the upload speed matters!

>>> Click here: speed test pc

Speed check: Why and when does the upload speed matter?

Though a lot of common online activities rely on downloading, it does not mean that upload speed is not important. Sometimes, high upload speed is more important than download speed. Let’s see why and when it happens!

Speed check: Upload speed and download speed are used to measure how fast an internet connection is

Why does the upload speed matter?

Do you know that when you do something online, your devices also send out or upload data to the internet? Everytime you access a web page, take part in online gameplays, log in your email account, and many other activities, you are uploading while downloading the data and information. But, the amount of data sent out or uploaded is quite small that does not need a high upload speed. However, with insufficient upload speed, that seems so inconvenient and disturbing for us to engage in and communicate with any online services.

In fact, there are a lot of activities that rely heavily on uploading. That’s when the good upload speed, not download speed, makes the difference. Let’s see when the upload speed plays an important role in your internet experience now!

Speed check: The speed of uploading matters when we need to upload data or content to the internet

When does the upload speed matter?

Obviously, the speed of uploading matters when we need to upload data or content to the internet, particularly when it comes to large-sized files. Think of when you want to share a long video or many photos on Facebook, for example, your high speed of downloading can make a massive difference. At the upload speed of 1 Mbps, uploading 1G of images would take about more than 2 hours. But the upload speed of 10 Mbps, the time you need to finish uploading is just less than 15 minutes. Well, do you see how a high upload speed matters here?

Not only is uploading videos or photos to social network sites, but good upload speed also helps us save a lot of time and have better internet experience when it comes to activities like making online video calls via Skype or Facetime, using Google Sheets, Google Docs, attaching large files to your emails, and many others. That’s why we should speed check the connection to see if its upload speed is enough for us to upload data quickly or engage in other activities smoothly.

Conclusion

The upload speed is also important for your internet experiences. Without sufficient speed of uploading, it’s hard for us to enjoy and communicate in online activities smoothly and efficiently. That’s why upload speed is one of the primary measurements in a speed check of internet connection. 

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