Welcome to our broadband speed test, provided by Ookla. Here are our recommendations to get the most accurate results from our speed test. These will help to avoid severely underestimating your broadband speeds.
(1). Make sure that you have no other programs or applications running in the background when running our online broadband speed test. It is often difficult to know if another application is using your Internet connection, so running the speed test on different occasions (and taking the best results) may help to provide more accurate results.
(2). Try to make sure that no other devices on your network are using your broadband connection while you run a speed test. Most households have an increasing number of Internet-enabled devices, each of which could be accessing your broadband connection while you perform a speed test. These include mobile phones, tablets, desktop PCs and laptops, smart watches, smart TVs, set-top boxes and games consoles. It can be very difficult to control all devices, for example, a device could be downloading a software update or a set-top box could be downloading TV and video content. Running a speed test at different times (and taking the best results) is likely to provide more accurate results.
(3). Beware running speed tests at peak times when the servers used to provide speed tests could be heavily loaded. Try running speed tests at different times of the day, and on different days, and take the best results. For example, try running tests mid-morning or mid-afternoon.
(4). Try to avoid testing the imperfections of your Wi-Fi connection rather than your broadband connection by running the speed test on a device that is connected to your router via an Ethernet cable. As described in our Wi-Fi optimisation page, your Wi-Fi network could be the weak link in your broadband chain so you’ll end up measuring the speed of your Wi-Fi connection rather than your broadband connection. Furthermore, Wi-Fi interference issues can often cause rapid fluctuations in online speed test results. If you have no alternative than to use Wi-Fi (for example, you are using a tablet), then ensure that your Wi-Fi is optimised (using our Wi-Fi optimisation guide) and is located as close as possible to your Wi-Fi router.
(5) Bear in mind that online speed tests generally measure throughout speeds rather than the connection speeds (advertised by broadband providers). For more information about the differences, read our article:
Determine your connection speed
So, a fibre broadband connection with the maximum 80 Mbps download connection speed will only have a maximum actual throughput on a speed test of about 75 Mbps. Similarly, a broadband connection with a 40 Mbps connection speed will have a maximum throughput of about 37 Mbps. As the speeds advertised by broadband providers are actually connection speeds rather than throughputs, it is very easy to think you are not achieving the speeds expected on your line.
All the above factors above means that it is very easy, even if you take great care, to substantially underestimate your broadband speeds. Even in perfect conditions, throughput speeds (shown by the speed tests) will be lower than the connection speeds. For a much more accurate assessment of broadband speeds, you may be able to access your connection speeds directly from your router. For more information, view our determine your connection speed page.
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