ISP’s love to throw big numbers at you when you are signing up for DSL/cable modem services. It seems you can $6 per month yourself to death by upgrading your speed to ridiculous levels. Well, be sure you are getting what you pay for by giving your connection a speed test.
By using the Speakeasy Speed Test, you can see exactly what your upload and download speeds are.
If your speeds are not exactly as advertised, there are a few things to remember about download speed in general:
- When your ISP says your download speed is 6 Mbps, this means 6 megabits (not megabytes) per second, so your speed is:
6 megabits * (1 byte / 8 bits) ~= .75 megabytes (750 KB)
- A lot of Internet servers are not capable of “serving” content consistently at the speeds ISP’s provide.


Jason Faulkner is the man who brings you our daily tips. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.


