Internet Speed: Test How Fast Your Connection Is Now!

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Do you feel like your Internet connection is slow? Need to find out how fast your ADSL or Fibre connection speed really is?

Wait no longer to put your speed to the test with our free and easy tool below. Find out more information about speed tests and how you can fix a slow connection.

Test Your ADSL Or Fibre Connection Speed

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Simply open the link below to start the test. It only takes a few seconds and you need nothing other than a connection to the Internet.

Just make sure you take the following precautions beforehand:

  • Stop all downloads
  • Close all tabs and windows aside from this one
  • Close all running programmes

Why Use An Internet Speedtest?

When you initially subscribe to an Internet contract in France, your provider will give you the theoretical, maximum connection speed you will be able to experience. But in reality, customers often find their connection is slower than what was communicated.

The only way to really find out your exact bandwidth speed is to put it to the test.

A speed test can help identify any potential connection issues, and help you understand where they are coming from and how to fix them - for instance, if your ADSL or Fibre connection start slowing down abruptly for no apparent reason.

Understanding The Result of a speed test

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A speed test will provide you with 4 important indicators:

  • The download speed, in megabytes per second (Mbps)
  • The upload speed, in megabytes per second (Mbps)
  • The latency, in milliseconds (Ms)
  • The gig, in milliseconds (Ms)

It will also retrieve information such as your IP address and your Internet browser.

Bandwidth speed is measured in megabytes per second (Mbps), which corresponds to the amount of data transferred in one second.

Upload and download speed

Download speed is the major factor taken into account when determining the speed of a line. It is a measurement of how quickly your device receives data from the Internet. Most Internet connections download much at much faster rates than they upload, and most web activities such as browsing online and streaming videos rely primarily on downloading data. The higher the number given by your speed test, the better.

Reversely, upload speed measures how quickly your device sends data to the Internet. Most Internet connections download much faster than they upload. And like with download speed, the higher the number, the better.

Also known as ping, latency is the amount of time it takes for data sent from your computer to reach another connected computer and then return back to you. The higher the latency period, the longer the response time is. So here, the lower the latency, the better.

Also known as Packed Delay Variation (PDV), jitter is the variation of latency over time. As with latency, the lower the jitter, the better. Indeed, a high jitter means your connection is lacking fluidity and can be subject to cuts and drops, during video calls for instance.

What is a good connection speed?

To summarise, you ideally want to have:

  • A high download speed
  • A high upload speed
  • A low latency
  • A low jitter

Even if just one of these indicators is either too high or too low, this can throw off your connection speed and result in cuts and a slow connection.

But how do you know what a "good" number is? Find out right below.

What Internet connection speed is required in everyday life?

Your day-to-day browsing activities will be affected by your bandwidth speed. This determines how fast you will be able to open a page or download a file or stream a film. It is thus important to choose the right speed for your Internet usages.

Ideal connection speed for online activities

Depending on how often you go online and what you use the Internet for, here are the optimal speeds you want to aim for:

Online activity Recommended speed
Netflix Recommended broadband connection speed: 1.5 Mbps download
For HD quality: 5.0 Mbps download
Watching YouTube Recommended: at least 0.5 Mbps download
You can choose between several quality levels for videos. With the 360p quality, videos are smaller and use less bandwidth, but also less detailed. With the 480p, 720p, or 1080p qualities, more bandwidth will be required. Choose the highest video quality that will you to stream in good quality and with no repeated stops and starts.
Playing video games Recommended: a low ping (less than 100 ms)
Download and upload speeds aren't important when playing games. Ping, which measures how responsive your connection is, is what to check more importantly. The lower it is, the less delay you will have in your game.
Using Skype For voice calls: 0.1 Mbps download / 0.1 Mbps upload
For video calls: 0.5 Mbps download / 0.5 Mbps upload
For HD video calls: 1.5 Mbps download / 1.5 Mbps upload
Streaming music on Spotify Recommended: 0.15 Mbp

How Internet speed affect downloading activities in everyday life

Depending on the speed of your ADSL or Fibre bandwidth, below is a summary of the downloading times you will be able to expect:

How long downloading takes depending on Internet connection speed
Technology Internet speed Downloading an Internet page (250Kb) A film in HD (approx 4GB) 20 8Mpx photos (approx. 500MB)
ADSL 2 Mbit/s 1 second 4 hours 45 mins 33 mins 30 secs
8 Mbit/s 0,3 seconds 1 hour 15 mins 8 mins 30 secs
ADSL2+ 24 Mbit/s 0,1 second 22 minutes 3 minutes
VDSL 50 Mbit/s < 0,1 second 11 minutes 1 min 30 secs
Fibre 500 Mbit/s < 0,1 second 1 min 10 secs 8 seconds

Do you need help to choose the Internet contract right for you? Get in touch with a Selectra English-speaking advisor by calling 09 77 55 72 27, or ask for a free callback.

What can affect connection speed?

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You may find that your connection speed may be lower than the maximum speed communicated by your provider. There are many reasons for this:

  • A compromised signal on DSL networks, due to a high distance between the user's device and the Internet box
  • A shared usage of bandwidth, meaning more than one user is connected at the same time
  • A sub-optimal capacity from the network provider
  • A big distance between the user's device and the provider's Internet access equipment located on the street.

What can I do if my Internet connection is too slow?

Put your connection to the test and discovered it's lagging a bit? Fortunately, there are many ways to fix this.

Resetting an Internet box

Sometimes, all it takes to get your connection going again is to reset your Internet box. To do so, simply switch your box off (press the button on the rear of the device) and turn it back on 30 seconds later.

Using an Ethernet cable

ethernet

Another solution if the reset doesn't improve things is to use an Ethernet cable provided by your broadband supplier, as this will help avoid any losses during data transmissions.

Don't hesitate to carry out another speed test once you have set up the cable in order to see if things have improved.

Carrying out an eligibility test

wifi-home

If the problem persists and you feel like you need to step up your equipment, you can carry out an eligibility test to find out if you are eligible to a technology upgrade. If so, this will enable you to switch to Fibre technology, for instance, a faster mean of getting online compared to ADSL.

To do so, simply call 09 77 55 72 27 (Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 9 pm and 9:30 am to 6:30 pm on Saturdays and on Sundays 9 am to 5 pm) or ask for a free callback.

You will just need to give the advisor helping you your phone line number, and your home address and they will take care of the rest.

Changing Internet providers

Last but not least, if you really aren't satisfied with the connection speed offered by your French Internet provider, maybe it's time to change to another broadband supplier, who will be able to offer you a better and faster connection. Find out all about how to switch Internet providers in France in this guide, or take the step today by calling a Selectra advisor at 09 77 55 72 27, who will help you find the Internet plan best suited to your connection needs and guide you through the procedure.

If you live in an urban area, you will be at an advantage since all the main providers will probably have developed their network there.

In more rural zones, or "zones non-dégroupées", however, you may find that just one or a couple of providers will be able to offer you their services, and in this case changing your supplier won't be effective or even possible.