Continuous Broadband Speed Monitor

LucianH

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Back to the original post...

Has anybody got a recommendation for a freeware Continuous Broadband Speed Monitor? I would like a programme that can test the download/upload speed every 15 minutes and log them in a text/csv file. I've have been googling but there are no obvious "stand-out" contender. My first thought was the possibility of a VBA app for Excel (I don't mind dabbling in VBA) but, again, could not find anything.

And a related question - is there any difference in so called "streaming" tests (such as the tests for BBC iPlayer) and "normal" speed tests? If there is, it's the streaming side I'm more interested in

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

John_Gray

The SpeedMeter component of NetWorx might go some small way to doing what you want, but I know of nothing which meets in detail what you are after...

yellowlawn

I believe the new BT Home Hub has something on it's display that monitors your connection speed.

You could also trying pinging your ISP's IP address on a loop from a Command screen:

Ping -t xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

In this command, xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the target device.

Belnahua

Just be careful the constant downloading and uploading to test speed, might count against your data limits?

I also think there is problem with broadband connection speed and actual speed? Remember your modem will connect at a certain speed, but the data that actually comes through it will be different if your ISP is rubbish.

I'd also be careful about a constant ping, that might be taken as an attempt to do something sinister. Certainly if I was a network admin, I'd have a few words if someone kept pinging my router!

LucianH

Belnahua wrote: »

but the data that actually comes through it will be different if your ISP is rubbish.

This is why I want to monitor the actual speed - over a period of peak traffic (say Friday Evening/Night?) and off-peak (early hours of the morning during a weekday). I want to go back to my ISP with the information.

Belnahua

LucianH wrote: »

This is why I want to monitor the actual speed - over a period of peak traffic (say Friday Evening/Night?) and off-peak (early hours of the morning during a weekday). I want to go back to my ISP with the information.

Yes, I found this, I haven't looked into it, is it any good?

http://www.beaglesoft.com/bbmonhome.htm

LucianH

Belnahua wrote: »

Yes, I found this, I haven't looked into it, is it any good?

http://www.beaglesoft.com/bbmonhome.htm

Thanks - had a quick go but doesn't appear to create a log file. It also appears to give time for pings as opposed to giving download speed in mb/sec. Don't know much about pinging but I can't see how this would give a representative result for realistic download speed for actual (streaming) file.

I'll have to keep looking. If there's nothing suitable out there I'm still keen to progress the VBA route. All I need is some VBA code to upload and download a file (anybody?) and then I can use that with Excel to create a log.

wanman

Try JD's Auto Speed Tester -cannot post a link. I have been using this for the past week

Blackjack_Davy

Try ThinkBroadband's meter, can save to an XML file I believe -

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

penrhyn

You might want to try Routerstats Lite.

http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm

This will monitor the download speed and noise margin of your connection to the exchange.
It will not however monitor the speed of the traffic on your connection which may be throttled by your ISP.

agrinnall

I had to uninstall the thinkbroadband monitor as it kept causing conflicts that crashed my computer.