Q. What exactly does the speed test measure?
Ans. The speed test measures the last-mile
speed of your connection – the value promised by your service provider - using a
server that is geographically closest to you. It does not measure the actual transfer
speed of a file over the internet. That would introduce a host of variables into
the test that are not under the service provider's control, such as the content
provider's server load and bandwidth.
Q. Why do the results of my speed test here
differ from the results of other speed tests?
Ans. The speed test has access to a fixed
number of servers around the country, automatically choosing the one closest to
you to conduct your test. But the server used may be farther from your actual location
than is optimal. Other speed tests may have access to far more servers, allowing
them to test your speed with a closer one and giving you a faster result. Another
possible reason for a discrepancy between test results is the unit of measure given:
the speed test measures in kilobytes per second; other sites may measure kilobits,
megabits or megabytes per second.
Q. Why is there such a discrepancy between
download and upload speeds?
Ans. Most service providers configure
their connections to favor download speeds over upload speeds, because there is
far more demand for downloading content than uploading. If one direction of the
test is not working at all, you might have a software firewall installed. Disable
the firewall and run the test again. But don’t forget to re-enable the firewall
when you're finished.
Q. What must be installed in my browser to
run the speed test?
Ans. The speed test should work in any
browser that supports at least Flash 7. www.speedtest.net is well known site for
speed test.
Q. What if I have more than one computer?
Ans. This essay was written assuming
that you have only one computer at home. But many families (and many individuals)
use more than one computer, in which case you want them all to use the same fast
Internet connection. To do so, you’ll need to set up a small home network, in which
one computer (connected directly to the cable modem or DSL connection) acts as a
referee for all the other computers in the house. The setup for such a network is
outside the scope of this article, but be reassured that it isn’t difficult to get
one working. You should be able to find a local computer consultant (or brilliant
nephew) to assist you if you don’t want to take on the challenge yourself.
Q.The results I get from the speed tests are
higher than I'm seeing on other downloads. Why?
Ans.The broadband speed test is designed
to reflect web traffic over other internet usages. Some ISPs monitor and slow down
non-web traffic of various kinds, giving different speeds for different programs:
also, other software behaves differently from web browsing and can be more or less
sensitive to performance bottlenecks.
Q.Is all the content on the Internet free?
Ans.Much of the content of the Internet
is free, but that is changing very rapidly as encryption and accounting technology
is applied to the problem of exchanging the credit and debit information of Internet
commerce safely and securely. The technology for electronic commerce is well developed,
but it will take time for new fee-based services to develop.
Q.Can I make telephone calls on the Internet?
Ans.Yes, but the sophistication of the
service is more like the early telephone services of the 1880's than of the telephone
service of the 1990's. It is technically possible to place and receive telephone
calls on the Internet today, but there are not yet any Internet-based directories
and the performance of an Internet-based telephone call is more like that of a cellular
call in a congested metropolitan area than the quality of a standard telephone call.
Q.Does the Internet support voice and video?
Ans.Yes, in a variety of ways. The Web
supports audio and video clips as well as text and images. The Internet technology
supports interactive voice and video conferencing, but Internet Service Providers
typically either do not support general access to voice and video conferencing or
they support a limited public voice/video conferencing system called the "MBONE",
or Multicast BackBONE.
Q.What is TCP/IP?
Ans. TCP/IP is actually two protocols,
the Internet Protocol (IP) and the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). IP is a
simple, yet powerful, protocol that provides packet services for higher level transport
protocols, one of which is TCP.
IP is a simple messaging protocol. Each packet contains the destination address
so it can be independently routed across the Internet. The job of the Internet router
is quite simple: examine the destination of each incoming packet and determine which
of several output ports to use to send the message onward. From time to time, routers
communicate with adjacent routers to discover the current state of paths in the
network, maintaining a table of destination addresses as they relate to output ports.
The network is not required to reliably deliver every packet. The network may drop
or discard packets when overloaded. Routers may fail, communication circuits may
fail or become overloaded, and the network of remaining routers will adapt their
routing tables to the faults and send packets around the faults if paths are available.
TCP is a more complex, Transport Layer protocol which uses the simple, unreliable
IP protocol, adding flow control, loss detection and re-transmission, congestion
avoidance and congestion control features that provide a reliable path for the transmission
of packets from source to destination. The upper layer applications are assured
of delivery with each packet properly ordered and with no packets missing.
The innovative combination of a simple, unreliable IP on a network of switches or
routers with a suite of higher level protocols including TCP, provides a very flexible
set of data transport protocols that can serve a very wide range of applications
over a single network infrastructure.
Q.Is the Internet secure?
Ans. On a broad level, the Internet itself
is not very secure today. However, Internet access on an individual basis is as
secure as each customer makes it. Customers need to implement security options such
as encryption and firewalls to protect their data and internal networks.
Q.What kinds of security are available to
Internet users?
Ans.There are two major types of security
available: firewall and encryption.
"Firewall" is a term that describes the security between the Internet, and a businesses'
own internal network. Through a technology partnership with Sun Microsystems, Southwestern
Bell Internet Services includes as an option the premier firewall security product:
FireWall-1 security software.
Encryption refers to special coding (encryption) of data that travels over a network,
so that it cannot be de-coded (read) by an unauthorized user. Through an OEM reseller
license agreement with Netscape Communications, Southwestern Bell Internet Services
offers as a dedicated access option Netscape Navigator with its state-of-the-art
message encryption.
Q.Are there software viruses on the Internet?
Ans.Yes
Q.Can the Internet ever really be secure?
Ans.Yes, as the Internet matures, so
will the concept of securing it. Since the Internet was derived from a "research"
type of environment, there was little need for security because such communities
felt compelled to share much of their knowledge and experiences.
Q.Isn't there a risk that the Internet is
growing so fast that the network is becoming congested?
Ans.Since the Internet is funded from
revenue from users and clients, Internet Service Providers have an increasing base
of funds to acquire more bandwidth to support growth.
However, it is true that high growth strains the human capacity to plan and implement,
so that from time to time ISPs do experience problems resulting from congestion
due to growth.
Q.Is the Internet really ready for commerce
(transactions, EDI, etc.)?
Ans.The Internet technology is ready
for commerce, but the Internet community still has some lessons to learn about security
and financial transactions. However, with a well-grounded understanding of the security
issues and a well-developed plan and approach to Internet security, many of the
risks related to the Internet can be avoided.
Q.Isn't the Internet inherently unreliable
and unstable? How could I possibly trust the Internet for important business activity?
Ans. The Internet is designed to continue
to operate in the presence of failures of various kinds. This capability dates back
to the original design goals of the earliest military packet switched networks,
which were designed for data to flow around failures using redundancy in the network.
Therefore, in a significant and important way, the Internet is more reliable than
most other networks. In fact, the performance of the Internet during earthquakes
and other natural disasters has led some researchers and public officials to examine
new ways to use the Internet during times of disaster and widespread overloading
of telephone networks.
Many of the world's largest financial institutions use Internet technology for their
most important business activities. While this does not mean that one should bet
one's business on the performance of any single network service, the Internet is
an important and essential part of many businesses' complete strategy for telecommunications,
product development, customer support and sales and marketing.
Q.Isn't the Internet a threat to telephone
companies?
Ans. The Internet is a threat to any
company that fails to take advantage of the opportunity the Internet affords.