Check internet download speed uk

Broadband speeds are affected by all sorts of factors such as the distance from exchange, the quality of wiring, the number of joints in the wiring, the telephone faceplate, the quality of the router and the time of day. This depends on your broadband connectivity needs. If you just have one or two devices for web surfing, email, social media and moderate video most broadband connections should suffice.

However, if you have a few more devices than this and want to engage in multiplayer gaming or 4K streaming we would recommend Mbps. Best Broadband Providers. Fast and accurate broadband speed test. FAST By using the latest technologies, our test engine has been tuned for performance.

Our broadband speed checker is ready to go on any device. Running the speed test Our free to use speed test gives an accurate calculation of the speed of your internet connection at the time the test was taken. What is happening during the broadband speed test? The speed test is split into two parts, download and upload. Why should you check your broadband speed? To see if your broadband speeds vary at different times of day. To compare your speeds with those of your neighbours and friends.

If you have a minimum speed guarantee, your provider has 30 days to resolve the problem or else you can switch to another one without paying any early termination fees. The most recent Uswitch Broadband Awards were held in Using internet speed tests carried out on Uswitch. Virgin Media has taken home this trophy for the last ten years. However, it might run into some competition soon. With full fibre networks rapidly growing, many homes can now access gigabit connections that offer speeds up to 1Gbps Mbps.

This said, Virgin Media is also upgrading its entire network to be capable of gigabit broadband speeds too. Or to be more specific, your speed is affected by how far you live from your nearest telephone exchange. This is because ADSL broadband is delivered from the telephone exchange to your home along copper wires. The further your broadband signal has to travel, the weaker the signal and the slower the service will be.

However, for standard fibre connections, a copper wire is still used to carry your broadband signal from the telephone cabinet into your home. At no point are copper wires used. If you live in a new-build property with a newly-issued postcode, we might not have added it to our database yet. When you move onto a new broadband deal, providers who have opted into the voluntary code of practice have to give you an estimated speed during peak times. So if you have a broadband contract starting from 1 March or later, you are entitled to receive that minimum speed guarantee or else you can leave your contract and switch to a new provider.

With many of us spending a lot of our time working from home, the speed and reliability of your broadband connection is more important than ever. Running a speed test will give you a much clearer idea of how much bandwidth you have and what the limitations of your home broadband might be. This is important for understanding what you are able to do for work, because your internet speed will affect how much work you can actually do.

Running regular speed tests can also give you a clearer idea of the times of day when your broadband is performing at its best and worst. Download speed test Our speed test downloads packets of data over an HTTPS connection and measures the time the transfers take, in order to work out a download speed in Mbps megabits per second. Start your speed test now.

Not what you were expecting? Find a better broadband deal Compare with your neighbours. Just add some details below to see how your speed compares with your neighbours. Waiting for geolocation permissions First name. Without broadband speed test tools there would be no way of holding your supplier to account, you just wouldn't know if you were getting the service you are paying for.

Some providers "throttle" their networks at peak times which can cause broadband connections to slow, but testing your connection regularly you can find out if your supplier is doing this to you. As well as testing your broadband speed, we'll also let you know how your speeds compare to those of other broadband customers and let you know if there are faster providers in your area. Make sure that nothing else is using your Internet connection.

This includes other apps on your computer like your email client, instant messenger or browser tabs running Facebook or other constantly updating sites. It can also include online radio, background downloads and updates to your virus checker or operating system.

Make sure that nothing intensive is running on your computer. If your virus checker is in the middle of a scan or you're busy copying files or converting a video, this is likely to slow down your computer and so affect how accurately the speed test can run.

If possible close all other apps, browser windows and tabs and try to run the speed test alone. This is especially important if you have a slow computer or you're running the test on a tablet or mobile phone and tend to wait a long time for apps to load. Make sure that no other devices are using your network , this could include a TV box or games console in the living room or the smartphone in your pocket.

If possible turn these off or turn off the wifi connection. If possible, connect by cable rather than wirelessly. Wireless networks can get slower the further away from the router you are and can suffer interference from thick walls or metal objects. If you're on a mobile device or have to use wireless, try to stay relatively close to your router, preferably within line of site, and avoid running equipment that can cause interference such as microwave ovens or unshielded flashing lights.

If possible, avoid using proxies, VPNs, and 'Turbo' features , some browsers or broadband providers offer features designed to speed up your connection by processing the data that goes through your connection before you receive it. This can artificially increase your test speed or even prevent the test from completing. Our test uses the HTTP protocol over TCP port 80, if you're having trouble with the test make sure that this traffic isn't handled by a proxy or blocked by a firewall.

Some Internet connected audio-video equipment or services designed to allow access to video content in other countries can also have an affect on our test results. We recommend running the test more than once to make sure there wasn't some sort of blip during your first test.

We'd also recommend using another speed test such as this Broadband Speed Test to compare your results, and testing at several different times of the day and night to see how peaktime network congestion affects your service. Unlike many speed test providers, our test doesn't require Flash and will instead run on any recent web browser with JavaScript, including tablets such as the iPad, Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus or Kindle Fire. You can even test your speed on a mobile phone without installing any apps!