Is there a free software to test the quality of your cable connection?

[Akaz1976]

I have been getting lag in online gaming and was wondering if my cable connection is not so good anymore. SO i was wondering if there was a software that would check the bandwidth and ping of my interenet connection of a 3-5 min time period

Thanx

Akaz

 

[sean2002]

you can start by gojng to dslreports and going to their tools section

 

[Slogun]

I was going to offer the same advice, dslreports.com.

It is said that some lag is inherent in the technology of cable. I have loved my cable these 3 years, but plan to give dsl a tryout. Even though it doesn't have nearly the speed and costs almost twice as much, I am curious about comparing the online gaming performance.

I will have both for a month or two and will keep the winner. When I get around to the test, will post my results here.

 

[DT4K]

Try Visual Route
You can get download a free 30 day trial version. It has a traceroute tool that gives you all kinds of information including ping times and packet loss for each hop between you and any destination IP address. I used it when I was having problems with my cable connection. I could browse the internet OK but I couldn't stay connected to any online game servers for more than a few seconds. The reports in Visual Route showed that I was having major packet loss on the first hop. I emailed these reports to my ISP, they replaced my Toshiba modem with a Samsung and everything is great now. (Turns out Toshiba cable modems have a known but rare problem with high packet loss in certain areas. Has to do with interference on the line and the way they filter the signal.)

Anyway, it's a good tool and you can use it free for 30 days.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Slogun
I was going to offer the same advice, dslreports.com.

It is said that some lag is inherent in the technology of cable. I have loved my cable these 3 years, but plan to give dsl a tryout. Even though it doesn't have nearly the speed and costs almost twice as much, I am curious about comparing the online gaming performance.

I will have both for a month or two and will keep the winner. When I get around to the test, will post my results here.

Quality of service varies a lot, depending on the provider and how well they take care of their network. I haven't tried DSL but my cable service is sweet. It's impossible to eliminate all latency, but cable technology comes pretty close. I get 4-5 Mbps down and about 1.5 Mbps up for $37 a month including modem rental. And when I play Medal of Honor: Allied Assault online, I get pings as low as 30 and usually have 50-100 servers with pings under 100. And since I had my modem replaced about 3 months ago, I haven't had any connection problems at all.

 

[corkyg]

Here's a free check - pretty simple - just the basics, but an indicator:

Speed