Internet Bandwidth Tool

This is an interesting little tool I came across. Pathload2 measures the "available bandwidth" of your Internet connection. The available bandwidth is the maximum bit rate you can send to a network link before it gets congested.

For example, if your ISP provides you with a DSL 6 Mbps downstream link, but you currently use 1 Mbps in that direction, the available bandwidth will be about 5Mbps.

Pathload2 reports two results: one for the upstream direction (from your network to the Internet) and another for the downstream direction (from the Internet to your network).

Pathload2 differs from other "network speed tests" that simply measure the throughput of a single large TCP data transfer. Those measurements are largely affected by the inefficiencies of the TCP protocol. Besides, most applications today use multiple parallel TCP transfers, often limited by socket buffers at the end-hosts. Pathload2, on the other hand, measures the amount of "raw" bits per second that your network connection can provide, independent of which protocol or application you use. Here are my results:

Connected to MLab Server: 4.71.251.162
Measuring Upstream Available Bandwidth
Measuring Downstream Available Bandwidth
Measurement completed.

Upstream Measurement (towards the Internet)
Available bandwidth is at most 15.72 (Mbps)
Measurement duration : 21.66 sec

Downstream Measurement (from the Internet)
Available bandwidth range : 31.10 - 35.54 (Mbps)
Measurement duration : 21.59 sec