Easy Wi-Fi Speed Test Works on Mac, PC, iPhone, Android, iPad, etc

If you’ve just setup a new wi-fi network or ISP, or perhaps you just joined a new wi-fi network, one of the first things you might be inclined to do is run a speed test. Speed testing helps to evaluate the performance of an internet connection, measuring download speed, upload speed, and latency, allowing you to determine if performance is optimal, or needs adjustments.

There are a lot of different ways to run speed tests, but the way I like best is to use a web browser, and go to fast.com. This is my preferred approach for testing wi-fi speeds because it’s universal to anything with a web browser, there are no system requirements otherwise. That means you can run the same wi-fi speed test on all of your devices, whether it’s an iPhone, Mac, PC, Android, iPad, or whatever else you might have that you want to determine wi-fi speeds for.

• Go to fast.com to run a speed test from your web browser, be sure to click on “Show More Info” to run the upload and latency test as well

Click on “Show More Info” to run additional testings including upload speed and latency, and to reveal the full speed test results:

Full speed test results will look something like this:

If the speeds shown in the test are in line with your expectations, as set by both the internet service provider (ISP) and the wi-fi router itself, then you’re good. If the speed test results are slower than expected, first make sure you have no obstructions between you and the wi-fi router, and make sure the wi-fi router is not physically blocked by anything that can obstruct a signal.

By the way, if you’re developing software, websites, web apps, or anything else that may be sensitive to internet connection speeds, don’t forget about the unique Network Link Conditioner tool on the Mac that allows you to simulate different internet connection speeds. This is very useful for people developing services and web pages for those in low-bandwidth situations, and is quite handy.

Using a website like this to run speed tests and to determine internet connection speeds is not particularly new or innovative, we’ve even discussed this and variations of it several times in the past, including a cool trick to speed test from the command line with curl or wget, but it’s a helpful reminder that these web based speed tests are cross-platform compatible, able to run on just about anything with a web browser, new or old.