how do i monitor the speeds i'm actually getting?

[DanH84]

Hi all, just signed up to newsdemon and i'm on the virgin 20mb service but i think i'm getting far under that, i was hoping someone could link me to a prog (hopefully free) that would allow me to monitor my conn speeds?

 

[tolien]

Find a site that has a decent sized download that will keep your connection going for a few minutes (nVidia, MS, http://download.zensupport.co.uk), and look at the averages you get from there.

Speed test sites are generally garbage, because either the servers or the connections between them and you are overloaded or the files are too small to give a decent measure of how fast your connection is (small file, small transfer time, huge percentage uncertainty)...