The connection speeds determined by this calculator are only estimates of your actual Internet connection speed. The connection speed you experience may vary depending on many factors. Some of the more common factors are:

The method this test uses to measure your connection speed does not account for overhead required to send data.

All data sent over the Internet is split into packets, and each packet has a small amount of header data. This header data can account for a significant amount of extra data that must be transferred. Adding additional protocol encapsulation layers, such as VPNs will also add additional overhead to the data you are transferring, resulting in slower perceived speeds.

The connection speed between you and another host on the Internet is limited by the slowest link between you and that host.

Since there is no standard speed required for an Internet connection, the site or host you are accessing may have a slower connection than you do. This will result in your perceived rate being thatt of the slowest link.

If you are sharing a single Internet connection over a Local Area Network (LAN) the speed you experience is dependent on how many other computers are accessing the Internet at the same time.

To test a multi-user environment more accurately, you would need to remove access to the Internet feed from all hosts except the one you wish to test from. This is not recommended. DO NOT do this unless you are absolutely certain that this is the best course of action, since this means your entire network will be isolated from the Internet while you are testing.