Upload/Download Speed Test
Choosing a fast web host is important to everyone. What constitutes a fast web host? It largely depends on the type of bandwidth utilized:
First type: provides high bandwidth speed, but no guarantee on the latency. What does that mean? It means you might be able to download a large file (for example 100 mbytes) with 5 mbytes/second, but the speed at which you access many small files will be slower.
Second type: lower bandwidth speed, but guaranteed low latency. What does that mean? It means when you open a site, it will load fast, but if you start downloading a large file, (100 mbytes) your speed might vary between 700 kbytes/second and up to 9-15 mbytes/second.
Of course, the perfect choice will be the third type, which is difficult to find- low latency and big bandwidth speed.
Which kind of speed do you need ?
Regular websites have between 30 and 100 images on their index page - many small files (in most cases between 4 kbytes and 100 kbytes). Every browser will have to download on average 40-50 files in order to show you the page. The total size of those 40-50 files is usually 200-500 kbytes. The speed to download 40-50 files depends mostly on the latency - the faster the server responds, the faster you will load the page.
On the other hand, there are other sites which sell large files for downloads - such sites will need their clients to be able to download their product fast. However, if they take bandwidth speed over latency, their visitors a few more seconds to load the site.
Over 99% of our clients prefer their site to load fast. That is why we have chosen a low latency network with a decent bandwidth speed. Our Data Center is located in Atlanta, centrally located within our market, making it ideal for access from everyone. The ping to Europe is about 90 to 110 ms, which is almost as low as some providers offer between the west and east coast in the States. The ping within the US is about 40 to 60 ms to the most distant cities and going down to 3-5 ms in cities near Atlanta.
We have prepared an easy way to test your bandwidth upload and download speed. Please keep in mind that upload/download speed varies on different ISPs.