WYSIWYG Dreamz: Jayanth.Krupanidhi@Sun.COM

I've been on broadband internet for quite some time now & had always wished for a "meter-like" kind of contraption to measure the actual bandwidth of my connection whenever my download speeds dropped below fairly acceptable levels. My ISP claims that he's providing me 256 KBPS bandwidth, but how do I know and affirm that? I could call up my ISP's customer care and say that I wasn't receiving the claimed bandwidth, but how could I corroborate my stance?

If you think you're sailing on the same boat as me and feel that you're actually being "cheated" by your ISP, here's how you check whether you're right.

1. Go to http://www.testmy.net
2. Choose the type of test you want to take - download, upload or both.
3. Wait for a few seconds while your speeds are tested.

The results of the test will appear on the page along with comparisons to speeds provided by other internet connection options like Cable, DSL, ISDN, Dialup etc. Apart from rating your connection on a 5-point scale, it also gives a diagnosis description saying how much slower or faster your connection is than the average.

I was particularly impressed by the "Convert results into an image" option for convenient storage of results. See the below image.

And the best part is that all these features are available for free!

You have PROOF now! You know your ISP's Customer care number! You know what to do next!