You're probably paying a lot for your internet service. Prices in the United States are higher than those in most developed countries the speeds are generally lower, so you should at least get what you're paying for. With the Federal Communications Commission's destruction of net neutrality, a more hands-on approach may be needed.
South Korea has the highest average connection speed (28.6Kbps) and the United States is in 10th place with an average connection speed of 18.7Kbps. Among the nations with better connections than the United States: Norway, Sweden, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Finland, Singapore, Japan, and Denmark. If you look at peak connection speeds, the US isn't even in the top 10. Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Qatar, and Thailand all have peak speeds in excess of 100Kbps. Israel, Sweden, Romania, Taiwan, and Japan all have peak speeds above 90Kbps. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_internet_connection_speeds]
The five nations with the most expensive internet fees are United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Africa, Iceland, and the United States. If you look for the nations with the highest speeds, here's where you'll find them on the cost chart: South Korea (60), Norway (14), Sweden (45), Hong Kong (52), Switzerland (7), Finland (55), Singapore (41), Japan (24), and Denmark (32). So the nation with the highest average internet speed has the 60th highest cost and the United States, with the 10th highest internet speed has the 5th highest cost. We pay more and receive less. [Source: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=33]
You could take your internet service provider's word that they're providing the speed you're paying for, but that's not always the case. If your ISP can't provide what you're paying for, they should at least reduce the monthly fee.
Perceived speed is actually a function of bandwidth. Adding bandwidth allows you to have more high-data functions active without seeing slowdowns. A 50Mbps data connection would probably be fine for a single high-definition video stream, an audio stream, and a general web browsing. But if you have several people who need HD video feeds and others who play high-bandwidth games, you will need more bandwidth.
If you call your ISP and say "My connection is slow," there's nothing they can do about it. You need to be able to say something like "I'm paying for a 60Mbps connection and routinely seeing only 30Mbps." Giving the ISP support person actual number at least improves your chances of having something done about it.
Use more than one speed test to determine how fast your connection is and be sure to do it with a wired connection. That is, a computer that's connected directly to the ISP's modem or your router, not a computer that's connected via Wi-Fi. Using a Wi-Fi connection introduces additional variables that can affect apparent speed. Once you determine what the wired speed it, you may want to check with your Wi-Fi devices, too, just to see if that's slowing access for those devices. If so, it's up to you to fix the problem. Your ISP is responsible only for the connection to the router.
Several testing applications are available and using more than one is a good idea. When you're testing, be sure to halt any applications that use significant amount of bandwidth. In other words, streaming video, file uploads or downloads, and on-line gaming. Running these applications during the test will result in incorrect values that are lower than what the ISP is providing.
In addition to using more than one testing application, you should run the tests several time throughout the day and on several different days, including weekends. Others who are on your local network node will affect the speed so it's important to get a comprehensive picture of the service you're receiving over time.
When you've done that, compare the numbers with what the ISP is supposed to be providing. If you're paying for 50Mbps and the service is routinely under 40Mbps, a complaint is appropriate. If it's 25Mbps, both a complaint and a pro-rated refund or discount is appropriate. The ISP may upgrade your modem to a later version that has better throughput or examine the lines in your neighborhood to see if there's a problem.
If you're seeing acceptable speeds but Wi-Fi devices are slow, you might need to upgrade your router or add access points throughout the house. Although using the 5MHz band signal will generally provider better throughput, any given device's distance from the router comes into play. The 2.4MHz signal will be stronger at distant location and may provide better service. These are the kinds of changes that are well outside the responsibility of the ISP.
Here are some of the speed test services that I've found to be helpful.
Most of the tests follow the same procedures. Several files will be downloaded and then discarded. The first file will be small -- often 128 KB. Next a larger file will be downloaded. This file is often double the size of the first. The process continues either for a specific number of tests or until one of the individual tests exceeds a timeout value. The "actual" speed reported will usually be based on the downlink speed for the largest file.
The upload test works the same way except that the application creates random data files that are uploaded. No actual data from your computer is used. The uplink process usually consists of fewer tests because home-based internet connections have significantly different speeds for downlink and uplink: 60Mbps down versus 5Mbps up, for example. Home users rarely need faster uplink speeds.
Fast.comFast is run by NetFlix and provides a single number: The downlink speed. That's the only number that's important for streaming video, but users can select an option to show more information. This displays values for latency (lower is better) and the uplink speed.
This is a good service to to use for a quick, basic set of results.
SpeedTest.net SpeedTest will display a ping response time (lower is better) and average speeds for downlink and uplink connections. Although the service automatically selects the testing server it feels is most appropriate, you can modify this.
SpeedOf.MeSpeedOfMe is entirely based on HTML5, so it doesn't depend on Flash or Java. This is important for IOS and Android devices. It also provides a visual representation that shows downlink and uplink speeds in relation to file sizes. Smaller files have lower throughput because of the time needed to establish and finalize the connection; this is illustrated clearly.
TestMy.netTestMyNet takes a long-term view. Start the process and leave the web browser open, but minimized. It then tests the connection speeds once an hour. TestMy.net suggests waiting for 24 hours and says they believe this is a more accurate representation of your true speed because it depends on responses from servers outside the ISP's immediate network.
CompariTech.comCompariTech has possibly the most unusual approach. Every time the service is used, they donate one cent to Computers 4 Africa or the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That should immediately raise at least one question: How can a free service make contributions when people use it? The top of the screen hints at the answer. There are links for on-line backup, antivirus, virtual private networks, and other comparisons.
The UK-based organization says "First and foremost we are a pro-consumer website providing information, tools, and comparisons to help consumers in the US, UK, and further afield to research and compare tech services." So the speed tests serve primarily as bait to get people to come to the site. Those who use the comparison services will see links to the reviewed services.
Some of the links earn "referral fees" when someone signs up for the product or service, but the site's disclosure page notes that they also post links to "services and websites with which we have no advertiser relationship." Using one of the referral links doesn't incur any additional cost.
https://www.comparitech.com/internet-providers/speed-test/
What if somebody created an app that allowed employees to share information freely and anonymously? To ask questions about pay and morale? To ask about planned layoffs or restructuring. These are the kinds of things most business managers and human resources departments don't want employees to discuss.
It's no longer "what if". TeamBlind exists and the site explains it this way: "Blind is an anonymous community app for the workplace. Whether you are new to your job or have been in the industry for a while, you can find relevant information and advice from verified colleagues in your field, anonymously. Users on Blind are grouped by company and industry -- providing honest feedback from user to user, and sharing information with verified professionals."
Large companies often publish guidelines for employees stating that they should have no presumption of privacy whenever they use corporate computers, networks, telephones, or any other resources. Possibly for that reason Blind works with IOS and Android devices, but users can log in using a web browser. Doing so from a corporate computer via the corporate network would be unwise.
It would also be unwise for Blind to allow anyone to create an account claiming to be from Microsoft or Amazon or Google, so the service requires that new users be able to receive a confirmation email via a corporate email account. After that, corporate resources need not be involved again. Companies that truly want to block employees from using the service could intercept the confirmation emails and bounce them. Bind also allows prospective users to authenticate themselves via Linked-In, but access is limited.
Some sections are limited to employees of a single company, while others are open for general discussions. Topics range from careers and work visas to pay and other compensation and on to housing and politics. Bind claims that more than 50,000 companies are active on the service. If that's true, it would include a large number of medium and small companies.
For those who are willing to forgo anonymous discussions with co-workers, Blind accepts enrollments from Gmail, Yahoo, and other public email domains as well as educational domains. Signing up with a public domain or an educational domain provides read-only access to topics. For access to other channels, and to be able to comment, users must complete verification with a work email.
The company promises privacy, even from members of the Bind team. "We take user privacy very seriously. Although email verification is required to access Blind, our infrastructure is set up so that user account/activity information is completely disconnected from the email authentication process." The privacy page says that work email addresses are "encrypted and locked away" so that there is "no way to trace back your activity on Blind to an email address."
Learn more on the Blind website.
What should you do if you receive a Facebook Messenger message or an email from Mark Zuckerberg that says you've won the Facebook lottery? That's easy: Report it (if you wish) and then delete it. It's a scam.
Facebook doesn't run a lottery and reporting it is probably pointless because Facebook has already heard about it. If you're able to analyze the message and identify information that might help track down the crooks, you might want to pass that information along.
Because you've "won" some "lottery", you'll soon receive tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe millions. But first you'll need to send a small payment to cover processing fees. Right. Doing that can reveal your banking information to the scammers and, instead of receiving a lot of money, you might find that your bank account has been emptied.
It's a variant of the old Nigerian prince scam -- the one who wants to give you millions. There are dozens of variants of this old scam and most of them depend on identifying and taking advantage of people who are dim-witted. In fact, that's why the offers are so absurd. The crooks don't want to waste their time with people who are smart enough to figure it out.
Unfortunately, Facebook has been rather slow to respond by removing the fake accounts used to send the scam messages. So beware.
It seems that every grocery chain now offers the ability to order food on-line, have someone pull the order, and then pick up the order at the store. Is this something people want? Manufactured food is one thing: There's not much difference between cans of Green Giant corn, but what about apples and bananas?
A report by the Packaged Facts division of MarketResearch provides some insight. The report, however, addresses just two of the players in the market -- Walmart and Amazon. While Amazon is the leader in on-line grocery purchasing, most people seem to prefer to buying groceries the old-fashioned way -- in a store.
Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, but there are plenty of other grocery stores. These range from organizations such as Kroger and Whole Foods (now a division of Amazon) with large stores to specialized stores such as Trader Joe's and Aldi (both owned by a German equity firm) with smaller stores.
The Packaged Facts report says that about 6 in 10 grocery shoppers have purchased groceries from Walmart in last 3 months, with the vast majority doing so in stores even though Walmart offers on-line ordering. About 9% of grocery shoppers have purchased groceries on-line from Amazon. Amazon's on-line grocery sales are growing, but on-line grocery shoppers are still a small minority.
Despite the fact that the report is limited to just two retailers, some useful information is included. It's likely that shoppers at other retail locations share at least some of the preferences shown by Walmart shoppers.
Those who use Walmart to purchase groceries on-line are likely to cite prices while the Amazon on-line grocery shoppers are more apt to be interested in free delivery.
Walmart on-line grocery purchasers generally cite website grocery descriptions, customer service, and one-stop shopping as important while Amazon purchasers are more likely to consider same-day delivery and one-day delivery to be important.
Walmart on-line grocery purchasers are likely to be interested in fresh food variety and Amazon purchasers often stress bulk purchasing and the ability to obtain unique, exclusive products.
Compared to Amazon on-line grocery purchasers, Walmart purchasers are more apt to cite on-line payment options and in-store or curbside pickup as important, while subscription services are more likely to be important to Amazon purchasers.
The full report is available on-line on the Packaged Facts website.
