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In this article, we will let you know on how to check your internet speed on your phone or laptop as its really important when you are working from home.

There are times, when you are downloading a file from the internet, it takes a lot of time. You assume that the internet speed could be an issue. However, if it keeps happening often, you might want to measure your connectivity speed and even monitor it. But how does one do that? In this post, we tell you how to check internet speed on Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android.

You can measure internet speed if you are facing network issues or if you feel you aren’t getting the correct speed as promised by your provider.

So, let’s check how to know internet speed on any device. But before that, let’s first understand how speed is measured.

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How Internet Speed Is Measured

For starters, there is a difference between the speed offered by your internet provider and the actual download speed. Most internet providers show speed in Mbps or Mb/s. Notice the small b. That’s quite important. Now, if you download something, you would notice the download speed would have a capital B, i.e., it will be MBps or MB/s.

One would think there shouldn’t be any difference between the two. but that’s wrong. There’s a huge difference. The small b in Mbps stands for bits, whereas capital B in MBps is Bytes. The rest of the letters are the same i.e. M = mega, p = per, and s = seconds.

In technical terms, a bit is the smallest unit of data or storage. So, 8 bits make 1 byte. Alternatively, you can say 1 byte has 8 bits. That means, 1MB = 8Mb. Therefore, your actual internet speed will be less than that shown by your provider.

So, if your internet provider says you have 20Mbps internet speed, you need to divide it by 8 to get the actual speed in MBs. That is, 20MBps ÷ 8 = 2.5MBps. Your real download speed is 2.5MBps. In simple words, your promised internet speed ÷ 8 = actual speed.

If you want to convert your download or actual speed shown in MB to the one offered by your provider, i.e., Mb, you should multiple it by 8. So, actual speed * 8 = internet speed. In reality, both the speeds are the same. The difference lies in the way they are shown.

How To Check the Internet Speed On Your Phone Or PC

Measuring internet speed is easy. You can either do it through online tools using a browser or download an app.

In the former case, all you need to do is open any browser on your computer or mobile. Then, visit a speed testing site. Some of the best sites are given below –

Fast.com
Speedsmart.net
Speedtest.net
Openspeedtest.com

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