Internet speed meter - How to meter the speed of your internet connection

Your PC is probably infected with adware & spyware if: You have downloaded music online Your PC is running extremely slow You are pestered by those horrible popup ads Your homepage keeps changing

There are all sorts of programs available to meter your internet connection speed in real-time - that is, as it happens. You'll know how fast web pages are downloading, how fast games are working, and other things that you wouldn’t normally be shown a speed for. The program will even work out an average for you over time.

Most of these programs to measure internet speed are shareware. Shareware allows you to pay a small fee after a set period of time after installing and running the software. Some features might be disabled unless you register with the person or company who wrote the software.

Looking for something Free!

If you’re after something for free, you won’t find much better than PC Magazine’s classic NetPerSec, available at PCMag. It’s been available for years and has really stood the test of time, and is just as useful today as it ever was. You can set it to run at startup and draw a constant graph of your internet connection speed in a small box in the system tray (next to the clock).

Another alternative is NetStat Live. It’s slightly larger and less bare-bones, with a bit of a hospital feel. If you’re trying to diagnose whether you have a problem with internet connection speed or CPU speed, then this could be the program to consider.