Most people who are doing broadband speed check will find each test they have done will show different results. This is because the internet can run slower at certain times of day than others.

Then, they will ask a common question to me: How many broadband speed check tests we should do?

Before I answer this question, let discuss the following topic at first.

What impact your result

Time

Internet is like a motor way or freeway in the city. You can not expect you can driving to the city within 10 minutes on 8:30am, because it is peak time for traffic. Same as broadband, if you run the test around 6 pm, then you are hitting a peak time, when many other people are also going to be online and downloading stuff. The quiet period is between 1am to 7am which you will get your best speed.

Test Server Location

Test server location will definitely affect your broadband speed check result because of distance. If you live in London and try to check broadband speed from the following two servers: Liverpool and Oxford, then your result from Oxford should always faster than Liverpool in most situations, because Liverpool is more far away than Oxford.

Distance from your exchange

The most crucial factor to affect what speed you are capable of getting is how far your phone line has to stretch to the telephone exchange: the shorter the distance, the faster your broadband can be.

Any other broadband users in your house?

Your broadband speed check result will slow down if several people within your household are online at the same time.

Any other tasks on your computer

How many tasks you are carrying out online at the same time. You can not expect you get a good result while you downloading a movie through BT.

Your equipment

Your Phone, Modem or Router's quality will affect your speed dramatically. My broadband keep on disconnect every 10 minutes for a while until I found it's my filter's problem. So make sure your broadband hardware is healthy.

Recommendation

So, I would like to suggest that a person runs the test more than once. It should be run at a few different times of day to get a good range of speeds. Moreover, it is also important for a user to understand that their broadband speed check result will not likely be the top speed their ISP says they can provide.