Posted by Michael Fesser on 11/09/06 23:31

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>I think that it is possible, but I can not point you to a ready-made
>code. I think it likely would best be done on the server using php. It
>is quite possible to determine download speed.

Not reliably.

>For example a download
>speed test for my isp which is SBC/Yahoo DSL is at
>http://support.sbcglobal.net/dsl/speedtest/ . This sort of speed test
>often uses JAVA.

That's the first problem - the Java RTE is not available/enabled on most
machines. Additionally a test inside of the local ISP network is
somewhat different than a test in the open Internet.

>You would need only the download speed test, and of
>course the location to which the viewing browser points for your test

That's the second problem - the way from the user through the Internet
to the server. Every single router on that way can dramatically slow
down the transfer.

>would be on your own server. The speed test need not be very accurate,
>so you can design the test to be fairly rapid. When the speed test is
>completed, the user is then redirected to one page for a slow
>connection and another for a fast connection, or possibly everything
>could be done on a single page.

What if the user has some downloads or a P2P client running in the
background? What if there's a temporary network congestion?

In short: You can't test the connection speed, you can just guess.
If that's enough for you - try it. I wouldn't.

Micha

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