“The faster the better.” This is true when ordering pizza, but how about when it comes to transfers and upload/download speeds?

There are some things a speed test is great for, and many things it is not. The following is a quick overview to speedily fill you in on all the details.

When is a speed test helpful?

A speed test is helpful when you have a specific issue either uploading or downloading, and we need to confirm that there aren’t any glaring problems with your connection speed that may be causing this issue.

When this happens, we will ask you to go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and send us back the results via a screenshot. This tells us whether or not the speed itself is causing the problem, and allows us to accurately troubleshoot.

When is a speed test unhelpful?

In almost every other case, a speed test is not useful for our purposes. Slow download and upload speeds can just as easily be caused by firewalls, proxies and antivirus software, local server issues, or zombie invasions.

We are still working on our plan for that last one, but please keep in mind that even if you have optimal upload/download speed test results, there are a host of other technical things that can be causing the problem.

To put it simply: a speed test is helpful to isolate speed as a potential issue, but is not helpful in investigation beyond that.

If you are having trouble with speed, always feel free to reach out to your friendly neighbourhood Support team (that’s us!) right here.