Many people want to know how fast their internet connection is. I’m here to help. Here are the best sites I know of with screenshots of the results and my commentary on each one.

Speedtest.net - Flash interface. You pick the server to use. Tests up and down. Very accurate. You feel like a race car driver revving up the engine.

Visualware.com - Java applet, wide speed range, fairly accurate, tests up and down.

Cox - Similar to visual ware except it has a smaller range (not that most of us need that it to go to 274Mbps, but we can dream)

Verizon - Colorful, but not very accurate. I got 3 very different results each time I reloaded, and sometimes it was slower, so it wasn’t due to caching.

testmy.net - Not very accurate, simple interface, compares you to others in your area.

BandwidthPlace.com - Simple interface, wasn’t all that accurate. Comparisons to others in your region.

PCPitstop - Results are buried in text. Not much of an interface, but it just downloads a big image so it will work in virtually any browser.