Netflix launches speed test, see how fast/slow you are

The majority of complaints we hear about Netflix arise from slow download speeds, so to at least give you a clue as to how you’re doing, Netflix now has a speed test.

Netflix has this week launched a website that will provide you with your internet speed if you’ve been wanting to know.

In Australia, this could result in a rather depressing groan or a monotonous sigh, or just a positive “woohoo!” as you find out why Netflix may or may not be loading in blocky jagged feeds or pristine clear moving images.

At work. Meh.
At work. Meh.

The site is called “fast.com” and is pretty much the beginner’s guide to speed testing, monitoring your connection the moment you land on it, rating the speed as your numbers jump in grey before settling on a black number that is your final speed.

At home, we found a solid 10Mbps available, while work brought that down to just under 8Mbps, telling us that we probably wouldn’t be watching any more episodes of “House of Cards” at work on rerun (not that we were, boss), especially if we wanted to stream them in 4K, with at least 20Mbps needed for that.

Home is marginally better, though we're merely on ADSL2+.
Home is marginally better, though we’re merely on ADSL2+.

As for the usefulness of this, Fast.com will be handy for anyone keen to see why their connection may or may not be performing the way they expect, though it does miss out on offering tips for how to improve things.