Problems with the internet? Check the speed with these Mac apps

Is the internet slow today or is there something wrong with your Apple Mac? Is the public Wi-Fi you are using fast or slow? Get the answers to these questions by with internet speed tests.

When there is a problem with the internet it can be difficult understanding what the cause might be. You could blame your Mac, the internet connection, your ISP, or the cafe or hotel where you are using a MacBook.

One way to see if there is a problem is to measure the performance of the internet connection. The speed is measured in megabits per second (Mbps) and single digit speeds are considered to be quite slow these days.

At one time a 5 Mbps internet connection was the fastest around and the very first broadband internet connection I had was just 0.5 Mbps. I thought it was blindingly fast at the time, but now many people consider anything less than double digits to be slow.

The problem is that we stream movies in HD or even 4k resolution, stream high quality music, upload and download images to online photo libraries, and even work online (this article is being written in the Microsoft Word web app at onedrive.com using a browser). Sometimes several people or devices are using the internet at the same time and it needs the bandwidth to cope with them all.

What is normal for one person is not necessarily normal for another and connection speeds vary with location and the type of connection. A fibre optic internet connection in a city can be very different to a connection in a rural area. Talk to other people and see what speeds they get and compare them with your own.

Prepare your Mac for speed tests

The Mac must be prepared before testing the speed of the internet connection:

• Close all apps
• Make sure backup software like Time Machine is not backing up
• Close menu bar apps if they use the internet
• Avoid testing just before and just after a macOS update
• Turn off other devices like phones, tablets and computers

Basically you want to close anything or avoid anything that might use the internet connection because bandwidth is shared and another app using the internet will affect the results.

If you are testing the speed of the internet and someone in another part of the building is watching a movie in high resolution on Netflix for example, it is going to affect the speed results, and possible cause their movie to stutter.

Test at all times of the day

One test is interesting but it could be unreliable because of other devices using the internet. General congestion on the internet, such as at peak times of the day, can affect the results too. At peak times of the day the internet may slow down, so try running speed test apps at different times and take an average.

Test public Wi-Fi hotspots

A major problem with testing the speed at cafes, hotels, airports and other public Wi-Fi hotspots is that you are almost never alone. Someone could be downloading a large file, someone could be watching YouTube, another person could be viewing a web page with video ads and so on. All affect the test results.

The speed measured reflects what speed you are currently getting, but it could be very different an hour later when more people arrive or people leave at the public Wi-Fi hotspot.

What is measured?

The download speed is always much greater than the upload speed and this is by design. People spend more time downloading than uploading, so it is given priority. Download speeds maqy be a quarter of the upload speed or even less. The ping is the time taken to respond and a quick response means a faster internet, so look for low figures.

All the apps here are free in the Mac App Store. Search for 'speed test'

Dr. WiFi

Price: Free | By: Trend Micro | Size: 4 MB | macOS: 10.12 or later

Dr. WiFi displays a large window with a circular graphic in the centre and there is just one button, Start Test with no other controls. Click it and the graphic starts spinning as it measures the internet upload and download speed, and ping (speed of response).

The results are displayed as it tests and also afterwards. It keeps a history of speed test results so you can see if there is any change throughout the day or over the days or weeks.

Dr. WiFi is more than just an internet speed test and it adds an icon to the menu bar. Live upload and download speeds are shown and it is useful as an indicator of internet activity. You can easily see when the Mac is transferring data.

Click the menu bar icon and a panel is displayed that shows the Wi-Fi name, MAC address, security, protocol, channel and band.

The addition of the menu bar icon makes this an app even more useful.

Speed Test

Price: Free | By: BigWhitePlanet s.r.o. | Size: 4 MB | macOS: 10.8 or later

Speed Test runs as a menu bar icon and when clicked it displays a panel with a speedometer style graphic in the middle. There are a few buttons but the only one worth mentioning is Start. The graphic lights up and the speed test begins.

A summary of the results are displayed afterwards and it shows the ping and upload and download speeds. It does not save the results anywhere, so if you want to remember them you would have to write them in Notes or take a screenshot.

The app searches for the nearest or best server for the speed test and this resulted in very low ping results and they were a fraction of those measured by Dr. WiFi. The upload and download speeds were similar though.

WiFi Speed test

Price: Free | By: AccessAgility LLC | Size: 3 MB | macOS: 10.7 or later

WiFi Speed Test has an attractive interface that shows an animated speedometer style graphic when measuring the performance of the internet connection. Every other app calls the response speed Ping, but this all calls it Delay. It may be a more descriptive name for non-technical people, but I would rather the correct term was used.

In the top right corner is another animated graphic and it shows the direction of travel and the location of the server being used for the speed test.

In the top left corner is the Wi-Fi network name and a small i icon opens an information window where the test results history is stored. This is great and you can see all of the previous tests, and even export them to a CSV file (a standard format that many applications can read).

Speedtest By Ookla

Price: Free | By: Ookla | Size: 7 MB | macOS: 10.10 or later

Speedtest superficially looks similar to the other internet speed testing apps, but it actually has a lot more features than most and it is an excellent app.

The window has a large GO button in the middle and clicking it begins the performance measurement. The speedometer style graphic shows the live results and at the end you can see the ping, upload and download speeds.

There is also a mini line chart that shows how the speed fluctuates over time. If the connection is rock solid then it will be flat, but a bumpy line indicates a variable connection and possible problems or other devices using the bandwidth.

What makes this app different is the button in the top right corner which switches to another display. It shows the number of tests, the fastest and the average. Below is a listing of the test results history.

Click a test result and it shows not only the speeds, ping and line charts, but also jitter and packet loss. Internet communications use small packets of information and ideally none should be lost when uploading or downloading. Don't worry, lost packets are resent, but this slows down the internet and a high number indicates a connection problem.

The jitter is the variability in the connection, which can speed up and slow down. Ideally it should be as low a number as possible, which indicates a solid connection.

This is the best app on test and there is an option to keep it in the menu bar, so it can be run more easily.