You’re out at your favorite coffee shop, and all of a sudden you realize you need to be in a meeting. There’s Wi-Fi (or failing that, you can set up a hotspot on your phone), so you think you’re ready to rock.
Nevertheless, within seconds of starting the meeting, everyone starts to look like they’re made of Lego in the video. The annoyance sets in, and things begin to go downhill.
Yeah, you might have had an internet connection, but you didn’t have a better internet connection.
If you’d managed to test the connection in advance, you might have had time to move to a different spot or use a different network to get a better connection.
If only you’d known.
But there are some fast and simple ways to test your internet connection — no apps needed, just your web browser.
The fastest and easiest way I go about this is to type ‘speed test‘ into Google (or Bing on a desktop or laptop). Here you’ll find internet speed testers created into the search engine’s web pages.
A single tap will give you a rundown of your internet connection.
You can use this details to decide if your bandwidth is up to the job or running Zoom or Teams.
If you don’t want to depend on the internet speed checkers created into search engines, then another option is to download an app. My app of choice, which is available for a wide range of platforms, is Ookla SpeedTest. I find this service offers a quick, dependable, and accurate test.
I use these tests frequently, both when out and about and when at home or in the office. It offers a bit of an internet health check and lets me keep an eye out for possible issues with my network and internet connection.