Speed Test FAQ

If you are concerned about the speed of connecting to the UAlberta systems or are curious about how good your connection to campus is when you are off campus, please run this test. If you are having issues you would like help with contact Information Services and Technology. When you contact us, be sure to include: screenshot of the results, when and where you were when you ran the test, what device did you run the test on.

Download speed denotes how quickly Internet content is transferred to your computer or home network in Mbps. In other words, how fast does the information get from the server to get to you.

Upload speed describing how quickly you are able to upload content to the Internet.
Upload speed is relevant when you’re sending large files over email, or during live video streams.

Ping is a measure of the reaction time of your connection. In other words, how quickly you receive a response when a request is made.

Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms) and the lower the ping number, the faster your connection.
Ping is important during real-time application use like video streaming or online gaming.

Jitter is the variation between response times.
Good connections have a reliable and consistent response time, which is represented as a lower jitter score. The higher the jitter score, the more inconsistent connection response times are, which manifests in choppy voice calls or glitchy-sounding looking video quality.