Netflix is updating its speed test tool, FAST.com. The company’s speed test tool was introduced more than two years ago, and it’s getting the first update today to provide more information.

The company says users wanted more information on their speed test results, and so it’s adding upload and latency information to your speed test results. By default, FAST.com will continue to only display your download speed, and it will only calculate latency and upload stats after you choose to view more info.

The upload speed measure is pretty straightforward, but the latency data is a lot more interesting. Latency data is divided into two separate sets: unloaded, and loaded. The unloaded latency measurement shows the latency on data transfer when your network doesn’t have any other traffic, i.e. not being used by other users for another task. And the loaded latency measurement shows the latency for when your network is dealing with other traffic, possibly from your own computer or other users. It’s a pretty neat way of finding out how your network performs under different conditions.

There are a bunch of speed test tools available online, but FAST.com is by far my favorite because of its simplicity. Netflix says the tool generated more than half a billion speed tests so far, doubling in growth in the past seven months. If you wanna try it out yourself, just head over to FAST.com here.

Tagged with FAST.com, Netflix