[Flashorn]

Hey Everyone! Remember when we had that little contest about the speed of our internet connections ? We had to upload the results and it was a pain trying to get those results posted. Well I was looking for some kind of meter to place on the desktop. I stumbled upon this little gadget " Broadband Speedtest & Diagnostics " . This little wonder installs directly in Firefox's tools tab. It will test your upload and download speed plus will give a wealth of info on your connection. It will also give you info on the way your connection is configured amongst other info. You can check it out here. http://extensionholi.../speedtest.html .



FLASHORN.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Flashorn. Do you happen to notice if there is any system usage when this diagnostic tool is used? If not, this will be great for everyone.

[Flashorn]

Hey MPH! Well, I opened Task Manager in the performance tab and did a download test and repeated the operation with the upload test. The performance hit that I got was for the length of a ping about 80 ms. The CPU usage went up to 82% and then back down to normal, for me that's between 8 and 15% of CPU. I run a AMD Athlon @ 2.2 GHZ and 1 GIG of memory. WinPatrol takes more juice to operate. Now in the Application Tab of Task Manager, the Broadband test is always active since it is part of Firefox. But other than being active, it does not take any CPU cycles, at least none that I could see. Actually this is a great little find because, you can also diagnose and troubleshoot your internet connection. Not just another toy.

[techie4fun]

I haven't used any diagnostic speed test browser extensions, so I'm not much help. I use pcpitstop for my needs.

[Adama]

Hi, Flashorn. Do you know if this thing is compatible with Vista?

[mphenterprises]

Hi Flashorn. I just tried it and I am very impressed. The results opens in a separate Firefox tab and I would presume that the url could be copied and pasted into anything.

My system resource usage was non-existent. My nominal CPU Usage is around 4%. Using this utility only pushed my CPU Usage to 9%.

Very good find, Flashorn. :D

[bunk]

I also just installed this and found it to be a pretty cool tool, Thanks Flashorn :D :D :D

[Flashorn]

Hey techie! I wasn't really asking for help. I was just reporting a find that some of us would find helpful.Sorry it took so long to answer but, I could not get in to the reply for whatever reason. Thankx for your comment.



FLASHORN.

[Flashorn]

Hey Adama! It doesn't have to be compatible with any of windows OS's because, the only requirement is '" FIREFOX '". Did you mention that you will be trying out Firefox or was it just a figment of my imagination?? No, seriously that's all that you would need since it's a plug- in for Firefox. You could install Firefox, get the plug in, see how it performs and if you don't like it, uninstall Firefox along with the plug-in.As you know, nothing is left behind by Firefox.I tried getting something that would resemble this plug-in for IE7 but, it seems I"m not that good. I couldn't find anything. SORRY. I would of answered earlier but, I couldn't get in the Reply section of the forum last night. Now, on the subject of plug-ins, are we getting along with the NEW MENU or did you go back to the OLD way of doing things. Talk to you soon.


FLASHORN.

[Flashorn]

Hey MPH! How come no more of a power hit than that? Is it the Quad's power? Did you look at task manager to see how much of a spike the ping has caused during the download and upload tests. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you any sooner but, for one reason or another I couldn't get in to the Reply section of the forum last night (early this morning).I think this is a good little add-on especially to diagnose some irregularities that could come up in our ISP's. One more tool to fight back with. Talk to you soon.



FLASHORN.

[Flashorn]

Hey bunk! I'm glad you are happy with my little find. Your Welcomed. It should not take any more power than any other plug-in but, just to be on the safe side,take a look at the task manager, in the performance tab, and do a download or upload test and see if the ping takes 100% of your power. It should not take more than 90% . Mine did not go over 82% of the CPU's total power and repeated this test on 4 occasions. The site did not mention any other requirements than Firefox.Have Fun!



FLASHORN.

[Adama]

> Now, on the subject of plug-ins, are we getting along with the NEW MENU or did you go back to the OLD way of doing things. Talk to you soo
[/quote]
Hi, Flashorn. That's ok, I passed on installing FF and I'll have to pass on installing the gadget you guys are talking about.

I had a heck of a hard time getting into some of the threads yesterday afternoon, even waiting 5 mins. and longer, for the thread to open up, so I gave up. There was hardly anybody online anyway.

About the StartMenuList - It was really frustrating, when I needed my Snipping Tool in a hurry and I didn't know where it had gone, had to read list after list of things I new nothing about. Long story short, ended up uninstalling it after 3 days and I'm really happy with my Start Menu the way it always has been - easy. :)

[mphenterprises]

Hi Flashorn. Yes, I monitored the Process section of Task Manager while I ran the upload and download tests. I rarely see CPU Usage spikes anymore for any application I use. The highest I have seen so far is about 43%. I think the combination of the kilowatt Power Supply, the DDR3 memory, and the Quad Core processor allows me to do so much more while using so much less resources.

This is an excellent add-on. We can recommend it to people who feel their internet speed is not as fast as expected.

[Flashorn]

Hey MPH! Dang!! You did hit the right combination this time. That's half the power needed for my machine to perform the same test but, then again, you have 4 times the power. Thankx for the vote of confidence and answering my question MPH.



FLASHORN.

[Flashorn]

Hey Adama! I'm saddened by the fact that you guys couldn't get along. But hey, that's why we have the Add & Remove program. If at first you don't succeed, well, you know the rest. I'll keep looking , I just might find something that could be useful in IE7. Talk to you soon.



FLASHORN.

[bunk]

I didn't even check task mgr on my PC, it was over so fast I didn't even have time to..... B-) I run a P4 / 3.2 gig processor / 2 gigs Ram on my main / test machine that I have a custom configed software package in ( as I didn't do so well with HP's software bundle ) While some think my system is outdated, I run a Pent dual core on my spare PC, which also runs 2 gigs of Ram, and my old Pent 4 / 3.2 will smoke that machine, makes it look like it's sittin still.......