What is a good download/upload speed and ping?

[Ostio456]

Here are my results: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5931539830

Firstly, what is a ping? And do you want the numbers for the three readings to be high or low? (sorry I'm not very tech savvy)

 

[phantomtrooper]

Ping is simply the time it takes for you to send a packet (A packet contains a small portion of the internet content you request; You receive many packets to get all of your content) to a remote network device and then receive a response back. You want ping to be as low as possible. However, the farther away the server is that you are trying to reach, the longer the ping will be since there are physical limitations on how fast network traffic can travel. Additionally, the number of network devices between you and the server will increase the time as each router/switch has to determine where the packet should go next. A ping of 17 milliseconds is quite low, but it depends on how close you are to the server.

The download speed is how much content you can receive in a second. In this case you can receive 33.42 megabits per second. The higher this number is the better since you will receive large pieces of information faster (think streaming HD video or downloading large files). One problem with speed tests is they only test download speeds in short bursts. Some ISPs guarantee speeds for the first x seconds of a download. A real test is to go download a large file from somewhere (like downloading a Steam game) and watch the download speed throughout the lifetime of the download.

Upload is the similar to download, but this is how fast you can send content out to somewhere else. You typically don't need as fast of upload as download.

Are your numbers good? They are decent, but it really depends on what you are doing, what you are paying, and what you are paying for (are you paying for 30Mbps?). I pay $70 per month for 200Mbps download and around 20Mbps upload as an example.

 

[nigelivey]

To clarify, ping is an echo therefore it's the there and back again time, if it was only one way you wouldn't know the result!