(App Idea) Would A Web-Speed Monitor Be Possible?

[the2ndflood]

I was wondering if a Web-Speed Monitor app would be possible? Something like Weather Dashboard; where the app stays at the bottom of the screen and monitors the speed of the wireless network at that time (Carrier And/Or WiFi). I know the app would be using some data just by checking the speed, but the app could be set to (Auto) or (Manual). I would just like to be able to see what type of data speeds I am working with, without having to open the browser and click links to check the speed. Plus it could help us diagnose our data connection and even see which network in that area is the best to use at that moment in time (1x, EV-DO, WiFI, Roaming).

[mairboy]

This would be a useful app, but wouldn't want it on at all times since that would just use up data and make your download even slower, but it would be nice if you could ping a server or something like that.

[joshewah]

If it had a button to test it that might work. Otherwise you have to download in order to test speed.
Maybe it would be possible to set up something like bandwidthd http://bandwidthd.sourceforge.net/

Could maybe format the pages somehow into a card instead of hosting on a web server.

[the2ndflood]

Originally Posted by joshewah

If it had a button to test it that might work. Otherwise you have to download in order to test speed.
Maybe it would be possible to set up something like bandwidthd [url]

Could maybe format the pages somehow into a card instead of hosting on a web server.

Yeah that is what I was thinking. The app at it's most basic would just allow for the user to click a link, and that would start the mobile speed test. If the app could measure the speed in real-time, that would be even better. But that would be far more complex. The good thing is that the speed testing, network connection details, ect; can all be found on the different mobile speed testing sites. So the app just makes running those tests faster, and getting the network connection details easier to find.

[JonVisc]

The basic concept is there is a object on a server somewhere, the program would record the start time, start downloading that object (probably a big image would be easiest), once the download is finished the program would record the end time. It would then subtract the two times and divide the size by that number to get the kbps. The reason this would be unreliable is because of the unreliability of where the object to download would be hosted. Also if it is a shared host and they use akamei(sp? that is wrong) you could be requesting and receiving from different locates sometimes. That would make a impact on estimated download times

Say you live in CA and you request from a server in FL on one request and the next request it directs you to a server in UT. UT would (or should) be noticeably faster as passing through a ton of jumps to get you the data slows down the transfer speed. That is why speedtest.net has many different servers :-/

As far as I know, I don't think it is possible to tap into the speedtest.net servers though I haven't looked into that too much... but I am sure they want to keep it restricted. Having random people just request megs of data from them without any ads would cost a lot of money...