# How can I monitor the effectiveness of my Internet connection?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-monitor-the-effectiveness-of-my-internet-connection/248945>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 6, 2004, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-monitor-the-effectiveness-of-my-internet-connection/248945 "2004-06-06T12:25:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-monitor-the-effectiveness-of-my-internet-connection/248945/1 "2004-06-06T12:25:55Z")

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I have recently had a cable modem installed. I’ve had problems with losing connections when trying to listen to streaming radio (BBC) and when connected to work over a VPN. I don’t know whether the problems are caused by my Internet connection or by the remote servers themselves. Can any dopers recommend tools (preferably free) that would monitor my Internet connection so I can see if it is dropping messages?

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-monitor-the-effectiveness-of-my-internet-connection/248945/2 "2004-06-06T16:31:38Z")

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The best way to test if it’s your connection or the servers is to open up another webpage and see if it loads. I guess that probably wouldn’t work for the VPN at work though.