How fast was I streaming, officer? Netflix’s new site clocks your download speeds

While it still beats commercials, few things kill a good Netflix binge like constant buffering.

To help prevent streaming on sub-par connections – or possibly just so customers stop blaming Netflix for poor service when it’s actually an ISP’s fault – the company has created a brand new website devoted to seeing just how fast your internet really is.

Fast.com, powered by Netflix servers, measures your download rate in a matter of seconds on both mobile and broadband connections. While the site is minimalist in design, its results appear to be as accurate as other internet speedometers, like speedtest.net.

While anyone worldwide can access Fast.com’s megabytes-per-second analysis, other stats like jitter, upload rate, ping, or latency are absent. Netflix’s reasoning is that it intends Fast.com to be a simple and easy tool to measure download speeds – the only metric that really impacts streaming movies and TV.

Fast.com isn’t the only tool Netflix’s developed to keep users in charge of their data. Earlier this month, the streaming service added controls to its mobile apps so viewers don’t gouge their cellular data plan when watching House of Cards on the go.

Source: techradar.com