Download speed: how fast you receive data (streaming, downloads, browsing). This is the number that matters most day to day.
Upload speed: how fast you send data (video calls, sending files, cloud backups).
Ping (latency): how quickly your connection reacts, in milliseconds. Crucial for online gaming and video calls — the lower, the better.
Wi-Fi, the number of connected devices, the time of day and the distance to the server all affect the result. For a reliable test, plug in via Ethernet and close other applications.
Yes. The measurement runs over the M-Lab (Measurement Lab) network, an open measurement platform whose servers are connected at 10 Gbps and spread around the world : the test picks the one closest to you. A 2, 5 or 8 Gbps line is therefore measured correctly.
This is also what separates a real test from a rough one : a test hosted on a single small server can never show more than that server's own capacity. If M-Lab is unreachable (corporate firewall, WebSocket blocking), Volt automatically falls back to its own server and tells you so.
The test exchanges random bytes and nothing else : no file, no content of yours. M-Lab records the measurement itself (speed, latency, IP address) and publishes it as open research data ; that is how this scientific platform works, and it is what makes it free. On our side, we store no result.
Test over Ethernet and close other applications for a reliable measurement.