Question about download speed test

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Would this result be accurate for testing download speed?

const string tempfile = "5MB.zip";
WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
Uri uri = new Ur("http://download.thinkbroadband.com/5MB.zip");
Console.WriteLine("Download test starting please wait....");
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
webClient.DownloadFile(uri, tempfile);
sw.Stop();
FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo(tempfile);
long speed = fileInfo.Length / sw.Elapsed.Seconds;
Console.WriteLine("Speed: {0} bps ", speed.ToString("N0"));

Posted 11-Feb-11 6:34am

krazyazkid

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Nish Nishant · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-11T06:38:00

Solution 1

Yes, that should work. You might want to run it on multiple URLs and at multiple times of the day to get a more realistic average speed.

Posted 11-Feb-11 6:38am

Nish Nishant

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 13:23pm

Correct, my 5.
I prefer a bit different and straightforward way of timing (in my answer)
--SA

Nish Nishant 11-Feb-11 13:29pm

Okay, I have some comments on that. I'll comment on your answer.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-11T07:22:00

Solution 2

Better use DataTime:

C#

System.DateTime before = System.DateTime.Now;
//download all
System.DateTime after = System.DateTime.Now;
System.TimeSpan duration = after - before;
double seconds = duration.TotalSeconds;
double milliseconds = duration.TotalMilliseconds;

Pay attention: your accuracy is the same, no matter what units you use, duration is calculated into double value.

—SA

Posted 11-Feb-11 7:22am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 11-Feb-11 8:04am

v2

Comments

krazyazkid 11-Feb-11 13:29pm

Thank you for your quick response :)

Nish Nishant 11-Feb-11 13:31pm

Do see my comment response to Kryukov too. StopWatch has much better resolution compared to using DateTime.Now, so your approach is correct (and should not be changed).

Nish Nishant 11-Feb-11 13:30pm

DateTime is not as accurate as StopWatch. So for a speed test, I would certainly use Stopwatch ahead of comparing DateTime values.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 14:06pm

Really? I did not know that. So, how the accuracies compare?
(The accuracy was enough for my tests, because I intentionally selected longer tests.)
Thank you.
--SA

Nish Nishant 11-Feb-11 18:01pm

Kryukov, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetime.now.aspx

From that link: "The Now property is frequently used to measure performance. However, because of its low resolution, it is not suitable for use as a benchmarking tool. A better alternative is to use the Stopwatch class."

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 23:32pm

Great, good to know, thank you.
I used to use maximum possible accuracy, but long time ago.
--SA

P.S.:
If you don't mind: you can call me SA or Sergey, many people call me like that in English, it originally means "Sergey Alexandrovich", Kryukov is the last name, not so appropriate to use.

Nish Nishant 12-Feb-11 8:47am

Ah ok, I did not know that was your last name. It'll be SA from now on :-)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-11 14:46pm

And not very unusual: on CodeProject, I found 3 more people with the same last name, 2 of them having also the same first name, one of them having user name identical to full combination my first name, middle initial and last name!
--SA