Quote from luckyd1976:
Tests to run,
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Not sure these are really apple/apple comparisons... This depends on the server you select. I have two different servers with Softlayer (as physical redundancy)... one in Dallas and one in Seattle. (So if Dallas falls into the ocean, I can trade with the Seattle machine.)
From my Seattle machine to the Speakeasy server in Seattle, I actually have "infinity kbps" download (seriously, that's what it says), and 6415 kbps upload.
Going cross-country from Seattle machine to New York, I ended up with 2134 kbps down, 4675 kbps up.
Also keep in mind that Softlayer gives you different levels of network bandwidth depends on the package you want. I'm not tied into the Gigabit link, because it hasn't been useful so far.
Services like Softlayer's used to host major e-commerce sites... so to put it mildly, they invest in network pipes.
ping
www.yahoo.com from your CMD and notice the trip times in ms.
22ms-25 ms on my end here
This is completely, completely dependent on the location of where you're pinging, because the speed of light is the restrictive factor.
I originally picked a server in Dallas because I was working with TD Ameritrade. I actually have 1-2ms ping times to the TDA servers.
But now I'm on IB, which is located in Boston, and my ping times are up to 55 ms. I might want to relocate to their Washington DC server farm, where my ping times will probably drop to 10-20ms time.