What can szelessav.net do?
Online speed measurement
On the szelessav.net website, online software can be used to measure internet upload and download speeds, as well as server response time and latency (ping). This software-based measurement method - which operates with a measurement uncertainty of less than 4 per cent (i.e. an accuracy of more than 96 per cent) - was developed by Smart Communications Laboratory (SmartCom Lab), a research, development and educational workshop at the Department of Telecommunications and Artificial Intelligence of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Using szelessav.net, you can make sure that your measurements are saved by creating (registering) your own user account, and entering the exact name of the service or services you wish to measure. The system will also inform you about to what extent the speed values correspond to the values offered and guaranteed by the provider. When registering, the NMHH will request the geographical location and postal code of the service location so that the measurement results can also be displayed in anonymised form on a map and aggregated according to various filtering criteria.
Meter box speed testing
Meter box speed testing provides the most accurate measurement of the characteristics of wired Internet service at the service endpoint. The meter box is provided by the NMHH to users who volunteer for the programme. The aim of the NMHH is to create a geographically representative, anonymised public database from the data of the deployed hardware measuring devices, in order to construct an accurate broadband map of Hungary. The measurement hardware does not measure internet traffic on the computer but connects directly to the network endpoint. Measurements between the measurement hardware and the associated remote measurement server take place automatically. The measurements are taken when the subscriber is not using the Internet. Metering is not influenced by the subscriber’s computer, its current workload, or its other characteristics, ensuring a more accurate measurement.
Measuring the speed and coverage of mobile networks
Measurement is carried out by the NMHH’s sensor-equipped cars, which have been converted into mobile measuring stations. These vehicles travel around the country continuously throughout the year, measuring and recording download and upload speeds, latency (ping) and mapping the radio frequency coverage (signal strength) of all major mobile operators’ networks.
Displaying the measurement results
In the “National Results” section of the szelessav.net website, there are separate areas where users can access the software-based measurement results of registered users, the measurements results from high-precision measurement hardware installed by the NMHH at the volunteer sites, and the results from the sensor-equipped cars recording the performance of mobile networks. Through the map-based, graphical and tabular display of the data, processed in various ways, users can see the actual performance of a service or service provider at specific geographical locations. The results can be printed or downloaded as data files, and the graphs can be saved in both pixel-based and vector graphics image formats
Knowledge base
The szelessav.net service is also a genuine knowledge base, with short articles containing a great deal of information about Internet technologies, Internet quality and how it is measured, how to get the most out of your home Internet, how to contact your service provider with the measurement results, as well as specific advice depending on the device, system and type of Internet service used to access the World Wide Web.
Why are measurements independent, and what makes them reliable?
The measurement server is located upstream of all Hungarian service providers, in what is known as BIX (Budapest Internet Exchange). BIX is a data exchange centre to which domestic ISPs can connect. BIX allows traffic between service providers to not be routed to their respective foreign lines but through BIX itself, using a high-bandwidth direct connection. The fact that our measurement server is hosted on BIX ensures our independence from service providers during the measurement process.