How to test network speeds of hosting companies

From different countries?

[craig1972]

In comparing the network speed of two hosting comapnies I have asked for sites hosted by them. When I PING to each of these two example sites from either hosting provider, the "Average" time in ms is quite different.

My question:

(1) Is PING a good indication of speed of network?

(2) How can I test something like network connectivity from different countries? (Asia, Europe, US)

Thanks!

[George_hu]

Ping based on different protocoll...so that not always
the best.

Ask for a 10 meg test file and try to download from corporate LAN.300k as mimimum expected,but 1500k also not suprising.

Every bigger hosting company got more that 1 server,
so one server not means anything.

Even the serverload is also interesting, and they usually not like to tell you.(except few)

You may also try on some forums, but the worst company always has one happy client at least.