How do I conduct a performance test of my internet connection?

The Broadband Tests and Tools from DSLReports.com include a simple speed test, as well as long- and short-term line quality tests:

• Speed Tests

  Test your maximum upload speed and download speed from several geographically distributed locations.
  Java, Flash and iPhone speed test (100% browser) available.

• Smokeping

  Intensively monitor an IP address for 24 or more hours to review packet loss and/or excessive latency variability -- from three different US locations

• Line Quality - Ping Test

  Test latency, jitter and packet loss to your IP address, including identification of any problems en-route to you.

The speed test requires Flash or Java; the other two require that your IP is pingable.

In the absence of a specialized tool for long-term speed tests, you could use a command-line network retriever (e.g. Wget or Wget for Windows) and download uncompressable test files with a shell/batch script.

The nearest test files to Arizona I could find are from speedtest.dal01.softlayer.com (Dallas, TX) and speedtest.sea01.softlayer.com (Seattle, WA).

I've only ever used the online tests like:

• Speakeasy SpeedTest

• Speedtest.net

Most of the online tests use Flash (which makes it impossible to run from iOS devices). Some of them offer user accounts to record and track runs at different times and in your case with different providers. The other downside is that they only provide a basic upload/download metric (and sometimes ping) and not more details statistics.