Fast.com is Netflix’s simple internet speed test

Netflix today launched Fast.com, a simple advertisement-free, in-browser tool designed to help users measure their internet speeds.

While similar services – such as speedtest.net – already exist and provide users with more detailed information, Fast.com is designed to streamline the experience by simply showing download speed. As such, Fast.com doesn't display metrics such as ping, upload speed, and latency.

"We all want a faster, better Internet, yet internet speeds vary greatly and can be affected by other users on your network or congestion with your internet service provider," said Netflix vice president of content delivery architecture David Fullagar.

"When you’re experiencing streaming issues, Fast.com allows you to check the download speeds you’re getting from your internet service provider. Using Netflix servers, Fast.com works like other globally available tools including speedtest.net, and the results should be similar in most cases."

Since Fast.com communicates directly with Netflix servers, it also provides users with a way to check if their provider is slowing their connection to Netflix (for eif the speedtest.net result is much faster than the Fast.com result). While this hasn't yet been a problem in Australia, some internet providers in the United States have been known to intentionally slow traffic to Netflix.

Fast.com works on desktop, smartphone, and smart TV web browsers, and doesn't rely on third party plugins such as Flash.