title: Is there a reliable way to test upload speed?
body: <p>I want to add a feature to a web page which shows the user's upload speed (helping them predict how long a file will take to upload).</p>
  
  <p>I was pleased to find <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15472251/estimate-users-upload-speed-without-direct-permission">a cool example of how to do this with javascript</a> but when I went to check the results against other (reputable?) testing sources, the results are all over the place!</p>
  
  <p>I'm specifically interested in upload speeds.</p>
  
  <p>On my work ethernet:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://testmy.net" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://testmy.net</a> - 15Mbps</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://bandwidth.com/tools/speedTest/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://bandwidth.com/tools/speedTest/</a> - 25Mbps</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.brandonchecketts.com/speedtest" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.brandonchecketts.com/speedtest</a> - 3.2Mbps</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://codecanyon.net/item/javascript-bandwidth-tester/full_screen_preview/531891" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://codecanyon.net/item/javascript-bandwidth-tester/full_screen_preview/531891</a> - 6Mbps</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://thinkingstiff.com/scripts/upload-speed" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://thinkingstiff.com/scripts/upload-speed</a> - 1-2Mbps<br />
  (live demo by the author of the script referenced above)</p>
  
  <p>Initially I thought it was fluctuation from my network due to traffic from other users, etc. But I've been retesting all afternoon and each test is pretty consistent with its self. Some more than others, but generally within 5%.</p>
  
  <p>So I'm left wondering:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Is it not straight-forward to test this?</li>
  <li>Are there any reliable tools to test this? Or should I just do it myself manually? </li>
  </ol>