Idle latency
How long a request takes when the connection is mostly quiet. Lower is generally better for interactive use.
Internet Quality
Internet Quality Test: what makes a connection feel good?
Internet quality is more than download speed. Learn how latency, loaded latency, jitter and throughput combine—and use the bufferbloat test to measure them.
Want the measurement instead of the explanation? Run the live Bufferbloat Test. It measures idle and loaded latency plus download/upload throughput.
The four connection vitals
Loaded latency
How much delay appears while the connection is busy. A line can have excellent idle latency and still become sluggish under load.
Jitter
How much latency varies between samples. Real-time audio and games prefer consistent timing, not only a good average.
Throughput
How much data the line can move. It matters for large transfers and high-bitrate streaming, but it does not replace responsiveness.
Why “fast” Internet can still lag
When a bottleneck queue fills, packets can wait behind bulk traffic. The connection may still transfer data quickly while clicks, voice packets and game inputs wait in the same queue. That is the core experience the loaded-latency test is designed to expose.
Use the result as a diagnosis
If idle latency is good but upload-loaded latency rises sharply, upload queueing is the likely pattern. If both directions rise, queue management may be weak in both directions. If idle latency is already high before load, distance, routing, VPN, wireless or access technology may matter more than bufferbloat.