To provide customers with accurate Speedtest.net results we use a widely deployed technology called GeoIP. This service estimates your location using your IP address but only very approximately. At best it can only tell us which city or town you live in and occasionally it is accurate down to an entire postal code block.

Using this estimated location, if you use the BEGIN TEST button and do not have a preferred server, we very quickly check the latency (ping time) of what appear to be the Test Servers closest to you and select the one with the best performance.

Sometimes however, the GeoIP service provides us with an inaccurate location, which is usually caused by outdated information in their database. We have no control over this and can only go from what they tell us. Examples of the cause include recently reassigned IP address blocks that have not yet been updated in MaxMind's database, the company we use for GeoIP.

If you or your customer are being depicted in the wrong location there are 3 methods to attempt to resolve this error:

1) Create a free account at Speedtest.net, login, and then go to your Settings page.
Use the "Refine Location" button in the “Connection Manager” section. This is the easiest, fastest, and most successful way to correct your location but it will only work if you are on a WiFi Network. It uses WiFi triangulation to estimate your location but does a pretty good job very often.

2) In the event “Refined Location” fails or you do not wish to create a free account with Speedtest.net, we suggest that you or more likely your ISP contact Maxmind to complete their correction form. Find this form at: http://www.maxmind.com/en/correction

• Be sure to fill out the top enclosures for “IP Address Location Correction”
• Your IP address can be found & copied by going to Speedtest.net and selecting your IP address in the bottom corner of the Speedtest. Performing this action will automatically copy the address. Fill out the reset of the MaxMind form accordingly and select “Submit”. The process of updating your location in MaxMind will take at the least 1-2 weeks to be reviewed and corrected.

3) It can take 1-2 weeks for MaxMind to process that form. Accordingly, you can temporarily (or even permanently) manually select a preferred server on your Settings page in the "Global Settings" section. There are over 2000 servers to select from and likely one very near to you.
Note: Clearing your web browser's cache will remove your select preferred server, unless you have an account with Speedtest.net.