Why would one like to monitor the download speed continuously at all times is beyond my comprehension.
If what all you need to check is your line condition and max possible download speed possible on your line, just use the BSNL Broadband Speed tester at www.dataone.in - assuming that you are a BSNL Broadband user.
The data comes straight from a local server without going through any international Gateway and therefore will reflect the true maximum possible speed on your line.(And most of the time you will get the same result unless your line condition deteriorates).So this can really act as a line condition monitor.
Once you go through any international gateway, the picture turns different and your download speed depends on various network factors, both your ISP's, the gateways and beyond. If however you suspect that download speed is low , you can confirm it by conducting a speed test from a host of speed testers, the most popular being speedtest.net.Here you can conduct the speed test from a Mumbai server or choose one from different continents.The results can vary from time to time and day to day and you really have no control over it.Except knowing that at that particular time the speed is good or not so good,you achieve nothing.
If you really want to know whether the bottleneck arises in your ISP's network or beyond you have to ping the destination server and ascertain where exactly the packets are lost.
So my answer to the question is keep on downloading large files 24 hours a day and you can happily keep on monitoring the download speeds
And again that only pertains to that particular originating server
Keep downloading from a multitude of servers spread over all the continents simultaneously and you really get a true average download speeds
Happy monitoring
OOOps, I failed to c that this is a very very old thread and wasted my time
