SharePoint (MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0) is roughly 3 years old. Awesome product, awesome platform… But, it isn't just the maturity of the product that has been the big pickup of interest/adoption in SharePoint. Newer/better browsers, more readiness by businesses to accept the web as a viable platform on which to do business (and store their data) and better Internet Performance have helped make SharePoint seem to improve in capability (i.e. the convergence of improving modern technologies, have helped with increased interest and respect for SharePoint).

Performance of SharePoint, when connecting from out of the office, is due in large part to the quality of your connection. The following two tools are what I use to evaluate/test connections for customers. They aren't necessarily in order of quality or preference. I typically use Speedtest to communicate to clients (slick/simple interface) and VisualWare for when I need more data, for troubleshooting.

SpeedTest.Net

I've always liked www.speedtest.net (and its little cousin, www.pingtest.net) – clever, cute interface and easy to interpret. As well, it gives you an idea of how your connection compares to others in the area or with similar ISP's.

Figure 1 : Speedtest.net results from my house

Figure 2 : Pingtest.net results from my house

VisualWare – Test My Connection Speed

VisualWare has a host of great tools that you can purchase to track email message headers, performance speed tests. Microsoft uses it for their Online Services Performance testing, for example. However, the best resource is their free, 'Test My Connection Speed' online product. You can pick the region (in the world) where you would like to test to - myspeed.visualware.com

Below is the VisualWare Test – myspeed.visualware.com. But, it would appear Microsoft has paid for a more capable/advanced version for their Online Services Performance Testing utility. So, as long as it sticks around for everyone to use, you may want to use that - speedtest.microsoftonline.com

Figure 3 : Test My Connection Speed - pick your connection point

Figure 4 : Choose "Click to start test"

And enjoy/decipher the results…

Figure 5 : Speed Results

Figure 6 : Summary Results