"We all want a faster, better Internet, yet Internet speeds vary greatly and can be affected by other users on your network or congestion with your Internet service provider," Netflix's David Fullagar, vice president of content delivery architecture, said in a blog post about the new site. "When you’re experiencing streaming issues, fast.com allows you to check the download speeds you’re getting from your Internet service provider."
As a site, Fast.com pretty basic. You just go to the URL, and immediately it measures the speed of your connection. It has a simple, white background, and there aren't any ads--just a small "Powered by Netflix" logo at the bottom.
And conveniently, one of the main benefits of fast.com is that it can help you figure out who's the culprit behind that slow, buffering video you want to watch: Netflix or your ISP. And based on this new tool, Netflix seems to be betting it will usually be the latter.