I would like to use a service in order to test how well my hosting
company is connected to the many backbone links.

Care to suggest?

-Mao

Are you more concerned about their ability to handle inbound or
outbound network traffic?

Hi Will,

Is there a difference?

If an HTTP request comes in comfortably and they can't respond with an
outbound response equally, then we're back to square one. Right?

-Mao

Hi Mao,

It does make a difference.  HTTP requests are usually far smaller than
the responses.  If the server is generating very large or complicated
pages, then it may well be the bottleneck and network throughput may
be irrelevant.

Add to that the fact that most network connections are not
synchronous, so your host's outbound pipe is probably much smaller
than their inbound pipe.

If you are planning on running a mass-mailing from your host, for
example, their inbound bandwidth is irrelevant.  If you plan on
hosting an application that will have numerous clients posting data,
then you would probably not worry about your host's outbound
bandwidth.

I also ask because an inbound bandwidth test may look like to your
host to a DOS attack, while an outbound network bandwidth test may be
okay if you are running from your own dedicated server on their
service.

Hello Will,

Then both are important, a request should get to the server quick
enough and a response back within a reasonable amount of time... a
service that tests and compares many to come up with a benchmark or a
sorted table would be ideal.

-Mao