When I first got broadband I had a few technical issues and when I phoned sky they told me this number than I typed into the address bar {no www, just a number} and it told me the speed of my broadband. Does anyone know how to do this as I cannot remember!
There are many possible broadband speed tests you can do a good one is http://www.speedtest.net you can choose a server (anywhere in the world) to ping and it tests upload, Download, and response.
The number you typed in was an IP address. all web pages have them, we just use letters because its more user friendly, your browser just converts them into numbers through a DNS server.
a very good site I found relating to everything sky and broadband speed is the unofficial sky broadband site.
www.skyuser.co.uk.
you can find just about everything you want to know