Turn off all the other computers, connect yourself to the modem directly, turn off everything that uses the internet except your browser, then test 3 times. Average it, and that will be the most accurate way of doing it.
My my my... Kloe and Frika, good times I remember being on modandstocktrials on yahoo groups, and downloading videos at 3kb/s, and having to pause downloads while my internet reset every 2 hours.
IMO a designer is front end, a developer is back end. Front end for me is design/xhtml/css/cross browser testing/etc. and back end is php/coding wizardry/advanced js/etc.