A computing device, comprising: communications hardware configured to send and receive communications over a communications network; non-volatile memory storing a test initiation program; a processor configured to execute the test initiation program to: transmit, via the communications hardware, a plurality of comparative testing media streams to a test server, each of the comparative testing media streams sent over one of a plurality of media connection channels; wherein each media connection channel comprises a program-and-network pair, which are available to the computing device for placing audio or video calls, wherein the program of the program-and-network pair is a program executed on the computing device and the network of the program-and-network pair is a network connection used by the computing device of a calling party to communicate in full duplex audio/video with a device of a called party; receive, via the communications hardware, a plurality of objective quality scores from the test server, each objective quality score corresponding to one of the plurality of media connection channels and being determined by the test server using an objective scoring test comparing the comparative testing media stream to reference testing data associated with the one of the comparative testing media streams; and select a recommended operational media connection channel from the plurality of media connection channels based on the objective quality scores, for the audio or video calls. communications hardware configured to send and receive communications over a communications network; non-volatile memory storing a test initiation program; a processor configured to execute the test initiation program to: transmit, via the communications hardware, a plurality of comparative testing media streams to a test server, each of the comparative testing media streams sent over one of a plurality of media connection channels; wherein each media connection channel comprises a program-and-network pair, which are available to the computing device for placing audio or video calls, wherein the program of the program-and-network pair is a program executed on the computing device and the network of the program-and-network pair is a network connection used by the computing device of a calling party to communicate in full duplex audio/video with a device of a called party; receive, via the communications hardware, a plurality of objective quality scores from the test server, each objective quality score corresponding to one of the plurality of media connection channels and being determined by the test server using an objective scoring test comparing the comparative testing media stream to reference testing data associated with the one of the comparative testing media streams; and select a recommended operational media connection channel from the plurality of media connection channels based on the objective quality scores, for the audio or video calls. transmit, via the communications hardware, a plurality of comparative testing media streams to a test server, each of the comparative testing media streams sent over one of a plurality of media connection channels; wherein each media connection channel comprises a program-and-network pair, which are available to the computing device for placing audio or video calls, wherein the program of the program-and-network pair is a program executed on the computing device and the network of the program-and-network pair is a network connection used by the computing device of a calling party to communicate in full duplex audio/video with a device of a called party; receive, via the communications hardware, a plurality of objective quality scores from the test server, each objective quality score corresponding to one of the plurality of media connection channels and being determined by the test server using an objective scoring test comparing the comparative testing media stream to reference testing data associated with the one of the comparative testing media streams; and select a recommended operational media connection channel from the plurality of media connection channels based on the objective quality scores, for the audio or video calls.