Testing streams?

Are there any good ways to test streams? Every time previously that I tried to stream, the test mode in OBS would come up saying things are fine, then when I actually started it would lag really bad, showing fine on my side but pulling it up on my phone showed nothing but stop motion. I don't want that to be the case this time, and don't want a public stream that anyone can watch while I'm checking for it, if I can.