Which speed test is right??

[Shrykull]

http://www.computers4sure.com/speed3.asp?Sp=696.4

from speakeasy.com



http://reviews.cnet.com/7009-7254_7-0.h ... bps=1483.6

and myspeed.com


I think the first one is. We have a cable modem connected to a wireless router, but I wonder why the wildly different results for each one.

[Uraniun235]

68 kilobits/second is "wildly different"?

[Master of Ossus]

How is that a "wildly different" result? The upload speed is identical, and the download speed is damn near identical.

How can you perceive any difference between those figures?

[Braedley]

Speed tests will vary widely based on a number of factors. Network load that is local to either the server or yourself (and not necessarily your load or the server's load), physical distance to the server, path the data travels, (all of which is also dependent on the time of day,) hell, even the ports used on your machine. But since your results are within 5%, I don't think you have anything to worry about concerning the accuracy of one test over the other.

[Edi]

Wildly different? That negligible difference vanishes several times over into the mere margin of error.

[Shrykull]

Are you looking at the first and second (third test) links I posted?? 1483.6 kbps and 696.4 Kbps are identical?

[Master of Ossus]

Are you looking at the first and second (third test) links I posted?? 1483.6 kbps and 696.4 Kbps are identical?

I'm reading 3028 kbps and 2.95 Mbps. That's pretty fucking negligible. I have no idea where you're getting the numbers you just posted.

[General Zod]

Have you considered using speedtest? It gets used fairly frequently around here.

[Darth Holbytlan]

Are you looking at the first and second (third test) links I posted?? 1483.6 kbps and 696.4 Kbps are identical?

Next time number the tests. It looked like you just posted two speed tests with their links unless one looks closely. For anyone who's still confused, here are the four test results:

1. 696.4 kbps - computers4sure
2. 3028 kbps/245 kbps - speakeasy
3. 1483.6 kbps - cnet
4. 2.95 Mpbs/245 kbps - myspeed

Note: Two tests agree very well. The two that don't disagree with each other and don't distinguish download and upload speeds. Test #3 is roughly the average of the download/upload speeds reported by tests #1 and #3, so it could be agreeing with them. Also, getting less speed than you can really get is easy if there is congestion. Getting more is hard.

Conclusion: Ignore test #3 because it is uninformative. Ignore test #1 because it is an outlier and uninformative, and use speedtest as General Zod suggests to confirm the other two results.

[Glocksman]

A lot of it, as others have said, varies on server locations:

Here's my Speedtest results.
I'm located in Evansville, IN:











The one in Calgary, Alberta is by far the 'worst' of the lot, but it's that way because of distance and 'net congestion', not because my ISP blows huge chunks.

What those results tell me is that I get real close to Insight's advertised 10Mbps speeds.

[Shrykull]

I'm in Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border. Definitely better results, but I see most of you have speeds that are way higher than mine. I see General Zod has cable also, and his test to a place 50 miles away would probably be way higher than mine(there isn't one close enough for me to test) We do have a wireless router, so perhaps the speed is split among the people connected, and also the people in our neighborhood.

[Braedley]

This is only because it's the middle of the night, therefore, my packets aren't heavily shaped.

EDIT: new test result, only difference is time of day and running under linux instead of windows, and not downloading torrents or connected to a DC++ hub


EDIT2: got to love the university backbone

[Uraniun235]

[WesFox13]

Here's my results








I'm Using Quest DSL but I think that their speed isn't as fast as they say they are or we are just paying for the slow type of DSL.