A new way to test your bandwidth

[dbarrow]

http://news.com.com/2061-11200_3-6105614.html?tag=newsmap

August 15, 2006 7:00 AM PDT

Applications that test bandwidth speeds have been around for years, but Speedtest.net takes the concept a step further.

The site allows you to select servers to ping from around the country on an interactive map and graphically displays connections as they travel with varying speeds along the way. It also lets you store results of tests for your computer and sort them by date, time, speed and distance.

Finally, Speedtest provides a simple way to share your results with others--taking the practice of monitoring bandwidth into the Web 2.0 realm.

http://www.speedtest.net/

*Well, looks cool anyway!

[PeteF]

http://news.com.com/2061-11200_3-6105614.html?tag=newsmap


http://www.speedtest.net/

*Well, looks cool anyway!

Very cool!
This is something you could demonstrate to any customer
and they will clearly understand what they are looking at.
Thanks for the recommendation!

---pete---

[Guest110]

That is really good

[casey]

I have had this on my web site for months and even asked a question about it withiout getting any answers.

http://www.kickenhardware.net/forum/images/statusicon/post_old.gif 08-09-2006, 03:56 PM
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Broadband speed test..
I'm sure there is a simple reason but this goes against a lot I always thought about how broadband works.

Anyway I recently installed a broadband speed test on my web site.I quickly noticed that my faster computers will score a lot higher on this test then the others. I have a computer I have been using for a long time, it's a AMD 3200+ with 1.5 gig ram it's hooked to a D-Link router and comcast broadband. When I check this on the speed test it will get around 4700kbps, I also have another hooked up AMD3000+ 64x to the same router and modem get around 4700kbps. I recently finished a
AMD 4000+ and an opteron 146 which will get 6000kbps on the same test hooked up to the same router and cable modem. Somebody I know will explain this in simple terms that I will understand. I alsways thought the broadband/modem/ provider determined the speed of broadband.

[writeco]

I liked it because it tries to take geography out of the equation. The results were tremendous; download over 14 GB/sec and upload over 720 kbs.

[dbarrow]

I also have another hooked up AMD3000+ 64x to the same router and modem get around 4700kbps. I recently finished a
AMD 4000+ and an opteron 146 which will get 6000kbps on the same test hooked up to the same router and cable modem.


6000 would be your standard "cap" and expected level for Comcast unless your area has been bumped to 8000.
As for the older machines, there is much "tweaking" to be done to optimize a broadband connection and variables such as the nic itself.
Far to long and deep a subject to discuss here...
Go to DLSreports.com and do a little study and run the various tests there. They have the best advice on getting the most out of your broadband connection.

[jcampi]

Neat! I liked the test.

[Pi rules]

Awesome test!

[RAK]

What was interesting was that the two quickest times I recorded were: Chicago,
10874kbs. , and Georgia,9498 kbs. . Both are listed at 650 miles away. Washington, DC and New York City, both 100 miles away, came in just under the Georgia times. All upload speeds, with the exception of Fort Worth, were 350, plus or minus 2. The slowest download time was Salt Lake City at 2767; it makes me wonder if the Pony Express is still running out there.:bounce:

[Pi rules]

That's odd, the servers must have been busy or something.

I think I got about 1.2 - 1.3 Mbps download (ISP says it's 1.5 Mbps) and just over 300 Kbps upload (I think the ISP says it's 384, but I'm not sure).

[dbarrow]

It's in the Hops!
There has been considerable lag all over the web for the last few weeks, page loads stall out, DNS fails to resolve, disconnects from online game servers, etc.

These little quirks rather intrigue me and I usually do a trace on them with Ping Plotter to see why.
What I have been seeing is some of the major backbone trunk routes having rather consistant issues.

Whenver you go to a site, wherever it lives, there are a series of HOPS and a number of different "train tracks" used on your route there. You may go from your ISP to an ATT or Verizon trunk, then on to a Sprintlink trunk, back to an ATT trunk, then down to the site's ISP and then to the server.

The web is supposed to be "adaptive", ie: your route may vary in reaching the same site from day to day as the trunk servers are supposed to re-route traffic to alternate routes to balance the load for the quickest connections and to keep from getting overloaded with traffic.

There is some kind of major mess way up in the tree...
not unlike major road construction projects on the inter-state highway system, that seem to be grinding traffic to a crawl. The automatic re-routing does not seem to be working that well.

I have noted a couple ATT routes through NYC, ever since that power outage a few weeks ago, that frequently pop up in the mix. The same numbers keep coming up where the ping suddenly takes a huge spike from 16 to 60+. Of course, everything that follows is as slow as the slowest choke point.
There is a Sprintlink route in the middle of the route to Dallas, where the online game server I use is located, that has been a major roadblock for almost a month now. The path goes through 4 Sprintlink hops before hitting this same one where pings get so bad it often results in timeouts and disconnects from the game.

The "Big Boys", ATT and Sprintlink, etc., don't discuss this with anyone ... including Comcast and Verizon. A call to tech support for your ISP telling them there is a lag above their gateway results in "We can't do anything about that."

Therefore; your speed tests are very unreliable at the moment and depend entirely on the route to the test server in question. If it hits one of these roadblocks, results will be atrocious. If it happens to run through a series of unobstructed routes, it may be good.
When you get a very fast result, it is usually showing you correct throughput speed of your machine, modem, router, ISP, etc. running up to expected capacity.
If you get a crappy result, run a Ping Plot to the same test server and look for roadblocks along the way.

[Guest110]

Why is there such a difference in my results ranging from 5gb to 2 download ????

I thought it was the super info highway