17 replies to this topic

[BlackKitty]

Comcast in Portland has your basic monopoly and is charging me a fortune for internet access. I'm paying for download speeds up to 25M but according to testmy.net I'm downloading at 3- 6MPS consistently. Of course when I call Comcast they claim to have never heard of testmy.net and tell me to use speedtest.net, their own test site. Are they knowingly ripping me off? Here's my brief hardware list and ping test results:

Dell Studio XPS 8000
Intel i7 870 2.9GHZ
Corsair DDR3 Ram 8GB
Saphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet (Connected Network Adopter)
D-Link DIR 615 Wireless N Router

Ping results:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

ping google.com

Pinging google.com [209.85.225.106] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 209.85.225.106: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.85.225.106: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.85.225.106: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.85.225.106: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.85.225.106:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 61ms, Maximum = 63ms, Average = 61ms

ping testmy.net

Pinging testmy.net [174.120.187.140] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 174.120.187.140: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=52
Reply from 174.120.187.140: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=52
Reply from 174.120.187.140: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=52
Reply from 174.120.187.140: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 174.120.187.140:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 61ms

[CA3LE]

BlackKitty, on 27 November 2011 - 03:46 AM, said:

Comcast in Portland has your basic monopoly and is charging me a fortune for internet access. I'm paying for download speeds up to 25M but according to testmy.net I'm downloading at 3- 6MPS consistently. Of course when I call Comcast they claim to have never heard of testmy.net and tell me to use speedtest.net, their own test site. Are they knowingly ripping me off? Here's my brief hardware list and ping test results:

WELCOME!

I'd like to encourage you to read my legitimacy page  and Why do my speeds differ from speedtest.net?

What's your Operating System?  Also, you must be seeing poor speeds elsewhere to question their results, right?

MANY providers use speedtest.net's service and I don't think any of them even realize how poor the test is.  According to their own admission they doctor the results.


They are making adjustments for an unknown variable!  How is that scientific?  Their test looks pretty but I believe that testmy.net has a superior methodology.  Many common issues aren't detected by that test but are very obvious when you test here.  I do things differently.

I'm sure that if Comcast would love to help if they were given the correct information.  The call center people have been told to send people there, it's not their fault... it's the fault of whoever told them to do that.

I can say this with certainty, if you're in North America and you can't pull your speeds here... you have a problem.  My servers are very well connected and if Comcast or any ISP tells you any different... you need to question them.  Ask the community... ask the countless people that have relied on this service for so many years.

One thing that may help you is TCP Optimizer -- especially if you're using Windows XP.  I'm guessing with an i7 you're running Windows 7... let me know.  We'll try to help.

run pathping testmy.net or mtr testmy.net from the command prompt.  And return those results please

-CA3LE

[CA3LE]

Here is my result on Cox.net in Phoenix Arizona

to Dallas, TX


across the country to Washington D.C.


If I can do it, you should be too.  Especially since my host has direct peering with Comcast, 60+ Gbps of direct peering.



... this is why I don't think the problem will be found in your route.  Most likely your modem, router, NIC or settings... something local.  But I could easily be wrong.

[TriRan]

i also live in AZ

to dc


to dallas

[BlackKitty]

OS is Windows 7 Home Premium SP1

Here's the ping results you asked for:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

pathping testmy.net
Tracing route to testmy.net [174.120.187.140]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  0  GManTacNayn.hsd1.or.comcast.net. [192.168.0.100]
  1  192.168.0.1
  2     *        *        *
Computing statistics for 25 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           GManTacNayn.hsd1.or.comcast.net. [
192.168.0.100]
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    0ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.168.0.1

Trace complete.

mtr testmy.net
'mtr' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

[BlackKitty]

Here's some test results


And again:


And again:


I seem to get lower results when running Smart Test.

[TriRan]

have you tried testing against both servers? or just one?

[CA3LE]

D.C. was down a little bit ago... but service was just restored.  Did some system updates and for some reason it completely crashed the server on reboot.   That server has never been down since I turned it on.  First time for everything...  it's cool now.

BlackKitty, try the DC server like Triran suggested.  Navigating to http://dc.testmy.net will change the default to DC for you or click the button on the screenshot that was posted

... let's make sure you're having the same problem over there too.. that eliminates many routing issues.

[BlackKitty]

Here's the results from Dallas, I clicked on the 6MB test:


And here's the Smarttest results from Dallas, the Smarttest results are always slower with my system as you can see:

[BlackKitty]

Oh, whoops you said try DC...sorry, once more from DC:
First manually at 6MB:


Then Smarttest:


Here's what I'm paying for from Comcast- part of this month's bill actually:

[TriRan]

BlackKitty, on 28 November 2011 - 12:20 AM, said:

Oh, whoops you said try DC...sorry, once more from DC:
First manually at 6MB:


Then Smarttest:


Here's what I'm paying for from Comcast- part of this month's bill actually:
Cap.PNG

okay! that tells us something very good, it's not a route issue and that your speed is actually 20Mbps not 25Mbps you can't really count the powerboost because its only for the first little bit of a download and this speed test is meant to run long enough to normalize any burst speeds

what modem do you have? and are you on wifi or wired?

[darkkitty44]

I have the standard Comcast Motorolla Surfboard modem and yes, I'm behind a router. I just tested my speed from the FCC site,  http://www.broadband.gov/ here's the results from there:

[darkkitty44]

Somehow I managed to get two accounts with testmy.net, one is darkkitty44 and the other is BlackKitty. I've been using testmy.net for many years actually. At some point I forgot my login information and started a new account. Sorry about that, can you tell me how to delete the older one, or should I not worry about it? I have the new login information stored in a save place with many other passwords and usernames so I can't loose them again. Just so you know, darkkitty44 and BlackKitty are the same person, me.

[BlackKitty]

I see what's going on now. I have three browsers I use every day and I let them all remember usernames and passwords. IE9 and Firefox 8.0 remember me as darkkitty44. Google Chrome, where I am now, remembers me as BlackKitty, hence the different usernames and avatars you see. And your site see's me as two people! LOL:

[CA3LE]

darkkitty44, on 28 November 2011 - 01:48 AM, said:

Somehow I managed to get two accounts with testmy.net, one is darkkitty44 and the other is BlackKitty. I've been using testmy.net for many years actually. At some point I forgot my login information and started a new account. Sorry about that, can you tell me how to delete the older one, or should I not worry about it?

Just don't worry about it... if you really want to I can merge the accounts.  But since you don't have very much forum activity yet I don't think it's necessary.

The broadband.gov test is also a flash based Ookla test... therefor you can put that in the same category as speedtest.net --- it's made by the same people.  Off the subject but someone as MSNBC recently misquoted me saying that I thought the FCC testing was sound.  Totally was taken out of context.  I actually should have been quoted saying something like, "Some of their techniques are sound but with flawed test methodology the information there can't be trusted." -- I let it go because of the amount of quality traffic they sent me.  He pretty much used me to write what he wanted, I have email proof of this from our conversations... I know now to watch my words when I'm talking to the press about anything.  Because they'll twist your words on you.  I love how all the negative information I gave was omitted.  What's their agenda?  But, that's another subject all together.

[BlackKitty]

Well it appears that I should just accept things the way they are, pay my bill and don't complain because I really have no options. If I cancelled Comcast what are my options? Century Link? LOL. Verizon? LOL. Clear Wireless? LOL. These are all much, much worse than Comcast. Comcast has the services I need all in one place. They are selling me a 20MB connection and I never have reached 8MB on any download. But who knows what the speed is really? I can see there is no fool proof speed testing software so Comcast is selling something that cannot be measured or quantified. That's like going to the store and buying a bag of 12 oranges only I can't open the bag to count the oranges or see them from the outside and if I ask the store to prove that there's 12 oranges in the bag they put the bag on "their scale" and say "See? it says 12 oranges!" Where does Comcast get it's product from anyway? I've always thought they pay a lease for access to government satellites that broadcast the internet at the maximum speed available in this country, 100MB per second then they "package" that signal into parcels, DSL, 1MB broadband, 3MB broadband and so forth each with it's own price point (or is that where cable TV comes from). I think they have the hottest scam going and they probably need more regulation to get them ethical. In the meantime, I'm an internet junkie and cannot live without it. My cable TV also. As bad a deal as it is to pay for channels that are already being paid by advertisers the alternatives are even worse. Over the air TV? Awful. Netflix? Yeah, right. A satellite dish hanging off my roof? LOL. Soo, can you comment on my lack of understanding, especially on where the internet comes from, and we'll go from there. By the way, your personal attention to my questions is much appreciated.

[CA3LE]

BlackKitty, on 28 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

But who knows what the speed is really? I can see there is no fool proof speed testing software so Comcast is selling something that cannot be measured or quantified. That's like going to the store and buying a bag of 12 oranges only I can't open the bag to count the oranges or see them from the outside and if I ask the store to prove that there's 12 oranges in the bag they put the bag on "their scale" and say "See? it says 12 oranges!"

It can be measured and quantified... just not by their own speed test.  I agree, it is a scam.  This is why I've continued to build this over the years, I want to inform consumers.

Their scale says 12 oranges... but my scale that you snuck into the store says you only got 5.  Since you, by your own admission, have never seen those speeds you have to agree then that their scale is wrong.  (I'm going to keep rolling with the analogy, okay)  It's sad, you should be able to trust your 'grocers' scale.  But sometimes you need to verify, this is what TMN is here for.  I think that people should just skip the extra step and go right for the third party.  ...you see, I stand to gain nothing by lying to you about your speeds.  If my results aren't trusted... I no longer have a benchmark.

It used to be that if you called tech support, to any North American ISP.. there was a very good chance that they would send you here.  Not anymore, ISPs that have something to hide have retrained their support staff to send people to ONLY their speed tests.  So, what... is Comcast blaming the ENTIRE internet for your slow speeds?  You get slow speeds everywhere except their speed test, sorry... that's fishy.  I can smell it through the computer even.  Disgusting and hardly anyone knows about this stuff, they usually take their ISPs word for it.  People figure, "They're a huge company, they know what they're talking about..." --- uuuh, no they don't.  OR, they do and they're knowingly scamming people.  I think that they HAVE to know that it's BS... but I like to hope that they're actually misinformed, good people.

"TestMy.net ... your ISP hates us because we tell you the truth!"

Please help by telling others about this site.  Hopefully we can eventually make a difference in the quality of the World Internet.

BlackKitty, what kind of modem do you have?

[TriRan]

he posted earlier that he has a rented motorola surfboard i'm assuming 5210