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Hi all, I just wanted to put my two cents in here for what it's worth. First of all, I have no interest in any online speed test. I host mirrors for the two most popular speed test sites, one of which you are on right now. My only interest is in helping people get accurate and informed information when it comes to measuring their internet speed. I will probably upset some people with this post, but what I am saying comes from my 12+ years of experience in tweaking web servers and meticulously measuring the details of different transports. For http (e.g. "internet" or web-browser compatible) speed testing, I can say with 100% certainty that you will not find a testing methodology more accurate than testmy.net. The attention to detail and every little tidbit of information involved in http/tcp transport is second to none. I can say that since I host a mirror on here and can measure the results from both ends. For example, if you make a request on my box, apache keeps a log of the transfer information and precisely how long the socket was open and how much information (exactly) was transferred. The timing is accurate to less than 1/10000 of a second. Therefore, I can measure the precise time it took to transfer, say 100MB from my box to your computer and determine from that the speed in which the transfer took place. TMN goes a bit further than most, in that you can see the actual speeds during the xfer as it fluctuates. The other speed test engines take an average of your speed over the duration of xfer and throw away a significant amount of the data as "erroneous." My question is, if it is erroneous yet contributes to the overall time it takes to transfer a file, it is NOT erroneous and should NOT be discarded as such. This is where you will see significant differences on the "other" sites. Sometimes it is disappointing to see the real numbers your machine is capable of. Believe me, I know. I get upset when I think a measurement is wrong. But, it gives me valuable insight into how to increase the throughput and achieve better results. Take a look at my max and averages These come from my VNC (e.g. linux remote desktop) connections to one of my boxes using Firefox or other browsers to test the box. The average has been skewed by testing all kinds of different settings (e.g. jumbo frames, different MTUs, browsers, servers, etc) and so could be much higher if I dedicated an account singly to testing with my best settings...but that would kind of defeat the purpose, in my opinion! If you consider the overhead on the processor and network interface just to support my 1920x1080 VNC connection, then factor in that I am remoting into a server to test it's connection; furthermore that it is just a TCP link with limited threads that can be opened (due to the nature of the protocol), my box is capable of much more. But when it comes to true INTERNET ability, I have never measured anything faster than I can through testmy.net. Consider that the "other" sites use Flash and other visual enhancements, a limited amount of data and basically, nondiscriminatly discards data assumed to be erroneous, which site do you think will be more accurate? I will soon be starting a blog regarding how to improve you internet connection speed and will post the link when I publish it. I would like people to try before and after modifying system settings as well as the other speed test sites. I say everyone should try the other sites as well and see where the discrepancy lies. But if you are truly looking to improve your performance, in my opinion, you have found the spot (that is, unless you want to write your own code and try to start from scratch what has taken a decade to get where it is...good luck by the way). Anyone with questions, please feel free to ask. Understand, please, that I am often distracted and cannot immediately reply -- but I will reply. Probably your best source of information is in the threads on this site, or directly from Damon. He is very active on his site and generally answers anyones questions or posts fairly rapidly. Thanks for reading and forgive my spelling and/or rambling! Good luck! SIETEC

I have a problem with my internet connection where it gets very bad from about 4-8pm till sometime the next morning, I am trying to pin down when and what is causing it and this site is very useful for that, there is nothing like it on the web. However during the time when the connection is bad the test slows down so much, from about 5Mb to less than 100kb sometimes, that it takes so long to complete the download test that the next scheduled test is missed. It may be also that my browser backs off so much that it never completes for some reason (maybe dropped packets or something). I have tried resetting the test but sometimes this cancels the next scheduled test and it does not continue with automatic testing. Is there a way to have a timeout set so that the test reports ~0kb and resets so that the next try can detect when the connection starts working again? Richard90 Speed Test Results.pdf

I know why Testmy.net is 10x better. Ookla Sucks, TMN doesn't It's just plain simple

Wow man, good read. At a loss of words, rare for me. It's been a while since I felt this validated. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle educating people on why the site is not like any other. I can type till my fingers bleed trying to explain it... but coming from me it doesn't mean as much. I really look forward to reading that blog. Thanks for taking the time to share your opinions.

I totally agree with you. I've been wanting to do that for a long time but there are so many areas to this site it can be hard to pull myself from more critical areas to get to it. When I first designed the graphing system... well, first there were not graphs. It was just the list data you see below the graph. When I built on the graphing I pretty much threw it together to suit my purpose... I wanted the X-Axis to have data but annoyingly the two datasets won't match because the time is different. All it's going to take is some of my time to sit down and research and play around to get multi-xaxis into one graph. Right now, if I turn it on it will graph one or the other. Either the upload times or download times. Because the tests can be taken independently of each other and the time is variable we run into an issue. ... it's technically possible but I have to take the time. It's definitely on my to-do-list. For now, you can filter by test type... ... once you've displaying only one test type and you hover over you'll see the time in the details. I appreciate the suggestions.. keep them coming! Even if they've already been suggested... the more I hear something, the more likely it will be prioritized.

Thanks for visiting Richard, I'm glad you like the site. It's my labor of love. This has been suggested a couple times, not exactly how you're talking about but similar. For some people their connection craps out and causes the test to end completely. I'll address this and your issue in my next version of the automatic speed test. What I'll probably do to fix your issue is have it where if it's taking too long... it will either end the test and calculate based on the data it gathered already... or have you forwarded to a smaller size to hopefully get you to complete the test in a timely fashion. What you can do right now that may resolve this is to uncheck 'express' this way the test will start at a lower value each time and adjust to what's happening at the time the test is taken. Let me know if that helps. .. tell your friends if you really like TestMy.net, this is word-of-mouth.