CA3LE

Keep looking around, there's probably a lot of other stuff you have yet to discover here.

Okay, now if you click the testID in the database results it opens within the page to save time. Click close or click the grey background to go back.

I got your email, at least I assume that was you. As I replied in the message... Hi CCS1, Ahhhh Ireland, I dream of visiting my forefathers home land. I'm going to make it a goal to visit in the next couple of years. I'm 3/4 Irish 1/4 German. Yes, we can totally setup a server, where ever you'd like. If you go to https://testmy.net/mirror you will see information on becoming a host. For you to create your own private speed test you'd have to first setup a server. This doesn't have to be a crazy expensive server. A VPS with a good connection to the Internet will do the trick. I don't know how much you know about servers... or setting something up like this. But if you have somewhat of an understanding of that stuff it's a very simple install process. If you don't know about that stuff, get a server and send me the root credentials and I'll take care of everything for you. Free of charge. You of course have to supply the VPS. If you search Ireland VPS you'll get an idea of what those cost. You want to make sure that you get one that's well connected in a good datacenter so make sure you read reviews and do research. Another thing you could do... ask your ISP to host the test. Tell them you want it. Maybe they'll oblige. I also have a server in NL that you might want to check out if you haven't already, on the same page. Another thing to consider is that you probably visit a lot of servers outside of Ireland... probably more often than inside Ireland. The speeds you get to the other servers are going to be more realistic than numbers within Ireland. But if it's closer it does give you a better idea of the capabilities of your connection.

Look on the forum home page... Scroll down and you'll see that

Alright... TiP Data is now being logged. Click on the test ID in your results to get the details from each result. Example Test Result: https://testmy.net/db/Gz0xKPY Later I'll make it so you can just hover over the result to pull that information... and within 24 hours I should have it expanded to all the mirrors. -D

Welcome to the site.

I'm working on it. I've wanted to add ping to the results forever. Every time I start to program that I get sidetracked into something else. I'll try to get latency included with the upcoming database upgrade. ... just like the upload progress bar, it's eluded me... but it's mostly because there are so many aspects to this program, it can be hard to get to everything. But yes, trust me... I want to add ping to the results.

I forget now... what did they call it when you bonded two 56k modems? ... I actually never even got 56k, I went from 33.3k dial-up to 3Mbps/128Kbps cable modem. I got it right when it became available, probably one of the first people in the US to get a cable modem, hence the nick. Funny, the first 56k modem I bought was like 4 years later... got it for a fax modem. Going from 33.3k to 3Mbps blew my mind at the time. Nearly 100x faster. Obviously I wanted to test it, that's when the predecessor to TestMy.net was born.

I'm talking about the bandwidth graph being wavy, not the CPU graph. I know for a fact that the bandwidth on the server isn't actually doing that. After reading more about how bonding really works it makes sense why it would look like that if it was only looking at one controller. Chanel bonding explained better than I can. I either have 802.3ad or balance-rr, not sure because Softlayer installed everything for me. I run RHELS (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server) 6.4 Santiago... I always run RHELS on my home server. I've used Red Hat since my first dedicated server, which goes back to before this speed test was called TestMy.net. I've always been impressed by it's security and stability. When I do have downtime it's NEVER a fault of my operating system... I mean never. Powerful operating system for web servers. Here's under a load of 4, the server can handle 24 before user transactions become delayed. I run Ubuntu on my other boxes because it's easier to work with sometimes. I'm not as concerned with security on those servers as I am on the main server. But I'm finding that Ubuntu is pretty awesome for a web server too. I'm running 12.04 on pretty much all my boxes now. I've had up times with some of my older Ubuntu 10.x servers up into 400-500 days. But then again, I wasn't pushing the kind of traffic through those servers as I am with TMN's home server. .....so, I'd rather not test out changing what has worked for me since the beginning. RHELS gets the job done, does exactly what I tell it to do and nothing more. That's what you want when you're building a web server, nothing to weigh it down.

I thought this was kinda crazy looking. Here's what the system monitor for the home server looks like. So many processing threads I have to scroll to see them all. That's a lot of processing threads doing a lot of stuff. This is under off-peak load, I'll post a screenshot from the middle of the day later. The network history is kind weird, it goes in and out, I'm sure it's because of the bonding I have (combining two gigabit ethernet ports). Only reason I can think of that would cause a wavy pattern to emerge in that graph... when the actual connection is flowing steadily. Anyone know of a way to get gnome-system-monitor to report correctly for a bonded connection? Or does anyone know of another good linux system monitor available? This displays the pattern better. It goes in and out. Because it's balancing the load between two interfaces. I need to know how to tell it to look at the bond interfaces not eth1 or eth0 but I don't see options. I think if it looks at bond0 it will see them combined, which would result in a fluid graph... but I'm not sure.

:::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 292763 Kbps or 292.8 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 132.5 MB or 135680 kB or 138936320 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 36595 kB/s or 36.6 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/aihn1wS TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 160.41 Mbps | Middle Avg 343.4 Mbps | Max 382.59 Mbps | 48% Variance TiP Data Points:: 160.41 Mbps, 320.81 Mbps, 327.3 Mbps, 333.08 Mbps, 329.2 Mbps, 320.81 Mbps, 319 Mbps, 323.56 Mbps, 324.49 Mbps, 320.81 Mbps, 321.72 Mbps, 326.36 Mbps, 326.36 Mbps, 332.1 Mbps, 335.05 Mbps, 326.36 Mbps, 316.33 Mbps, 291.12 Mbps, 382.59 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/46056110242 Test Time:: 2013-03-04 18:30:13 Local Time Location:: Dallas, TX US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.03 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~1 Minutes - 5228X faster than 56K This test of exactly 135680 kB took 3.798 seconds to complete Running at 568% of hosts average (SoftLayer Technologies https://testmy.net/hoststats/softlayer_technologi) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0 [!] Holy cow!

Beat this... :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 273616 Kbps or 273.6 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 200 MB or 204800 kB or 209715200 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 34202 kB/s or 34.2 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/1IylJsq TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 163.84 Mbps | Middle Avg 322.63 Mbps | Max 323.88 Mbps | 39% Variance TiP Data Points:: 163.84 Mbps, 318.35 Mbps, 274.14 Mbps, 268.44 Mbps, 310.11 Mbps, 311.27 Mbps, 307.28 Mbps, 317.15 Mbps, 312.42 Mbps, 313.01 Mbps, 323.88 Mbps, 312.42 Mbps, 289.76 Mbps, 299.06 Mbps, 307.28 Mbps, 309.54 Mbps, 305.6 Mbps, 282.44 Mbps, 313.59 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/46056110242 Test Time:: 2013-03-04 15:11:27 Local Time Location:: Dallas, TX US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.03 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~1 Minutes - 4886X faster than 56K This test of exactly 204800 kB took 6.134 seconds to complete Running at 552% of hosts average (SoftLayer Technologies https://testmy.net/hoststats/softlayer_technologi) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0 [!]

From Singapore to Dallas TX :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 74833 Kbps or 74.8 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 200 MB or 204800 kB or 209715200 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 9354 kB/s or 9.4 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/8w4NaKr TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 30.25 Mbps | Middle Avg 107.96 Mbps | Max 210.5 Mbps | 80% Variance TiP Data Points:: 30.25 Mbps, 79.18 Mbps, 66.74 Mbps, 72.63 Mbps, 73.23 Mbps, 53.58 Mbps, 46.96 Mbps, 56.53 Mbps, 67.14 Mbps, 80.54 Mbps, 97.71 Mbps, 102.8 Mbps, 115.39 Mbps, 144.51 Mbps, 156.36 Mbps, 164.48 Mbps, 174.76 Mbps, 174.76 Mbps, 210.5 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/109874687796 Test Time:: 2013-03-04 13:30:52 Local Time Location:: Unknown SG >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.11 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~2 Minutes - 1336X faster than 56K This test of exactly 204800 kB took 22.428 seconds to complete Running at 301% of hosts average (SoftLayer Dutch Holdings B.V. https://testmy.net/hoststats/softlayer_dutch_hold) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0 [!] Nice spike in the middle tdawnaz... Can you guys see how that data can be helpful? By the way... side note. I personally like sharing scores by using the "Result Details" tab instead of the score sharing tab. I think the results details with a screenshot is a better method of sharing for forums. Don't you?

Welcome!

iPad again, after the revision. :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 28317 Kbps or 28.3 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 100 MB or 102400 kB or 104857600 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 3540 kB/s or 3.5 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/Mv601be TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 15.43 Mbps | Middle Avg 36.69 Mbps | Max 52.17 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 15.43 Mbps, 43.76 Mbps, 52.17 Mbps, 49.17 Mbps, 50.41 Mbps, 44.69 Mbps, 38.48 Mbps, 38.93 Mbps, 33.49 Mbps, 27.06 Mbps, 29.15 Mbps, 31.64 Mbps, 28.92 Mbps, 27.72 Mbps, 24.26 Mbps, 30.65 Mbps, 36.47 Mbps, 21.83 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/6436733977554 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 19:35:47 Local Time Location:: Phoenix, AZ US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.29 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~5 Minutes - 506X faster than 56K This test of exactly 102400 kB took 29.647 seconds to complete Running at 127% of hosts average (Cox Communications) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B146 Safari/8536.25 [!]

Then why would mine magically get better all of a sudden. Mine happened on an iMac, so it's not like we're talking about questionable drivers. ... the drivers could still be at fault but I don't think it has anything to do with being a hackintosh. He has the exact symptoms I had. ... I never figured it out because it resolved when I upgraded to Lion. The reconfiguring process of that install must have cleared whatever was causing it. Because if it was a driver or software bug Apple would release an update... they'd know about that by now. All I know is that there is a common denominator between his computer and mine because I had that exact issue.

IPhone 5 on Verizon LTE :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 11869 Kbps or 11.9 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 17.6 MB or 17984 kB or 18415616 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 1484 kB/s or 1.5 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/m4ib6DE TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 7.54 Mbps | Middle Avg 13.12 Mbps | Max 16.19 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 7.54 Mbps, 13.31 Mbps, 13.93 Mbps, 14.95 Mbps, 15.68 Mbps, 15.67 Mbps, 15.79 Mbps, 16.19 Mbps, 12.4 Mbps, 10.62 Mbps, 12.08 Mbps, 12.72 Mbps, 11.43 Mbps, 10.88 Mbps, 11.53 Mbps, 12.17 Mbps, 10.55 Mbps, 10.56 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/643756722991 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 17:18:22 Local Time Location:: Unknown US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.69 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~12 Minutes - 212X faster than 56K This test of exactly 17984 kB took 12.432 seconds to complete Running at 162% of hosts average (Verizon Wireless) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_3) AppleWebKit/534.53.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.3 Safari/534.53.10 [!] What I like about LTE is the responsiveness. When I've got good coverage LTE loads sites faster than my wifi with 150 Mbps Cox. In certain areas I've seen things load so fast it seems like it predicted that I was going to click that. LTE is awesome, funny thing is, no provider is even tapping the potential speeds it's capable of... We have a lot to look forward to. This result was taken at my house and I only get half signal here. In really good areas I've seen over 20 Mbps. My bad, that one was wifi... Really far from the base. Here's the LTE result. :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 12213 Kbps or 12.2 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 50 MB or 51200 kB or 52428800 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 1527 kB/s or 1.5 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/ZLxN71p TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 8.43 Mbps | Middle Avg 12.44 Mbps | Max 17.49 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 14.34 Mbps, 15.17 Mbps, 12.37 Mbps, 8.81 Mbps, 8.43 Mbps, 11.66 Mbps, 11.18 Mbps, 11.18 Mbps, 12.15 Mbps, 10.03 Mbps, 9.55 Mbps, 10.94 Mbps, 13.03 Mbps, 15.56 Mbps, 17.49 Mbps, 16.56 Mbps, 14.97 Mbps, 13.75 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/643756722991 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 17:36:00 Local Time Location:: Unknown US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.67 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~11 Minutes - 218X faster than 56K This test of exactly 51200 kB took 34.369 seconds to complete Running at 163% of hosts average (Verizon Wireless) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/23.0.1271.100 Mobile/10B146 Safari/8536.25 [!]

Actually, mine were inflated. I made an adjustment that makes it more tolerant to bursted speed do to the client end. I'm sure that the way the iPhone processes was messing with that result. It was smoothed out by expanding the polling time. Here's a more realistic result.

It is amazing... Check this out. My iPhone5 on wifi. :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 32018 Kbps or 32 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 50 MB or 51200 kB or 52428800 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 4002 kB/s or 4 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/qJvgISw TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 7.5 Mbps | Middle Avg 40.5 Mbps | Max 80.97 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 7.5 Mbps, 24.97 Mbps, 34.38 Mbps, 48.21 Mbps, 36.6 Mbps, 25.89 Mbps, 33.34 Mbps, 33.88 Mbps, 37.38 Mbps, 42.11 Mbps, 34.72 Mbps, 36.66 Mbps, 34.16 Mbps, 44.62 Mbps, 32.72 Mbps, 67.87 Mbps, 38.91 Mbps, 64.73 Mbps, 57.77 Mbps, 80.97 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/6436733977554 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 15:17:14 Local Time Location:: Phoenix, AZ US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.26 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~4 Minutes - 572X faster than 56K This test of exactly 51200 kB took 13.11 seconds to complete Running at 135% of hosts average (Cox Communications) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_3) AppleWebKit/534.53.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.3 Safari/534.53.10 [!] ...in the palm of your hand. I can only imagine 20 more years from now. Another one... Screenshot this time. 100MB test.. The slow start really hurts the end result. Very fast bits in there. I'm surprised.

I modified this to record and plot 20 points durring the test. Also, when you hover over the graph you can see how much time had elapsed and how much data transfered at each point in the test.

Glad you like it. Here's on my iPad. :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 27564 Kbps or 27.6 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 50 MB or 51200 kB or 52428800 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 3446 kB/s or 3.4 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/QRs1p4i TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 10.03 Mbps | Middle Avg 38.26 Mbps | Max 63.26 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 10.03 Mbps, 36.5 Mbps, 44.1 Mbps, 48.6 Mbps, 47.18 Mbps, 41.04 Mbps, 63.26 Mbps, 25.36 Mbps, 22.36 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/6436733977554 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 12:03:32 Local Time Location:: Phoenix, AZ US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.3 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~5 Minutes - 492X faster than 56K This test of exactly 51200 kB took 15.228 seconds to complete Running at 132% of hosts average (Cox Communications) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/23.0.1271.100 Mobile/10B146 Safari/8536.25 [!] Peaked at 63Mbps! I would have never known that before. Hopefully it will help some people. Can't wait till I start logging this information!!

No problem

If you hover over it you'll see explainations. It stands for Test in Progress measurments. It helps to show variations in the speed durring the test.

I've come up with something new. Personally I think that it adds a new demension on your download speed test results taken here. I devised a way to take measurments during the test, using those numbers I then plot a graph of the path of the download speed. Check out these insane speeds all the way from Singapore to Dallas TX. Notice how the dip at the start of the test brings the overall score down to 170Mbps when it actually topped out at 323 Mbps. :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 170306 Kbps or 170.3 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 200 MB or 204800 kB or 209715200 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 21288 kB/s or 21.3 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/dRNpu2y TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 33.81 Mbps | Middle Avg 268.7 Mbps | Max 323.26 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 33.81 Mbps, 267.15 Mbps, 312.42 Mbps, 315.36 Mbps, 295.89 Mbps, 323.26 Mbps, 317.15 Mbps, 318.35 Mbps, 317.75 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/109874687796 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 12:30:17 Local Time Location:: Unknown SG >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.05 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~1 Minutes - 3041X faster than 56K This test of exactly 204800 kB took 9.855 seconds to complete Running at 727% of hosts average (SoftLayer Dutch Holdings B.V.) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0 [!] Here's a speed test result where I purposely ate up my bandwidth periodically durring the test to show how dramatic it can be when there's an issue. :::.. Download Speed Test Result Details ..::: Download Connection Speed:: 9538 Kbps or 9.5 Mbps Download Speed Test Size:: 50 MB or 51200 kB or 52428800 bytes Download Binary File Transfer Speed:: 1192 kB/s or 1.2 MB/s Tested At:: http://TestMy.net Version 13 Validation:: https://testmy.net/db/Md0mgvZ TiP Measurement Summary:: Min 2.63 Mbps | Middle Avg 23.67 Mbps | Max 49.52 Mbps TiP Data Points:: 7.75 Mbps, 10.26 Mbps, 30.62 Mbps, 49.52 Mbps, 4.7 Mbps, 13.27 Mbps, 45.69 Mbps, 35.31 Mbps, 2.63 Mbps More Stats:: https://testmy.net/quickstats/CA3LE https://testmy.net/compID/6436733977554 Test Time:: 2013-03-03 11:39:56 Local Time Location:: Phoenix, AZ US >> Destination:: Dallas, TX US 1MB Download in 0.86 Seconds - 1GB Download in ~15 Minutes - 170X faster than 56K This test of exactly 51200 kB took 44.006 seconds to complete Running at 45% of hosts average (Cox Communications) User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0 [!] I think this extra set of data is going to be very helpful for troubleshooting. This is in early stages, I'm only doing it on the default Texas server for now. I wanted to nail down the proof of concept before I expanded it to all the mirrors. I plan on expanding this to take more measurments and also log the information to a database. So you'll have not only a history of your tests... you'll basically have a history of tests within tests. You can really tell a lot about what happened durring the test with this extra information. I hope you all like the idea. Side note, with the addition of logging TiP stats I'll also add a whole new array of datapoints that will be logged, such as browser and OS. So average speeds and ranking of browsers and operating systems will be possible. So keep an eye out for that in the near future. I can't beleive I was able to go from idea to proof of concept in >24 hours. I realized that the system I already had built was totally ready to do that trick already... I just had to give it a little upgrade. Trust me, it's going to get better. ... this is just the TiP...

Hey Tim, welcome to TestMy.net! Sounds like you have good taste is operating systems. Is the hackintosh on wifi or ethernet? We hear that a lot around here. As you've noticed, TMN works different than other speed tests available. You obviously have an issue... If you didn't the file downloads wouldn't be exhibiting the same symptoms. You should just stick with the test that helps you troubleshoot best... I think that TestMy.net is the clear choice since others often don't detect MANY issues. With TestMy.net You can confidently test knowing that the results returned will reflect your true speed... Inflated results that only show your maximum speed don't help to solve connection issues. There is a lot more to those flash tests that make them a bad choice, read Why Do My Results Differ From Speedtest.net / Ookla Speed Tests? to gain a better understanding. Since it's only happening on the desktop computer I would bet that it's something software related. I have actually seen a similar problem in OSX when I was using Snow Leopard. Actually, it was probably the same exact problem. I never resolved it. It happened too intermittently for me to nail it down. Intermittent issues can be very difficult to troubleshoot sometimes. My problem was only resolved when I upgraded to Lion. After that, totally resolved. Never happens anymore. My Macbook and the Mac mini on Snow Leopard didn't have the issue like my iMac did. ...so I chalk it up to a driver software glitch maybe. It drove me nuts, every time I tried to attack the problem... it stopped doing it. I would bust out a 50 Mbps TestMy.net download test result, re-test and get around 8Mbps... it always would seem to lock in around 7.5-8Mbps. Then it would clear up and I'd start getting perfect results again, with a nice smooth progress bar. I test on my mini or macbook at the same time I'd get 40-50 Mbps while the iMac was getting 8Mbps. Drove me insane and I never figured it out, so I'd love for you to figure it out. If you upgrade to Lion I can pretty much guarentee you that it will resolve the issue, it did for me. Instantly, after I rebooted the first thing I wanted to know is if it resolved that. I never saw the issue again... it also seemed to come out of the blue, I'm pretty sure I was running Snow Leopard for a long time with no issues before it just started happening one day. ... I did have a sneaking suspicion that a program called little snitch may have had something to do with it. Do you run that?