CA3LE

Greetings CA3LE. Any thoughts on why the "Custom" download function is defaulting to "Smartest" even when I select Custom and then a number of mb (12)? It's NBD, just curious....I've noticed this for the last week or so on each daily test I run. Thanks for the BEST speed testing website on the net & for all your fine work.

(@CABLE) N00B!

Embarrassing for any website.. but even more so for Google. As long as humans are in the equation errors will happen.

People like him keep me on my toes... but as I said before, I can debug for days on end and it's never as good as the bug checking that putting it into production does. My users are awesome. I'm glad that people take time out of their day to report issues when the arise. ...and there's no getting around bugs... it's the nature of software development. I've even seen Google bug out many times over the years... I even saw a 404 error on Google a couple weeks ago. That just proves that nobody is perfect.

I put it up for fun... some people said they preferred it so I threw it up. But it only gets about 1/30th of the traffic of the main site so I guess people realized that more had changed since than they thought... and they now continue to use the new site.

... very cool that it helped catch a bug though.

Anyhow, here are the gauges I speak so highly of ........

Hi nvptx,

I can't get to very much of what Suddenlink has for documentation because they don't service my zipcode. Does Suddenlink have a link on their site to a speed measurement? If so which one is it?

I did see this: Suddenlink Network Management Practices.

To help mitigate potential network congestion, we are in the process of applying bandwidth usage allowances to residential Internet accounts, with incremental bandwidth automatically provided for a nominal, incremental fee.

Only in the relatively few cable systems listed and only through the means described in this document, we may limit the bandwidth available to individuals whose usage materially exceeds the typical customer usage in those cable systems.


I didn't check the TestMy database for average speeds from Suddenlink (if there is any data). You could see what their averages are on TestMy. Look at yours relative to those averages (don't worry about the absolute numbers). The bar charts here when the tests finish tell you how you are doing compared to others on your ISP. The percentages are useful in seeing how you are doing compared to the others.

Since I couldn't get to a lot of their website info (It wouldn't allow me to get to their support site or detailed plan info), I don't know what they are really offering. You are getting about 5x the bandwidth I see on TestMy on Time Warner's RoadRunner, and I think we pay about $45/mo. Unfortunately for you, it seems that your speeds are somewhat lower since their "upgrade". I don't know whether this is due to some of their load balancing in their network management practices or not.

I can tell you this, that the Time Warner RoadRunner I have "guarantees 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps Upload. My TestMy results average about 20% lower on both up and down from these numbers. The SpeedTest tool that Time Warner has a link to typically reads 3x higher on download, and the upload they show is usually 20% higher.

I don't know what you are paying compared to what I'm paying but my $45/month gets me about 8Mbps down and 0.8 Mbps up. The it's a matter of whether you think your monthly fees are in line with what you are getting.

I don't know what regulations there are for ISPs meeting their advertised speeds. But virtually all of them use similar optimistic questionable speed measuring tools. And very likely none of them meet their advertised speeds when measured more realistically via TestMy. I haven't researched whether there are any class action lawsuits agains any of the major ISPs for false advertising, but the whole thing seems pretty loose to me.

Hello everybody. I am cst1992 and I'm from India.
I live in Nagpur and have BSNL as my ISP.

I have an advertised broadband download speed of 4 Mbps(never ever crossed 2) and upload speed is not mentioned(highest ever achieved was 560 kbps; avg ~30 kbps).
As you can see, I'm WAY dissatisfied with my isp and with good reason(those who know BSNL will get it) but I have no other choices.
That's it for my connection.
As for my personal profile: I'm pursuing a course in Engineering and I like to help people when they are in trouble.
I got very positive vibes here and hope that I'll continue to have this experience.
Thank you all very much.
cst1992

Thank you for changing the name.

Hi Paul,
I'm in Phoenix Arizona, USA. But my servers are located in Dallas Texas, Washington D.C. and Seattle Washington... right on top of some of the most powerful trunk lines on the Internet. If you're not near one of these states it's not a bad thing. These locations were hand chosen because these are locations where many other websites host... therefore, I believe, providing a more realistic evaluation of your connection speed. Texas, especially, is like a central hub to the United States data communications... this is why I choose to have this as the default testing location and where TMN's home server resides.

As I always say... Do you want to know what your connection speed is to your neighbors house or to where other websites are hosted? I personally could care less what my speed is inside of my hosts network or within my state... in comparison to the locations I've chosen, nobody hosts in Phoenix... so why would my speeds to locations in Phoenix matter? This is why I have a hard time understanding the mentality of some other speed tests on the market. I also strongly believe that ISPs are sending their users to these internally hosted test to mask their peering short comings. "Look, your speed is juuuust fine... must be the website your visiting." -- BS! My aim with TestMy.net is to educate people and expose this malpractice.

- Cheers,
- Damon

Awesome, DSLReports has a lot of great members and information.

... I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Not many people take the time to do that these days.

-D

Hi Paul,
I'm in Phoenix Arizona, USA. But my servers are located in Dallas Texas, Washington D.C. and Seattle Washington... right on top of some of the most powerful trunk lines on the Internet. If you're not near one of these states it's not a bad thing. These locations were hand chosen because these are locations where many other websites host... therefore, I believe, providing a more realistic evaluation of your connection speed. Texas, especially, is like a central hub to the United States data communications... this is why I choose to have this as the default testing location and where TMN's home server resides.

As I always say... Do you want to know what your connection speed is to your neighbors house or to where other websites are hosted? I personally could care less what my speed is inside of my hosts network or within my state... in comparison to the locations I've chosen, nobody hosts in Phoenix... so why would my speeds to locations in Phoenix matter? This is why I have a hard time understanding the mentality of some other speed tests on the market. I also strongly believe that ISPs are sending their users to these internally hosted test to mask their peering short comings. "Look, your speed is juuuust fine... must be the website your visiting." -- BS! My aim with TestMy.net is to educate people and expose this malpractice.

- Cheers,
- Damon

Very interesting...


Yeah... about 8 years ago I was reading something and saw that word. I wanted a deeper understanding of what it meant so I looked it up... then I thought, that would be a cool title to give to cool people. Been using it ever since.

Oh, and your test results thing didn't cause me any real trouble. I was kind of just waiting to see if the upload speed ever got better after Time Warner fixed the signal level problem, and there wasn't any noticeable difference in performance from what it had been in the past at 0.8Mbps. I was a little worried that a new Gigabit Ethernet switch (that I put in just prior to this issue) had gone flakey on me, but again, everything seems to be working right, so I kind of just ignored it. I didn't have a good feel about how much upload speed affects web performance when no really huge files are involved. Obviously the effect is around an order of magnitude smaller than the effect of download speed since, since the download is roughly an order of magnitude faster than the upload speeds at many ISPs.

I had forgotten what a Greek Sophist was and had to go look it up. Hopefully I can help on another day. I'm a retired engineer so I'm always looking for interesting tech stuff.

Interesting. Glad you found it. When I look in my test results, I can see exactly when the fix went in. I was a bit puzzled when the upload speed showed low but I didn't notice any performance hit. Because of that, I didn't push it with Time Warner. Their fix of the download speed wild variation due to the signal level made the performance right again.

Software bugs are tough. Before I retired I worked at GE Aircraft Engines in Evendale OH. I was an electronic engine control circuit designer. In the 1980s we transitioned from purely analog controls to digital controls. Each engine control had two independent channels of hardware running the same OS and AS. In those days there weren't very good software design and validation tools and standards. We were always terrified of the subtle software bugs that could lock up the Software and cause an engine shutdown. Commercial airlines always have a minimum of two engines and the ability to fly with one engine out. But both engines (4 control channels) run the same software. So there was always that small probability of a bug that would take out all of the engines at the same time. Miraculously (due to a lot of SW engineers checking code) it never happened. We had a couple of control channel shutdowns due to subtle software errors or hardwarevfailures over the years, but never a common mode one that took everything down. Back then the software was a lot simpler, and the engine controls had hydro mechanical backups. These days, there are no hydromechanical backups because they are very heavy, and the software is orders of magnitude more complex. But the design and validation process tools are also orders of magnitude more sophisticated.

But every time there is a new set of requirements that result in a software change, there's always the potential for something to slip by. Thankfully, a simple core of hardware and software safety nets that were developed that could be ported to new processors, memory, and control chips, and the wheel didn't have to be reinvented. Subtle software glitches are very tough to catch.

On Sun Aug 19 2012 @ 1:10:48 pm the world was right again.

Thanks so much. I'm both surprised and honored.

Yes, you are right, a true bug in one means that there's a bug in all. And as for it being a scary time to fly, amazingly, the reliability and safety of the aircraft is way better than in the old analog days. Mostly because the size and weight of those old systems wouldn't allow you to put redundancy everywhere you needed it. Now the probability of a catastrphic failure due to electronics or software failure is extremely low because with a redundant system, the probability is the product of the failure rates. So if one channel has a probability of catastrophic failure of 1.0 E-06 per flight hour, then the probability of having both channels go out is 1.0 E-12. These numbers are really small, but with thousands of aircraft flying all the time, they are racking up millions of hours a month, so the numbers have to be incredibly small or there'd be planes falling out of the sky regularly. The safety critical flight control systems on the planes are usually triple channel redundant. Engine systems are dual redundant because there are two engines. So as for is there too much redundancy, economics keeps it to a minimum, but as the number of aircraft flying increases, better safety numbers are always being sought.

As for the weight of that redundancy, it's all about gas mileage (making money). The aircraft design weight is set by competition amongs the plane manufacturers; each one wanting to earn more money with better mileage and lower ticket costs to steal sales away from the other guy. So in order to get the weight down with the added redundancy, smaller lighter electronics and new stronger lighter hardware in the control systems is required. It's usually more expensive. So redundancy usually only goes into the real safety critical systems. It's getting to be the same in cars.

Well enough rambling about the aircraft world. Thanks again for the promotion. I do test regularly using your tools, and check in the forums every week or two.

Well, I feel better knowing that there was an issue with your download speed as well... because this bug didn't effect the download test.

... dang, scary time to fly. I think I would have rather flown in an analog plane at that time. I guess having two redundant software systems only helps if one completely fails... not if there's a bug, because if there's a bug in one, there will be a bug in the other one too. Right?

Sometimes I wonder how much more a comercial airliner, for instance a 737, weighs due to it's redundancy... and how much extra fuel is spent each year for unnecessary redundant systems... systems only in place to make the consumer feel safer. You worked in that industry... do you feel that it's a little over redundant or do you think it's just right because of the nature of what's being dealt with. I mean... does everything really need a backup? Is it, to a point, being done to make consumers feel safer about airline travel?

In all fairness, you caught this bug before anyone else... I've promoted your account to sophist. I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Smith6612...



Cheers!
-D

I knew there was another topic on this I needed to reply to... I just lost track of where it was.

Actually, I hate to say it but there was in fact a bug that was discovered. Had had to do with the character set being misinterpreted. I should have caught it sooner.


https://testmy.net/ip...ad/#entry336113

It doesn't mean that you didn't have an issue... but it was definitely being exaggerated in the results because of the character set issue.

What actually helped to catch this bug was that the member who posted the topic above tested on old.testmy.net and compared the results. Which were out of line. That site is static and doesn't change... the main site however is constantly being developed and bugs are bound to happen during that process. This one was such a small thing but the impact was great. When you contacted me I wasn't expecting to see a bug because there no heavy development on the upload test since my last waiting period. I start and stop development on different sections and put them under a period of waiting so that any bugs can surface... in this way I can know, "okay... no bugs... keep building." or "I've got a bug, much be something to do with the last round I did on that script." -- I have a lot of code and I've found that's the way that works best for me... with the smallest impact on my users when there is a bug. ​I dismissed it as a problem with your connection because nobody else had said anything. The problem was that the character set wasn't being necessarily changed by the code... some kind of update to the apache server was fooling with it also. This was only effecting the upload test by the way. And I don't think it effected everyone... under some circumstances it may have been defaulting to the intended character set.

Apparently I had some reading to catch up on about some new standards that were coming down the pipe regarding character sets... programming is constantly evolving and adjustments need to be made, this is why I can never stop building. Other websites out there wouldn't have big a problem with this issue, they might have a few characters on the page show up incorrectly but not really a big deal. Only hackers and geeks use 8bit characters when they type. But because of the nature of what TMN is doing to your browser during the test something like that had a big impact in this situation. The cumulative difference of all the characters of the test information being misinterpreted by your browser obviously impacted results. This is now being basically hardwired into the configuration via .htaccess so it can never happen again... unless I accidentally delete that file, but trust me... if that happened the whole site would be messed up and it would be a very obvious problem.

I'm really sorry if the results confused you or caused you any trouble. I make mistakes sometimes but I always learn from them.

OK MamaT, I reset my user name back to dn0. I actually feel better now, being recognized once again, hopefully

i had a speed drop around mid july - upload only fell from 1.5m to 650k - its an att T1 line and has been rock steady for 9 months
been thru way too many service tickets and testing from carrier who says its all good -

i came accros the old test my net and it says 1.5 or so but new says 650 -

i flooded the connection today with 3 computers and bit torrents / saw 1.5 up/down thru the bandwidt monitor in the Buffalo router.

any idea ?

Well, that definitely made a difference...

You don't have to live with it like that... if you're getting better speeds closer to the router you just need to arrange things differently to get either closer... or wire it directly to the router with ethernet. If you don't have an ethernet handy I'll mail you one. ... or you can save up and buy a better wireless adapter with better range. You may also want to check and make sure that the routers antenna's aren't folded down or something. Also, if it's near another wireless device or backed up in a corner it could effect the signal. So position the router at least 6 feet from the floor away from other devices. I've seen before where a wireless router was near a TV and the radient radiation from the TV effected the performance of the router. Try to give a degree of separation between the router and other electronics, that can make a big difference. If you remember how mine is setup, I always keep my router up high and far away from all other electronics and I get clean signal throughout my house. Imagine that there is an invisible bubble of interference around your devices... the device doesn't need to be wireless to have this effect by the way. Some things are shielded really well but sometimes they aren't. You have to assume that everything will interfere with everything when it comes to wireless. It won't always completely ruin the signal, it can instead make it weaker.



You can, whenever you want... but your Mom wouldn't be too happy with that -- my door will always be open to you.

Hey! Cool that you're using my site to get help.

Anyone that doesn't know already, Christian is my Son. He lives with his Mother in Texas and floats between there and Phoenix.

I wish you just lived down the street and I could just come over and help. --- what kind of signal strength does your air card show?


/\ (you obviously already know where this is but other people reading this in the future may not)

If it's really weak then you might benefit from an external wireless adapter that has a better antenna. The best thing to do in my opinion would be to move the router and modem in your room (if possible) and hook up via ethernet straight to the router. You could still go wifi and being closer will help but if your computer is stationary anyways and the router is close enough you might as well get the better connection through ethernet.

Do you know what speed your supposed to get on your connection? When you get a chance take some tests from your Mom's computer or move the macbook closer to the modem/router and see what you get.

To keep track of which tests are which I recommend using identifiers, this is exactly the situation that feature was originally designed for.


... we'll get you fixed up

So as some of you know I have a MacBook with a bad screen so it is used as a Desktop MacMini ( I think It is pretty fine ^.^ feel like a office man with a awesome computer > )
But I Have it in my room farthest away from the internet, and it is pretty slow, but nothing horrible just look at my recent test's and you'll see the speed but it isnt all bad... I mean Im working on a website from it, and able to have YouTube, Email, Gmail, FileZilla, and TextMate(Coding) All doing transfers and it works so how would I be able to make it faster, and have a better connection... dont I just need a better air card?
I think thats what I need, but idunno
Thanks,
Christian

Perhaps they're all run by ex insurance salesmen? Certainly the same tactics.

thats a really good attitude to have... from my experience most ISP's are squirmy little creatures that try to blame anything or anyone else. just keep at it eventually they will put some real effort fourth