xs1

Me too, hated that.  Had AOL for a few months back in the dial-up days. 
 
Funny side story, related to TMN: A 15 year-old friend of mine was the master admin at a local dial-up ISP, he basically built and ran the whole thing for them and had been doing it for years before I met him.  Gave me a lifetime free account, he moved on from there like a year later.  But I ended up having dial-up until they stopped doing it like 10 years later.    Helped me continue to real-world test dial-up here, for freeeee.  
 
The Sound of dial-up Internet.mp3  
 
Came in handy on the road too.  And they were always super fast!  Always connecting at the max 56K!  Ahhh, simpler times.  Remember you'd have a 56K modem and AOL (USWest did this to me too.) would connect at 28.8K or 33.6K, "what the hell good is this modem if nobody let's me connect at 56K!?" -- 28.8K to 56K was a big deal, but AOL was big time overcrowded.
 
Check out the 8 different types of dial-up sounds, some you may not have heard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial-up_Internet_access
 
I think it was a 9600 baud modem that I used to connect to my first BBS.  9.6 Kbps or 1.2 kB/s.  Now, the worst I ever see on my phone is 0.08 Mbps or 80 Kbps, 8X faster at it's slowest and that feels painful!  Slower than that and it's not connecting reliably at all.  At one time 80 Kbps was fast, it's all relative.
 
One day we'll say the same about Gigabit.  Kids will be like, "Great-Grandpa, what came before Exabyte internet?  Mommy says you used to have Jibby-Byte internet!"
 
"One point twenty-one JIGGA-WATTS!"
1.21 gigawatts？! - Dr. Brown & Marty - Back to the future.mp3  

I wouldn't worry too much about it in that case, FIOS/Frontier told me the same thing about their routers... I eliminated their equipment all together and bought an Asus RT-AX82U.. never looked back.  As long as the update/config files are accepted normally & speeds are decent, Im currently running 2 PC's wired, and 23 devices wireless. I dont worry about the ISP's "recommendations". lol  Depending on your areas provisioning & congestion speeds will vary. Even on my 1g/1g fiber, there are times of day where ill see as low as 400/600.  
 
edit for image:
 
 

This problem got me interested in the technical/engineering basics of what is going on. I have started to study Microsoft's Windows Internals book. Good thing I'm retired: my curiosity eats up a LOT of time...
 
phred

Glad we could help 😎

I figured it out and got it fixed!! I found a program from Intel that checked my network connection and drivers and used it to update my driver. I'm getting download speeds from around 3.6 Mb up to 5.0 Mb.

I wouldn't ignore those results.
 
TestMy.net performs its upload test different.  Where other speed tests upload many streams TMN uses normal form submission.  Much like when you upload normal files to any website like youtube, gmail, facebook, etc.  Currently on TestMy.net there is no multithread upload test, when you enable multithread it's only for the download.
 
I've been developing a new version, which multithreads, graphs the result live and tests latency under load.  If you'd like to be the first to test it visit the following thread.
 
 
Vote or reply on that topic and you'll be invited when it's released.
 
Comparing the current upload test to the new multithread test will be important for my users to understand their connections.  Personally in regards to upload I score nearly identical on both tests.  But in many cases when there's an issue you can see the multithread way out perform single thread.  This is because although single threads are slowed down, when they're combined you may get full speed.  But knowing just the aggregate alone doesn't really help, especially if you're trying to understand how much data your connection can reliably stream.  And especially if you're troubleshooting.
 
You're in TX pretty much on top of the servers in Dallas, there are currently 18 test servers in Dallas.  That's the best selection for you but I'd still test against the other United States locales.  It's a good practice to compare against other routes to show that the issue you're displaying isn't localized to one route.  https://testmy.net/mirror
 
If your connection was 20 Mbps for real, TestMy.net will tell you it's 20 Mbps.  I personally don't feel like it's 20 Mbps unless it can save me time and upload a single file at 20 Mbps or stream video at 2.5 MB/s.
 
My results can be confirmed easily.  Get your stopwatch app ready, go upload a large file (100 MB+) to Google Drive (or anywhere).  Start the time when you click to initiate the upload and click stop as soon as it's finished.  Formula is size in MB / Time.  e.g. w/ 100 MB file taking 50 seconds  100 / 50 = 2 MB/s -- to convert to Mbps just *8, so 16 Mbps.
 
It can also be that your connection, once it's moving, gets up to 20 Mbps.  But it may have a large delay in the beginning (for instance).  Other speed tests don't count this, they're most often just trying to achieve the best (highest) result.  TestMy.net counts EVERYTHING.  If it wastes my test's time then it will waste your time in the real world.
 
I see you're still testing on a regular basis, so you must feel that what TMN is telling you is important.  TestMy.net doesn't always show my users what they want to see, it's programmed to show them what they need to see.  At least, that's my goal.
 
Sorry I was slow to respond on your topic.  A lot of irons on the fire and I wanted to take the time to properly respond.

"Speedcheck.org" uses Ookla in the background and whatever server/connection they are using is trash. "wifiman.com" seems to have a legit backbone. (granted I have quite a few file sharing(s) going at the moment)   As far as Testmy.net goes, with a 20mbit upload your test should be fine.. Connections over a couple hundred mbit struggle here, on this current revision. @CA3LE will be releasing a new revision of the current Testmy.net testing methodology soon to handle excessive upload speeds, as well as some new tweaks. 
 
You have to remember, there are alot of factors when it comes to internet speeds. Location, route, congestion, etc. Have you tried changing your server & testing on others? https://testmy.net/mirror  
 
Also, this may be worth checking out if you hadn't already;  
 
 
 
 
Another good one to check out is here:  https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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I’m so sad to share the loss of another TMN veteran…a true plank owner. He passed away Jan 5, 2023. He was a great friend. I actually got to meet him in person a few years ago.  What a sweet funny man. I will sure miss his hilarious racy FB posts. He was constantly on FB jail. 
 
I’ve known for a couple of months…just couldn’t bring myself to post it. 
 
Rest In Paradise Richard. Say hi to Tommie Roco and Ewo from all of us. You are already missed. 🙏🏻💗🤗

Exactly!  This is what most ISP's do. I've been saying this forever.    I noticed this with P2P, (some) FTP and even trying to send a friend a large file via IM. I can actually prove it in DC++ hubs. Transferring file to another PC on my OWN network will be limited to a fraction of my "Gigabit" connection, unless the receiving PC has multiple upload slots, which will than have almost symmetrical speeds from the host pc (x) the amount of connections. Just about all residential ISP's shape network bandwidth and its infuriating.  
 
This is also done on cell phone data as well. Hence why they will "give you the option" or examples of their different "plan tiers". I have T-Mobile for example; If I do a speed test I can pull lets say 100/80 , but if I try and play a YouTube video @ 2160p all of a sudden I have buffering @ 332kbs.... Makes no sense right? Now if I drop the resolution to 1080p , it'll almost instantly download the video @ 18mbs. lol  I believe they take the known ports or name servers from certain applications and limit them intentionally, whereas speed tests are just raw data.  idk. I just work here.
 
 
 

lol this test was taken @ midnight. During the day it can get pretty bad around here, sometimes dipping as low as 400/600. >.< Also, other than speed tests, i haven't really found a way to saturate my upload speeds. Frontier (as well as many ISP's) shapes bandwidth depending on the program. P2P/FTP programs ( & ports) will be recognized & throttled to the amount of speed per connection. For example, if a user with a decent connection tries to download a file from me, it will peak at lets say 21Mbs; (hypothetical speed) but if the same user has 6 upload slots to me, they will than have 6x 21MBs. Its very difficult to utilize much of my maximum potential.  basically a single vs multithread scenario. 
 

Thank you for all the kind words.  I'm flattered.
 
@xs1 You're definitely one of my OG members.   #522!  You've been a big part of pushing me to make things better and I appreciate every bit of it.
 
Isn't that funny, I still use a similar shade of orange.
 
And look at that crappy RG-59 cable connector, yuck!  lol.  Back when I used the test to do my job better installing people's cable.  A few months later I lost all of that code and had to rewrite everything.  Had that happen a few times early on because storage was lame back then, also switched from perl to php around 2004 which required a total rewrite.
 
I think the new version is my 4th rewrite but I'm not sure.  One thing is certain, it is my best.  And I can't wait to share it with you.
 
- D
 
As I've said before, I don't build this site... I just try to put it "on paper".  You are truly the ones building it with your feedback.

1996 is when it all started by the way.  Wish I still owned the old domain name, swapped it out in 2001 and then let the old one expire on accident. 
 
Guys, I've been building this 27 years!  It's still only 2% of the vision, which continues to evolve over time.
 
Hopefully the new version gets in front of even more eyes and with the new visuals more people understand what we're trying to show them here.

Duuuuuuude!  Nice.  
 
I'd really like to get you testing on my new version.  You're just the kind of extreme case I'm looking for! 
 
Please visit the following topic and vote on it, the members who interact with that topic are invited to beta test.
Somehow @xs1's screenshot automatically became the thumbnail for that topic.  "And I mean NEW!" -- and then it shows a screenshot from 2001.  -- oh well, I like it like that now.  Everything happens for a reason.
 
I'll explain all the details about the difference between the current release version and new version in the documentation.  I imagine you'll get symmetrical results with the new method but we'll have to test and see.

You are a gentleman & a scholar, sir.  
 
Honestly, since I joined TMN back in the stone ages, THIS is why I love this site. @CA3LE , D,  you are one of the most devoted site owners I've ever met. I've run websites, forums, hosted game & P2P servers, speed test servers (from home) etc. & I have yet to find a more "human" proprietor than you. To be able to speak directly with the mad man, via forum messenger, AOL IM (lol) or hit you up on text... is mind blowing. Modest/humble as @CA3LE is, testmy.net is no small website. The forums, sadly, could be more active... but the website is KNOWN. From your average pc user/builder, to mega corporations, rely on testmy.net for accurate & impartial networking testing & troubleshooting! I do digress, once again to have a real friendship, & leader such as @CA3LE has been an honor... well before I even joined the forums in...... '04(??) 
 
Thank you again D, for all that you do & continue to improve on. You are the real MVP!
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

There's a setting for that.  Looked like genuine blips and outages from what I could see.  You'd run find for a while then have bursts of outages... then run fine again for days.
 
Keep in mind, the entire time I'm running the same exact sensor as you are, 24/7/365.  Mine only goes off when my connection is down.  While I was watching yours go down mine was running perfectly.
 
Hopefully those issues clear up for you.  Your testing with My Sensor gave me a lot of insight, I'll keep developing on that program.  I can't wait to share that, but when it's ready.
 
This beta is unrelated to My Sensor.  It's for everything else.
 
It's also very close.  Really, I could have you all start playing with it today.  But the same could have been said a month ago and I've probably written 4X more code since then.  Truth is, it's never finished.  But at some point I need to let you guys play with it.   
 
I'm just getting to the point where it's so predictable it's boring.  Which is good, it's doing what I expect... every time.  Running in my lab conditions, it should do that.
 
So it's getting very close.
 
For anyone reading this, I want to provide a little context.  May 2019 @xs1 requested an upload test that would more accurately test his extreme upload speed.  100 MB single thread has its limitations.  I've done a lot to make it work better (especially since 2019) but a different test is needed.  So slept on it, then promptly built a new proof of concept.  @xs1 probably remembers me telling him that I made a concept and that I'd work on getting it developed into the site.
 
Then Clown World 2020 happened and turned the world upside down.
 
I kept going back and looking at the concept, but it's hard to write when everything around all of us is burning.
 
My timestamps show that I started editing the file again on Feb 12th 2023.  And since then I've completely rebuilt the speed test from the ground up.  I retained important methods and methodology that make TestMy.net unique but built it all around entirely new framework.  Past re-builds have been forks of the original... the new version is a fork of the proof of concept I built for @xs1, peppered with the original.  Starting at line 0.
 
That one file is now branches of easy to maintain resources and it's final integration was super smooth.  Smoothest ever.  Things I didn't plan for all just happened to line up perfectly.  Integrated with the legacy auto test, database results and email notification system easily.
 
Of course each version is supposed to be better than the last but I feel this one is so far advanced compared to my past releases... the improvements are night and day but it still feels like TestMy.net.  I feel like if I just visited for the first time and knew nothing about computers... I'd understand what was happening.  Where the current version, I'm not so sure.  Something that's hard for me to judge because I built it.
 
So everything new with the upcoming beta was built in less than 2 months.  A totally insane, super fun 2 months.  I've learned so much.  Thanks @xs1. 
 
I really hope you all enjoy the fruit.  My best programming yet.
 
I'll start making the beta group official and get this released for you all to test very soon.

Where do I sign-up for the 680Mbps/41Mbps... I'm ready!

Are you using Wi-Fi with your television? 
 
Honestly TV's have a sub-par network interface to begin with. Short of hard-wired ( lan cable) there is little that can be done about network consistency on a tv, primarily because they were not designed to do daily networking tasks... other than periodic updates and small software/firmware updates.  Recently I watched a vid, which I found interesting that I'll share.
 
 
 

Either somebody hardcoded a field somewhere - (hah hah) or the relationship between the new and the old is .... complicated<?>

That's why your my boi blue!! 

You're the first person I plan on contacting.  Gives you a lot to play with, a lot you've been requesting for a long time.

A totally reasonable strategy..... and it doesn't really affect the results, just the image generated for tests.    Sincerely appreciate this site -- I've used it more than once to convince a stubborn tech that it really was "their problem" that they needed to fix.    And it's great to be able to see the evolution of speeds over the years.
 

Was a bug, displaying correctly now.
 
The program that draws those images is ancient.  The database it draws from is ancient (2005)... it's never been altered. It quickly grew too large to easily alter.  This was my first attempt at databasing anything so mistakes were made.  Over the years I needed to alter it.  But instead I've worked some tricks to maintain the original database.
 
I now have other databases working together with smarter layouts.  But that old tool is tied to the root database.
 
The reason it's come up just now is because usually multithread is tagged internally as "TX", it now tags as the individual locales.  That share image program was looking for that as a signal to change the size calculation... because (in that specific database) the size is stored differently depending on the situation.  This was done to overcome a character limitation design flaw in the database structure.
 
So basically in the same field 200 can mean 200 MB or 200 kB... lol.
 
I could have just deleted the database but didn't want people to lose results.  Could've done a very time consuming import/export.  Altering would have crashed my servers, I just wasn't set up to alter a database table that large at the time.  There are ways I can do it now but I don't think it's necessary.  "If it ain't broke..."
 
Max test size when that was first designed was 12 MB.  Of course I knew it would grow but I was naive with databasing.  Didn't know about int vs smallint values yet.  --- once I knew, my correction was to work around what I already had.  18 years later, your results are still saved.
 
My first logged result

 

chu' kno you can count me in

Been wonderfully consistent and mostly trouble free.

Not currently.
 
The program was closed for use outside of TestMy.net, years ago.
 
I'm deep in development on a new speed test, built fresh from the ground up.  With its release I may offer a software dev kit with the option to host on your own hardware.
 
A private beta will be opened first shortly followed by the public beta.  The SDK might be made available right out of the gate.  I want as many people running this as possible.
 
I opened a new topic for anyone interested in early access.