Pgoodwin1

I believe Time Warner updated their standard Internet service from 10 Mbps to 15 Mbps minimums recently. On my iMac I'm beating the 15 Mbps without a DOCISS 3 modem (I have an older Motorola SB5100). On my iPad, my speeds used to average about 8 Mbps. As you can see from my signature, that's up by 50% or so. I should change the title of this thread.

I don't know if Time Warner (Cincinnati) has changed anything or not. Has anyone heard whether they've upgraded their equipment? This is on my iMac, wired ethernet. No hardware changes at my place. No Mac OS X changes.

CA3LE. I tried the new Doolgo server this morning. noticed a couple of things. 1. When you hit the "Your Results" link at the top of your web page, the test results on the Doolgo server don't show up on the graph or the table. The immediate test result shows, but the graph and table you see immediately after the test is the host graph/table. Immediatelybafter the test completes, when I hit the button below the graph (Your Graph button), it sends me to the TestMy site data graph/table - which doesn't include the most recent Doolgo test run data. Also, on an iPad, I can't scroll the table of test results on Doolgo after a test. It shows the most recent 4 results. 2. My download test results are significantly slower - about 70-80% of what I get on the Central server. The Doolgo server has only 1/20th the bandwidth you have on the Dallas server. Not sure if that bandwidth is why the speeds are slower or whether it's something else in the path. I used a constant 25 MB test size, and did several runs, and the results seem consistent. I couldn't figure out how to go back and see a personal record of test results on the Doolgo server.

Your upload speed is double mine (Time Warner RoadRunner std service). Your download speed is pretty low at 6 Mbps. But as Mudmanc4 is asking, what is your service supposed to be?

It's possible that the variation you're seeing is real and normal, although if you're seeing all the way from 4 Mbps to 20 Mbps, that seems a bit much. Try selecting the test file size - go to the Download Test menu and pick say 25 MB for a test file size. Run the test 3-5 times and see if you get more consistent results. You can try it using the test server near you, and the automatic server selection-at the very top of the page. And pick say 1.5 MB for the Upload test size when you run that one. Report back with some results If you still have big variations, you may have an equipment problem inside or outside your house.

CA3LE...good call on the "in-house" tech. Yes, they are night and day different from the regular installation techs. They'll also figure out the problem pretty quickly.

If you haven't tried re-booting the modem, try that. Power it down. Sometimes mine (different model than yours) gets quirky and erratic. Many times clearing the memory by powering it down and back up again has resolved the problem. If that doesn't cure it, try plugging a laptop directly into the modem (other stuff disconnected) and see whether the performance is better. If it is, you probably have an issue with your equipment. If it's the same, then it points to either the cable modem, or their signal integrity. Signal strength doesn't guarantee that it will work right. The signal can be too big as well as too small and cause problems. If you do have the problem when plugged directly into the modem, call Cox back. Usually on repeat performance issue calls they will first try to help you over the phone, and if that doesn't resolve it they will send a tech out to troubleshoot. More than once Time Warner has found problems with their equipment outside at their amplifiers and switches.

Welcome from SW Ohio

CA3LE I've run quite a few speed tests over the past few days. I've been testing on the East Coast, Central, and Automatic servers. A couple of observations/comments: 1. My average download speeds (averaging all 3 servers) are up from months past by about 38%. 2. The results of each test on any given server seems to vary a lot more than in the past. My max speeds are double my old average speeds. In the past the max speed were more typically 25% above my average. When I run 5 tests on a server, the min to max speeds vary a lot more than they used to. I now get numbers from 6 Mbps to 15 Mbps where my old average was close to 8Mbps. 3. My upload speeds are virtually always lower on the Automatic and Central servers now than they are on the East Coast server. In months past, my readings were always about 800 +\- 30 Kbps on the Central Server. On the Automatic and Central servers they are now consistently down near ~ 600Kbps +\- 50. On the East last server, measurements are consistently around the 800+\- 20 Kbps that I used to see as typical on the Central server. in summary, compared to my prior experience on the default Central server last year, there is now much bigger variation in download speeds, and lower upload speeds on the Auto and Central server settings.This seems odd, but has been testing this way now for 3-4 days. The new results may indeed be more representative of how my typical Internet performance has always been. I was just making known these observations and wondered what you thought of it. Here's 3 days worth of test data on the 3 servers: Sorry about attaching 3 of the same photo. I thought I'd loaded 3 different ones. Here's the other two; Pic 2 Pic 3

It really is fast now switching pages. It's noticeable even on my iPad.

The Automatic server routing is working faster today. It looks like the speeds are the same as the East Coastbserver tests. The Central server is giving me speeds slower than typical (typical being about 8Mbps down). I only ran 5 tests in succession on the Central server so I don't really know for sure if that is "truth" I ran a few more tests on the central server and it does look like it's giving me speeds that are about 25% slower than what they were a month ago or so.

And the Raid5 SSD and 2000 Mbps stuff you've got is pretty wild too. I've been considering doing both a RAM, and changing my internal boot drive to an SDD on my mid-2010 iMac. Mine doesn't have Thunderbolt but does have FireWire 800 so I could do an external RAID. SSDs are now under $1/GB, but I would need at least 400 GB just for the boot drive, so I'm still thinking about it. Since I got the iPad a year and a half ago, I use the iMac less. The poor thing has been reduced to mostly managing the whole-house backups onto external drives and printing. So it's hard to justify upgrading the iMac right now.

The Central server is available to me again . Thanks CA3LE. I don't get too concerned about absolute speed numbers. I look for changes down as indicators of trouble. I'll do some testing on the Central server soon and see if it's averaging what I used to see as "Normal". If it's different, I may just baseline again on the East Coast server. The numbers are higher, so it makes me feel better. Haha. Our Cincinnati RoadRunner is just not very fast, but I'm not paying them for a premium service either. That new monster machine Sandy Bridge dual sounds like a real animal. Pretty exciting stuff.

This chart is from this morning This one is from mid November on the Central Server As you can see (upper photo),when on Auto, the results are consistently lower than typical past Central server results (lower photo). Also in the upper photo, not that the East Coast server speeds are double the Automatic server mode speeds, and about 50% higher than the typical in the lower photo. Both photos represent typical -upper photo from today Jan 10, 2013, lower photo from Nov 19-20, 2012

Thanks TriRan. Is there a way to determine which test server is being used when in Auto Route?

I see a temporary banner pop up that says it's using 23 different data centers. I used to use a default Central server, and have about a year's worth of test data averaged so that I know what "Normal" looks like. It seems like I'm getting about 1/4 to 1/3 slower times using the Automatic Routing now than in the past on both the East Coast and Central servers. I've been having problems with my iPad Safari browser not finding the Central server. I wondered if the Automatic Routing results are getting skewed down somehow because of that issue. I would just like to understand at a high level what the Automatic Routing is doing. What's strange too is that wen I choose the East Coast server lately, I get download speeds that lately have averaged 50-60% higher than my past experience. Did they rebuild the entire East coast Internet since Sandy? haha.

CA3LE. There's something odd/different about the Dallas server from a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned above that my iPad Safari couldn't find the server when I selected Central. when I select East Coast, and use the Test Now button on the testmy nome page, it runs fine. I actually am getting speeds using the East Coast server that are consistently about 50% to 90% higher than I've typically gotten on the Central server over the past year. As for the Central server, after rebooting my cable modem, and my Router, and after flushing Cookies and Data on the iPad, I was able to connect to the Central server. I ran a few combined tests, and the speeds were about 25% lower than what I used to see on that server. Then I went back to the East Coast server and got the higher speeds I was seeing earlier. Then I selected the Central server again. And Safari again said the server couldn't be found. I flushed the cookies and data again but that didn't fix it. I've never had this happen in the past. Any thoughts? above I called the Home page test button the "Test Now" button. It's actually called the "Test My Speed" Button. I use that, then use the Re-Test button in the current test results page for another test.

Welcome from SW Ohio

Thanks.

CA3LE....do you recommend that we put the test server location on "Automatic" now to get the most realistic results? This evening (and a few evenings ago) I was getting significantly higher download speeds using the Washington DC server. I'm in Cincinnati, OH. I used to leave it on the Central (Dallas) server - it was called my default. This evening, when I chose the Central server, the page wouldn't open (got a server not found error). don't know if that was just a temporary outage or not. It was working on Central earlier today. I'll try clearing my browser History and try again. Just a note...Clearing the iPad Safari history didn't bring the Central server back.

Test results today on East Coast and Midwest servers: I live in the suburbs of Cincinnati, OH. My default testmy.net server is the one in Dallas. I tried the East Coast server today for grins. It's averaging about 60% faster on downloads today (12.7 Mbps vs about 8.0 ). Uploads were about the same (I'm Time Warner RoadRunner limited at 1.0 Mbps and typically get about 0.8 ). I don't remember ever having tried the East Coast server before. Distance wise, the two locations are similar from where I am-maybe slightly closer to the East Coast. I've never gotten a single download datapoint on the Midwest server above about 12 Mbps, and ones near 12 are rare. On the East Coast server this morning I hit a little over 15 Mbps (almost double my typical Midwest throughput). And it was very rarely below about 9 Mbps. I guess I'll leave it on the East Coast server and see if results over time are consistent. I normally use results to look for dips in performance so using the Midwest server is still useful for identifying Time Warner problems. Is the default server chosen by testmy.net or is that a personal preference? Is there any reason I should leave it on the Midwest server.

Hi from SW ohio

From CA3LE " .... When I've seen this it never pauses, then turns into a fluid progress bar (meaning that it moves smoothly). It will pause then JUMP... as if the browser couldn't keep up with the java used to update the progress. " My iPad behaves like that. The progress bar updates roughly every 2 seconds or so. It doesn't bother me. I have a new talent....counting and calculating Mbps. My download speeds normally vary between 6 and 10 Mbps. My average over a year is about 8 Mbps, and the test sizes are usually about 8 MB. When I hit the start button, I count one thousand, two thousand...until the progress bar completes. During the upload test, I've gotten good enough that I can now calculate the download test result in my head to within 10%. The mind is a terrible thing.

Welcome for SW Ohio

As Ninja states, they all over sell. As I've stated elsewhere in TestMy, all of them do it so they've collectively used overstated specs on their speeds. They're not afraid of getting sued, because it has become the norm, and on their instruments, that's what you get, regardless of the reality of it. I typically get only about 80% (8Mbps as measured here) of what they tell me I'm supposed to be getting for download speed (10 Mbps min), and only about 1/3 what their speed measuring tools show (>20Mbps).