Pgoodwin1

All the equipment I have ever gotten from Time Warner has been junk, even the cable boxes. I've always just purchased my own modem. Especially now that they are trying to charge you $6 / month if you rent it from them.

Note this RG6 connector.



see how the white inner insulation is nearly flush with the metal base. If it's pushed down and there is a bowl in the bottom... the signal echos off the walls within the connector. Fittings like that need to be adjusted or changed. Sometimes you can just firming grab and push it into better alignment... but if you have the ability and tools, put new compression fittings on. You also want the copper core to rise up above the rim by 2-3 pennies width. Too long... issues.. too short... issues.


I'd trim that a little longer myself...

so many bad examples on google images

If you have cables like that.. throw them out. Good for antenna, bad for cable systems.

CA3LE. And you should also mention that most of the OOKLA based test sites' speed tests won't run on an iOS device because the tests require Flash (the memory and battery hog technology that's not allowed on iOS devices). So kudos for you having iOS compatible testing. And although Speedtest.org now supports iOS/Safari, the results are way off. They even have a disclaimer:


"Warning
For best testing experience and accuracy, Broadband Speed Checker requires at least version 8 of Flash. Please update your client by clicking here."

And when you try the support Contact Us on Speedtest.org, you get:
"Not Found. The requested URL /contact/ was not found on this server."

Plus you can't choose a server like you can on TestMy.

There is an OOKLA Speedtest app for iOS that allows you to pick servers, and the results trend kind of like the results I get here on TestMy, but the UI and the results displays and overall functionality of the app is orders of magnitude less than this site.

For iOS device users, nobody else that I've found is even in the same universe as TestMy.

Ok, it looked more as a time line just as the actual test result above is. I have seen many articles that state most of these test sites are misleading as far as the actual results shown. They don't show the actual state of your broadband connection. This isn't directed towards you, but it was a general question.

A suggestion for a FAQ; Describe the various ways a Internet connection can be tested and how they relate to actual downloads and streaming video.
Also a list of the most popular sites and the method(s) used for testing (assuming a term can describe that).


Regarding the original question; How about the ability to have a zip code entry by the member that would tell the site your town or city?

Lastly, I wanted to thank you for your site. It's no small task and you probably don't receive enough thanks as it is.

33MB upload against Dal seems to be spot on with my bandwidth graph now.
 
Thanks  

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

Have a great birthday CA3LE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON!! WISHING YOU AN AWESOME DAY!! AND MANY MORE EVEN BETTER.
 
NOW GET UP SO WE CAN GO HAVE A BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST
 

 

 

Use this website as your control see if you can find an add-on or extension to track page load times and wipe your cache before you check

Suddenlink tried to pull the same thing on me some months ago.  Their tester never showed any slowdown and tech support would not take any action because their tester was consistant speed test during peak evening hours.  My speed at the time would drop to less then 4 Mb/s, which was about 10% of my normal speed.  I used my packet sniffer built into my old Sygate firewall and monitored the trafic log to determine where the test packets were coming from.  Then using reverse lookup on the IPs, I determined they came from within Suddenlink's own backbone of servers and never once came from outside their backbone, so the test never showed any slowdown due to peak evening usage.  TMN was giving me the true story of the speed slowdown.  I presented this information to the maintenance superviser as normal tech support was a waste of time.  Within two weeks, my speed during those hours was back to normal as apparently they changed their routing, added more equipment, or fixed the problem.  Obviously, Suddenlink was the cause of the bottleneck.  There was alot more history to this story, but I kept it short.
 
 
Good luck...

It has been a while since my last visit in this particular forum, as some of you know I got rid of hughenet a long time ago for DSL.  Anyway, I thought I would come back and see the complaints on Hughesnet, but to my shock, no posts since 2012!
 
So, either Hughesnet have got better at what they do (highly unlikely) or they have less users to complain about the service or maybe people have got used to what they have.
 
Either way, just dropping into an old haunt to say hi!  

TraceMy isn't really doing a test, it's a logged traceroute... it's just conducted regularly.  TraceMy is activated as soon as you hit any page outside of the forum (currently tracing only registered users... only beta testers and a handful of others have been granted access to see the data).  It's currently only running on my main server but this will expand soon.  I'm working on to make this do much more... the reason I haven't fully released it is because, first, I'm not done.  Second, I'm still trying to understand what I've built.
 
So far what I'm gathering is that you're not looking for hops that just have long response here and there... you're looking for hops that continually have longer response times.  Especially should be noted if the hop responds that way more than three consecutive times.  There really is no frequency to testing.  You're tested as soon as the queue runs.  It queues over and over and is based on your activity on TestMy.net.  Every page load (again, outside of the forum) resets your time to 2 minutes, if you stop interacting with the site... it stops interacting with you.  For that two minutes you'll be traced over and over as you reach your place in line.  No set time, it just runs when it's available.  This is done server-side and all you need to do to activate it is open TestMy.net.  It's silent and you can surf the site as you normally would, that side of the program actually has nothing to do with what you see on your screen. (it's pretty nifty)
 
What I'm finding is that just because you're displaying horrible speeds... doesn't mean that it's going to show in the trace.  Also, just because a hop responds slow... doesn't mean that your speeds will be degraded.
 
Check this out... here's an example using my own connection.
 

 
I obviously have a fast connection at home, it runs awesome... all the time.  Now look at the trace results about 2 minutes before my 12:35p test.
 

(hop 9 for me is the end of trace by the way but is not my actual IP...)
 
Yeah, that had a long response... if there was any issue during that time it wasn't noticeable to me.  I wasn't testing at that exact moment so who knows, it may have resulted in a little bobble.  Obviously you'd like to see nice even response times but for a hop to respond like that here and there... no worries, it happens.  Some routers de-prioritize ICMP traffic so it's normal in some situations to see spikes here and there.  But if a hop is continually doing that, especially in succession... there is most likely something going on with the hop.
 
Before I release it publicly I'll do a full writeup and I'll cite logged examples displaying what the real problems look like.  Here's a little example I randomly pulled (username sistem) of what MAY be an issue.
 

 
See the top blue line, that's hop 7 of 8.  It often responds slower than the final hop, and does it consecutively.  It also seems that when that happens it sometimes causes the final hop to respond slower....
 

 
Now look at this members result around the same time... dropped to half of his average.
 

 
Going back further in his results I find that when he has a lower than average result... it's often accompanied by slower than average response on those hops.
 

 

 
This is not always the case.  But if you if you experience slower than average speeds then look to your TraceMy results it can help determine what part of the route is possibly at fault.
 
Now, looking at your TraceMy.net results... I don't see anything alarming or stand out.  Researching the times when you display slower results shows very normal traces.  Sure there are spikes, but they don't correlate with those times... and they don't consecutively respond bad.  Like I said, just because there's an issue with a hop/router doesn't mean that it's going to respond bad and vice versa.  But when you start to see regular patterns, it can be a good indication. 
 
... as soon as I understand what I've built better and can put it all into words I will.  I'll also tell the program to look for the known patterns I'm finding and alert the user to a possible issue.  I'm also developing more in depth analysis of the route... realize that I only have a couple of days of programming time invested in that so far.  Right now it's in a gathering phase so... again... I can understand what I've built.  
 
(gee, you think that's enough ellipsis for one post, lol... ... ...)

CA3LE. I've amassed quite a bit of data on your site here in the last 7 days. It's very repeatable that my download speeds slow down by a factor of 8 from here to the Dallas server, and by a factor of about 2 to the Washington server during the afternoons and evenings. By 1AM the times improve and by early morning the times are about what I'd call normal. So TWC definitely has a traffic bottleneck during high usage hours. I've confirmed the TMN test result on Speedtest.org where although their actual speeds aren't as believable as TMN, they show basically the same bottleneck (they happen to have a Dallas server and a NJ server that show almost the same results as here on TMN to the Dallas and Washington servers. I don't believe in their numbers per SE, but the trends versus hours of the day are the same. What's totally unbelievable is that TWC's speed test shows between 45 and 50 Mbps no matter what time of day it is. They don't indicate where the server is, but it must be in my front yard. It's total BS. I've got a whole slew of screen shots on my iPad of all the TMN results over the past 7 days. The story is clear, so it's time to call them and confront them with this issue. During peak usage hours, I could achieve the same download speeds I'm getting with a 10 Mbps cable modem. During low usage hours with the Arris gateway they recently gave me, I get over 40 Mbps regularly to the Washington server here and about 30 Mbps to the Dallas server. So I know there's nothing wrong with any of the equipment at my house. I'll let you know what they say after I talk to them.

Hi Tracy. I'm having issues during the evening hours when I use the Dallas server. I have no issue when I do TMN speed tests to then Washington server, although it is still slower than during off-peak hours. I haven't done much investigating on the issue other than using an OOKLA Speedtest app on my iPad where I've gotten considerably slower speeds when picking a server in Tennessee than picking one the same distance in a different direction. But the network of servers that app has gives really inconsistent and widely varying speed results when picking different servers in the same city. I'd be interested in hearing what your findings with your ISP are on this issue as you progress on the issue. So post back when you hear anything significant.

Thanks CA3LE. I will take some time and study the network map. I too think there is congestion somewhere in TWC's path to the Dallas server. I've checked speeds using some speed test sites other than TMN, and while I don't think their speeds are at all indicative of any real speed numbers, I can see a difference in the results on thos sites - slower in the evening, just like I'm seeing here. I have an iPad app called OOKLA Speedtest, but I can't get results that I believe. I think there's huge variation in the various servers they have on their pick list. Some of them just must not have much bandwidth. I sometimes see 100% difference between different servers in the same city. I have had faster times using that app when I choose a server on the East coast and similar slower times choosing a server that is south of here (like the Dallas server is). But I don't have a lot of faith in their server system. On one of them, my download speeds were slower than my upload speeds.

And I will look at Trace in Ky. Thanks

I noticed that Tracy in KY (only a few hours from you) who's also routed through TWC is having drops during the same hours as you.  You might want to look at this topic https://testmy.net/ipb/topic/31124-hi-i-am-tracy-b-from-frankfort-ky/.  His issue is obviously way worse than yours but may be related.
 
-D

I'm still working to understand TraceMy.net's results.  I don't think an address has to have bad response time to slow you down.  So until I fully understand what I built and can explain my findings... take those results with a grain of salt.  Right now it's only tracing to my main server in Dallas but when complete it will utilize my entire network.
 
CDN may perform better for you because the transaction is relayed to a server closer to you.  Look at the network map.  For some people this performs better... others will get better performance directly to TMN servers.
 
Here's my own result at about 8:30 the other night... I test just fine during those hours... but I am slightly slower than my best.
 

 
I think that Time Warner has some routes that are congested during peak hours in your area.  Other servers, like testing to CDN for instance, will take different routes... possibly bypassing the congestion.  My goal is to make TraceMy.net detect and idetify those problem areas... and give you the ammunition you need to complain to your ISP.

Hi Randy, welcome to TestMy.net.
 
It shouldn't slow you down but that depends on a few things.  How far away is the computer from the router?  What kind of router and adapter?
 
Personally, I always try to have my main desktop hooked up with ethernet directly to the router.  I use wifi for everything else. If I connect my office computer to my wifi I still get a nice smooth connection.  But I get better performance within my home network using ethernet.  No doubt because my router is on the opposite side of the house, my office is in the corner of the house so it wasn't ideal for the wifi.  I go to extremes to get the best possible connection...  Even if it was in the same room it would be even more reason to wire it up directly.  Wireless is catching up but then I'd expect 10G to become standard in the future so ethernet will always be better.  Direct connection is always best.
 
Best way to tell if you're losing quality... get scientific.  Run a control test using TestMy.net, directly connected to the modem.  Then do the same exact test connected to ethernet... then do the same test again on wifi.    Maybe run three of each and average.  You can separate the results with identifiers, found in a drop down menu on the homepage and test pages.
 

 
Then you can filter your results using the drop down menu below the graph..
 

 
Experimentation will lead you to the fastest setup... I recently moved and rebuilt my entire home network.  TMN made my performance instantly apparent and caused me to re-configure my network more optimally.  I was able to discover interference, simple channel change on the router dramatically improved wireless. I was also able to see degradation due to a bad cat-5 connector and wall plate that was improperly installed.  Testing and retesting ... tweaking this and that until I could get the numbers as close as I could to the numbers I read directly off the modem.  End result, my network is faster and smoother than it would have been if I just blindly installed everything.   ... experiment.  That's what this site is all about.

I should not have none the less I updated already. Not a new install. 
 
To be honest who ever is not a bit leery of free shit, should be. Not sure why the 'gift' - although I could speculate several different ways, though I have my tin foil hat on, so think about it with everything that we see today. 
 
Update went well, first impression - geezus would you have a look at the crisp colors on everything. 
 
Memory compression? Ok sure , running less processes combined makes the system several percentage points faster not just by feel. 
 
Added menu bars to other screens, yea it works so far for me, although after less than one day into this, I dunno. 
 
Overall so far fine, not an issue one in any sense. Updated a few softwares and off and running. 
 
Something however has a creepy feel to it, maybe this is in my head, likely. None the less I'll be watching my external firewall logs to see just what traffic is moving when I am not doing anything, and hopefully flagging anything not intended for transmission. 

I'm using an AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Generation). It's a great one too. I'm not actually using it as the router, but as a wireless switch that feeds my old D-Link DI-604 which performs the actual routing function. I did it that way so that I could put the router in the basement with all the Ethernet lines running to it through a gigabit switch. The house has wired ethernet in most rooms. That way I could put the AirPort Extreme upstairs in a central location. It has good range too, thru walls into the garage and out onto the deck.

The AirPort Extreme, D-Link DI-604 router, and the D-Link DGS-1008G gigabit switch are rock solid reliable. Literally, the only time they ever get reset is when the electric power goes off. Wish I could say the same about the Time Warner equipment.

The jury is still out on the Arris gateway from Time Warner. It's new here and came with a recent upgrade to faster Internet and phone service with their Signature Home plan. The Cisco DVR they have me is erratic and I think it will need to be replaced.

I just tried the TraceMy.net tool. It's already great. I've only spent minutes with it and don't claim yet to understand everything it's telling me. But, I got normal looking Up and Down speeds this morning on the Dallas server, so I know what the trace looks like under normal operating conditions. It showed a couple of 600+ millisecond ping numbers, and I don't know how good, bad, or typical that is for Time Warner Cincinnati; it sounds really long. I pulled up a Community graph and it looks like an order of magnitude lower ping numbers, but since my times were as fast as they are when everything is working right, I expect the 625 mS ping numbers were normal for my ISP. My TWC plan isn't one of their fast ones; it's just one step up from their minimum offered plan (if I remember right). For all I know, they program in delays for the cheap plans and remove them for the expensive ones, and everybody uses the same equipment.

I'll play with TraceMy.net some more soon, and maybe ask some specific questions

The one thing that confused me a little with the TraceMy.net results was the security for sharing info that came up. It talked about creating a TMN ID. I guessed that that message was for new users without a TMN ID that would be using the eventual released version, and it was telling them to sign up for a TMN account. I wasn't sure though that the data I was looking at with the IP addresses was something I should be sharing. As I said, I haven't played with it much yet, so I'm sure I'll figure stuff out after I use it more.

Your note comes up after a trace route test "Make this safe to share by removing identifying target information and converting the address into an anonymous TMN ID."

After I hit the link part of that "Make this safe to share", it displays a similar page with a temporary note saying that it was safe to share. But I couldn't tell what the difference was from the prior page that supposedly wasn't safe to share.

Note-9/3/13-I figured out the difference.

I'm still having issues when speed testing on the Dallas server. I get 3x the speed using the Washington DC server, which shows a speed more like I'm used to seeing during prime time evening hours on the Dallas aerver. When I do the TraceMy.net trace test, the ping times I see are very close to what I see when my speeds are registering normal - during non-prime time hours. I'm puzzled by the extremely low speeds I'm seeing using the Dallas server. Anyone have any idea what the issue(s) might be? This phenomenon has been going on for a while now-like 3 weeks or so.

Note that the Dallas server is identified with the star in the upper data picture. And the Washing DC server is the US flag.

Note. I get ping times like these when I'm registering close to 15 Mbps download from either server. When on the Dallas server, and my speeds are very low like the above ~3 Mbps, my ping times are virtually the same.

Again, this morning I'm getting the normal fast (for me) speed readings on the Dallas server....see the last two points on the chart/data list Note that the ping times are about the same as last night when I was experiencing the really slow download times.

I get a lot of emails like this.  Sometimes the person takes the time to post in the forum, many times not.  Maybe they're shy.
 
 
First, have you tried the mirrors or the multithread speed test?
  Please direct your question to my forum.  More people answering your question usually helps in this kind of situation.  Plus, other people can be helped by reading the solution.     Happy Testing! - Damon - TestMy.net   ______________________________________     I'm sorry, I try to help as many people personally as I can but many more people can get the help they need if you just post a topic here.  It gets resolved and later on someone with the same issue can hopefully get relief.  ...... if I just help you by email, it only helps 1 person.  
 
So work with me here!  If I wanted to help just a couple people by email I'd be a realtor... no offense to realtors.     
 

It takes like 20 seconds to post a topic and ask a question...  Once logged in go into any forum, like General Discussion and click "Start New Topic" near the top under the main menu.  

Hey John,
 
Yeah, it's a program I wrote, I've been developing it since I was 15... I turn 32 in November.  The source is closed but I do allow you to host a test using your server resources.  Basic LAMP server gets the job done.  https://testmy.net/make-a-speed-test for more info.  Totally free, works with all my tools, extremely stable, requires very little resources and is the same core I use for my own mirrors.  This is however intended for people hosted on 100 Mbps, 1000 Mbps and higher uplinks.  But I have allowed home users and local testing for cool people.  The architecture and concept has been proven and tested under all circumstances, by myself and many smarter than me.  Local and out to the net, time after time it performs equally well and matches what's really happening across the network interface.  The whole reason I released self hosting was to have it scrutinized, almost immediately people did just that. Here's one example of someone who put my methods under the microscope... https://testmy.net/ipb/topic/30731-multithread/#entry339762
 
I hope you like what I've built and share it.  My traffic builds by word-of-mouth only.
 
Kinds regards,
- Damon - TestMy.net
 
 
 
Extra note from Damon: TMN runs proprietary software, developed by myself solely for this purpose. Sorry but the source is closed.