Why Do The Speeds Posted Here Differ With Other Websites? And Why Am I Not Getting Anywhere Near The Advertised Speed?

[metallarissa]

Why do the results from this site consistently differ from those of other Speedtests?

My results are as follows:

:::.. testmy.net test results ..:::

Download Connection is:: 1286 Kbps about 1.29 Mbps (tested with 1536 kB)

Download Speed is:: 157 kB/s

Upload Connection is:: 208 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)

Upload Speed is:: 25 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net (Main)

Test Time:: 2010-08-18 18:37:48 GMT

D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-BQECZ0GAS

U-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-6BIJ2R9KA

User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.6) Gecko/20100625 Firefox/3.6.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) [!]

Yet with Speedtest.net, I get 1.28mbps download speed and .32mbps upload speed

http://www.speedtest.net/result/919470478.png

and at http://www.bandwidthplace.com/ I clock in at 1.29mbps dl and 320kbps upload

Why the variance?

My biggest concern is that when I'm downloading files, the testmy.net speed is the more accurate one, because if I try downloading more than one file at once, the speeds drop dramatically with a max speed of all files put together being about 150KB per second, which is the testmy.net statistic.

I've tested both my computer AND my brand new laptop using wireless connections at various distances from the router (with no changes in the results). My SBC DSL plan reports that I should be getting about 1.5mbps downstream and 380kbps upstream, and I realize that I won't get that exact speed, but I should be able to download multiple files without them all bogging down the others so extremely.

Anyone have any suggestions? I have no landline, by the way. It's DSL without a phone line.

Thanks!

[zalternate]

Those download speed test results are all just about the same(1.29Mbps). But your upload test here is showing a bit slower compared to the other two.

You could Google your modem or router to see if there are issues with maxing out the connection with multiple regular file downloads at the same time.

If it's filesharing there are various settings in the filesharing program to control the speed of each data download. Note the upload seeding. Some Modems freak out if you max out the upload.

And 150KBps is times 8 = 1.2Mbps

[metallarissa]

Those download speed test results are all just about the same(1.29Mbps). But your upload test here is showing a bit slower compared to the other two.

You could Google your modem or router to see if there are issues with maxing out the connection with multiple regular file downloads at the same time.

If it's filesharing there are various settings in the filesharing program to control the speed of each data download. Note the upload seeding. Some Modems freak out if you max out the upload.

And 150KBps is times 8 = 1.2Mbps

I download from various websites and hosts such as Rapidshare, Hotfile, etc. With my old cable internet speeds, I was downloading at about 150-200kbps per file at the same time (with a 100mbps modem, but the new one is maxed at 54mbps). Of course, downloading software directly from game/product websites garnered better speeds.

The speeds from the tests are consistent except for the testmy.net speed, which was, as you said, 8x slower than the other sites, which seems to be my max download speed from any site.

My router is 2Wire - Wireless-G 802.11g ADSL Gateway (max speed 54mbps). I will try to look up issues with it.

[zalternate]

The speeds from the tests are consistent except for the testmy.net speed, which was, as you said, 8x slower than the other sites, which seems to be my max download speed from any site.

Nope, I said that the download speeds are all the same on all sites mentioned. Except the upload, which is showing slower here.

It is a factor of little "b" for "bits" and big "B" for "Bytes.

So Mbps is mega bits per second and MBps is Mega Bytes per second.

Or.

Kbps is kilo bits per second and KBps is kilo Bytes per second.

So download speed on a direct download tends to register as KBps in the little download dialog. Meaning KiloBytes per second

I hope I wrote that right. It tends to get confusing sometimes.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/digital-life/askchris/2009/03/06/bitsbytes.html

Bits & Bytes

March 06, 2009

Head into any technical forums and watch the discussions. You'll see endless references to Mb (megabits), kBps (kilobytes per second), GB (gigabytes) and combinations of these and other units of measure. If you'd like to have a better understanding of these common measures, read on, it's not actually that difficult.

Let’s start with the “bit”. A bit is the basic unit of data. Its symbol is “b”. Everything else expands on that. The metric system applies to data, so when you have 1000 bits, you can call it a kilobit, or kb. Similarly, 1000kb is a megabit (Mb), and 1000Mb is a gigabit (Gb). Note: the capitalisation of these symbols is very important.

If you are transferring data, you measure it in bits per second, or bps. These days you’re likely to be transferring larger quantities of data, so it follows that you’re likely to measure it in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps).

Hopefully this hasn’t been too hard to grasp so far. Personally I like the bit as the base unit for measuring data transfer, but because the byte is the common measure for data storage, some people and products moved to measuring data transfer speeds in bytes rather than bits. So what’s a byte?

A “byte” is 8 bits of data, and its symbol is “B”. Simple as that. Note the symbol for a bit is a little b, and a byte is a big B (a common area of confusion).

The metric system applies to bytes, just as it does to bits. So 1000 bytes of data is called a kilobyte (kB), and transferring kilobytes of data is measured in kilobytes per second (kBps). To compare the 2 measurements, 1kB of data would equal 8kb of data (because there are 8 bits in a byte).

Hopefully you’ve been able to follow me through this brief explanation, and can now understand why you can see and hear comments like “I was downloading the latest update at 50kBps across my 512kbps ADSL connection”.

8 times 50kBps equals 400kbps.

Does your DSL provider provide a DSL 'modem only' unit? The combo units tend to have issues for whatever reason(Firmware is crap!!!). I think that unit can be put in 'bridge mode', so you can connect your own router and not have the combo unit try to do the routing.

The DSL providers would do better to sell a 'modem only' unit and let the customer get their own router. It sure would save a waste of time for the call support dealing with connection and speed issues.

Edited August 18, 2010 by zalternate

[CA3LE]

Read this... http://www.testmy.net/legit_speed_test.php -- it may provide insite into the variance.

Your speeds aren't really that different. And your speeds will be different on any test if your connection is in use... as long as the test you're using actually does what it's supposed to do.

Let me know if this helps you understand the difference between testmy.net and other speed test sites.

- Damon