Strange Issue With Comparison Between Testmy.net And Speedtest.net

[JMFarnsworth]

I'm on a 50.0 Mbps symmetrical fiber optic connection. I am getting drastically slower speeds when testing with testmy.net vs. speedtest.net. Also, I have tried direct connection to the gateway, disabling firewalls, using wireless vs. wired connections, iPhone vs. iPad, vs. Laptop. All results are pretty consistent.

Youtube HD streaming (1080P) is working fine. DL speeds from various websites are consistent with testmy.net (700KB/s-1MB/s). With my connection, I would expect 10x this speed.

Any Ideas as to why this could be occuring, would be appreciated. My ISP is telling me that nothing is wrong and that they arent throttling my connection in any way, but I am very skeptical of this.

With speedtest.net, I am getting the following:

46-48 Mbps down, and 50+ up when using the server in Salt Lake City close to my home. If I use a server anywhere else (CA, TX, etc.), speeds drop to 25% of this.

speedtest.net/result/1029152886.png

With speedtest.net I am getting:

5-6 mbps down and 10-12 mbps up.

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Download Connection is:: 5855 Kbps about 5.9 Mbps (tested with 12 MB)

Download Speed is:: 715 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Dallas, TX USA)

Test Time:: 2010-11-13 11:29:55 GMT -7

Bottom Line:: 102X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 1.43 sec

Tested from a 12 MB file and took 17.182 seconds to complete

Download Diagnosis:: Running at % of hosts average (Broadweavenetworks.net)

D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/db/SA7DL4GUZ

User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; GTB6.6; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; .NET4.0C; OfficeLiveConnector.1.5; OfficeLivePatch.1.3) [!]

:::.. Upload Stats ..:::

Upload Connection is:: 10560 Kbps about 10.6 Mbps (tested with 17.5 MB)

Upload Speed is:: 1289 kB/s or 1.3 MB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Dallas, TX USA)

Test Time:: 2010-11-13 11:28:51 GMT -7

Bottom Line:: 184X faster than 56K 1MB Upload in 0.79 sec

Tested from a 18 MB file and took 13.924 seconds to complete

Upload Diagnosis:: Running at % of hosts average (Broadweavenetworks.net)

U-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/db/MNRT0SCWE

User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; GTB6.6; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; .NET4.0C; OfficeLiveConnector.1.5; OfficeLivePatch.1.3) [!]

[CA3LE]

I'm on a 50.0 Mbps symmetrical fiber optic connection. I am getting drastically slower speeds when testing with testmy.net vs. speedtest.net. Also, I have tried direct connection to the gateway, disabling firewalls, using wireless vs. wired connections, iPhone vs. iPad, vs. Laptop. All results are pretty consistent.

Youtube HD streaming (1080P) is working fine. DL speeds from various websites are consistent with testmy.net (700KB/s-1MB/s). With my connection, I would expect 10x this speed.

Any Ideas as to why this could be occuring, would be appreciated. My ISP is telling me that nothing is wrong and that they arent throttling my connection in any way, but I am very skeptical of this.

With speedtest.net, I am getting the following:

46-48 Mbps down, and 50+ up when using the server in Salt Lake City close to my home. If I use a server anywhere else (CA, TX, etc.), speeds drop to 25% of this.

speedtest.net/result/1029152886.png

With speedtest.net I am getting:

5-6 mbps down and 10-12 mbps up.

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Download Connection is:: 5855 Kbps about 5.9 Mbps (tested with 12 MB)

Download Speed is:: 715 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Dallas, TX USA)

Test Time:: 2010-11-13 11:29:55 GMT -7

Bottom Line:: 102X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 1.43 sec

Tested from a 12 MB file and took 17.182 seconds to complete

Download Diagnosis:: Running at % of hosts average (Broadweavenetworks.net)

D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/db/SA7DL4GUZ

User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; GTB6.6; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; .NET4.0C; OfficeLiveConnector.1.5; OfficeLivePatch.1.3) [!]

:::.. Upload Stats ..:::

Upload Connection is:: 10560 Kbps about 10.6 Mbps (tested with 17.5 MB)

Upload Speed is:: 1289 kB/s or 1.3 MB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Dallas, TX USA)

Test Time:: 2010-11-13 11:28:51 GMT -7

Bottom Line:: 184X faster than 56K 1MB Upload in 0.79 sec

Tested from a 18 MB file and took 13.924 seconds to complete

Upload Diagnosis:: Running at % of hosts average (Broadweavenetworks.net)

U-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/db/MNRT0SCWE

User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; GTB6.6; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; .NET4.0C; OfficeLiveConnector.1.5; OfficeLivePatch.1.3) [!]

Your host may not have very good peering.

Read this >> https://testmy.net/legit-speed-test.php

The true worth of an ISP

In our opinion the true value of an internet service provider isn't always measured in megabits. Truly great providers maintain good peering relationships with other providers. What good is an internet connection if you can only get your advertised speeds on your providers internal network (or on the edge of their network). It's the INTERnet not INTRAnet.

The results that you get here can be trusted more over a test that you take on a server a couple hundred miles away. The problem with many smaller and some larger ISP's is that they don't usually have good peering relationships. But if they are really small there may not be anything they can do... that's just their quality of service. To fix the problem they would have to get more outbound providers.

Good luck.

Welcome to the site by the way.

[JMFarnsworth]

CA3LE,

Thank you for the welcome. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question.

From what I have been reading, it seems that my ISP, connectedlyfe.com, is to blame. They are very small, so this isn't surprising.

I am using an ISP that is licensed to provide bandwidth on the utopianet.org trunk line. In theory, everything should be top notch because of this. However, I have found that this has not been the case with the 3 different providers that I have tried.

I hate to say it, but perhaps it is best to switch back to Comcast. My parents are in the same neighborhood, and I have always compared against their service with Comcast. Their's may be slower, but it is much more reliable (I get consistent speeds with both websites).

I will give them a call tomorrow to see what they say.

[CA3LE]

CA3LE,

Thank you for the welcome. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question.

From what I have been reading, it seems that my ISP, connectedlyfe.com, is to blame. They are very small, so this isn't surprising.

I am using an ISP that is licensed to provide bandwidth on the utopianet.org trunk line. In theory, everything should be top notch because of this. However, I have found that this has not been the case with the 3 different providers that I have tried.

I hate to say it, but perhaps it is best to switch back to Comcast. My parents are in the same neighborhood, and I have always compared against their service with Comcast. Their's may be slower, but it is much more reliable (I get consistent speeds with both websites).

I will give them a call tomorrow to see what they say.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

[JMFarnsworth]

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

I can't actually belive it, but they admitted that there was an issue with their peering relationships. You were 100% right on this one.

Again, I appreciate your assistance with this.

[CA3LE]

I can't actually belive it, but they admitted that there was an issue with their peering relationships. You were 100% right on this one.

Again, I appreciate your assistance with this.

Good to hear, glad I could be of assistance.

- CA3LE

[easygoing]

I am having virtually the same issues as noted above but with TWC. Supposed to be getting 50 MBS down/5up and it is 33/5. When it was 20/2 it was 10+/1.5. It appears that these test site given by TWC (e.g. speakeasy.net, speedtest.net) are designed to behave as it one was downloading from their neighbor. What is the story as TWC claims that Testmy.net is not accurate.

[mudmanc4]

Hey easygoing, I had TWC for around 5-6 years, same thing as your describing. What a mess. Although the service usually worked, and I mean that literally, usually, not always, peering is aweful. Fluccuations crossed all sides of the spectrum as well.

After the 'father - son ' embezzlement issue, where they were raping the funds, and not updating the infrastructure, seemed as if things only got worse over time.

Sure , there's a lot of money to be made, an ISP is a gold mine, at the same time , protect your investment for pete's sake lol

[CA3LE]

I am having virtually the same issues as noted above but with TWC. Supposed to be getting 50 MBS down/5up and it is 33/5. When it was 20/2 it was 10+/1.5. It appears that these test site given by TWC (e.g. speakeasy.net, speedtest.net) are designed to behave as it one was downloading from their neighbor. What is the story as TWC claims that Testmy.net is not accurate.

Oh, if I had a nickel for every time an ISP blamed my site for their shortcomings.

They can say whatever they want. But the truth is... TestMy.net is unbiased in its results. The results you get here are a real world scenario not a best case scenario. The tests that your ISP sends you to is tested under best case scenario conditions. The funny thing is, Time Warner Cable says that this test is inaccurate... yet before they had their own test they used to send their customers here. Actually, I'm pretty sure that back in the early 2000's a tech support operator told us that TestMy.net was actually in their handbook, a part of their troubleshooting procedure.

Think about this, they have the ultimate incentive to have you test your connection with as little variables as possible. A company like TWC can save millions in service calls by making you feel all warm and fuzzy when you use their 'approved' tests and score high. "Oh, the problem must be the websites you're visiting..." --- The truth is though, if you didn't feel like their results were BS you wouldn't have come looking for this site. Right? You can feel that your connection isn't right... correct?

Speedtest.net self admittedly alters your results. They DROP the bottom 30% and top 10% of the results... to make up for the fact that flash isn't a good protocol to use for testing Internet speed. They also open 4+ threads... meaning that you're doing multiple downloads at once. Sorry, but a good connection with a quality route can max out with only one thread. It makes connections look better than they are.

I can't see Time Warner's speed test (apparently it's only available to Time Warner customers... they must not want their test under third party scrutiny.).

...If their test is made by Ookla... the same is true because Ookla is the creators of speedtest.net.

The results here have been trusted by MANY people for MANY years before Time Warner even thought of hosting their own test. Far longer than speedtest.net has been around. Choose to believe what you want to believe but realize... this isn't my first rodeo. Testing connection speed is all I do and I have no vested interest in making your connection look better or worse than it is. TMN has multiple gigabit (1000 Mbps) uplinks into one of the most powerful networks on the planet (currently over 2000 Gbps of available bandwidth, peering with over 25 Tier 1 providers... Time Warner actually peers directly with my host with 8x 10Gbps connection), hundreds of thousands of websites are hosted on the same network. If your speed is effected to TestMy.net, it's effected elsewhere too.

... Like I've said before. Which do you think is a more accurate portrayal of your speed? Testing from next door or testing where the websites you visit are actually hosted? Testing with a test that alters the results or one that doesn't?

Having said that, your speeds aren't all that bad. Now, when you paid for 20 Mbps and got 10, different story. It would be better to see 80%+ of what they quote, which would be 40 Mbps

[mudmanc4]

Have to add -- TWC's most common answer was ' we cannot guarantee what happens outside of our networks ' -- hence, why they refuse to even discuss connection issues. There 'speedtest' IS Ookla, and IS internal, they tell you this.

[easygoing]

Please note: The 33/5 figures were from speakeasy and speed test .net. Only 12/3 on testmy.net which is supposed to be 50/5 per TWC. I wish it was really 33 down on testmy.net.

[CA3LE]

Please note: The 33/5 figures were from speakeasy and speed test .net. Only 12/3 on testmy.net which is supposed to be 50/5 per TWC. I wish it was really 33 down on testmy.net.

I didn't notice that... ouch. That sucks.

I notice that you tested to both the Dallas TX and Seattle WA servers. You should also try Washington D.C. ... even if it's further. See if you get around that same 10 Mbps...

Where are you located? What's your OS and browser?

[easygoing]

_{OS is XP Pro/IE8 Core2duo 2.33}

The best analogy is that they are providing test numbers as if one were testing gas mileage without traffic, hills, traffic control devices. I think it is highly deceptive.