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Hello from Calif - land of very slow cable internet


sivatag

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hi everyone!

i had no idea what a difference a good internet tester can make. we have comcast cable here and some nights it almost grinds to a halt here in the SF East Bay. speedtest.net always showed pretty fast stats which didn't seem right. i discovered this site from a newegg review of a cable modem. my speed tested here to about 2.5 Mb after testing at 9 Mb at the other site... so which makes more sense, esp since the results here even suggest something may be wrong. i'll be back with a new test when the connection is really grinding to halt again. that should be interesting. ;) i wonder if a new modem might make a difference.

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ISP's love the flash testing software so much , most of then use it themselves in a close network proximity to the client, so immediately the results are skewed long before the actual test is taken.

It might do you good to set the scheduled test every hour or what you decide , leaving it run for at least 24 hours first run. Gives a great insight into slow / peak usage times.

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hi everyone!

i had no idea what a difference a good internet tester can make. we have comcast cable here and some nights it almost grinds to a halt here in the SF East Bay. speedtest.net always showed pretty fast stats which didn't seem right. i discovered this site from a newegg review of a cable modem. my speed tested here to about 2.5 Mb after testing at 9 Mb at the other site... so which makes more sense, esp since the results here even suggest something may be wrong. i'll be back with a new test when the connection is really grinding to halt again. that should be interesting. ;) i wonder if a new modem might make a difference.

Welcome to the site zeba!

Good to hear I'm getting some traffic off of Newegg... I send them tons of traffic they kinda owe me :evil6: -- they really are the best though. They usually get stuff to me in 24-48 hours with standard shipping. Out of about $50K of parts I've ordered from them over the years they've never made a mistake... ever.

New cable modem, especially if you're in a DOCSIS 3.0 area often times seems to clear up many issues. I highly recommend Motorola modems, Linksys is also high on my list. I personally have the Motorola SB6120. I recommend getting a docsis 3.0 modem even if you're subscribing to your providers normal package. You will thank yourself in the future when docsis 3.0 is required or when you decide you want more speed. The way I look at it, pay the extra $20 now and you'll save yourself $100 in the future.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if the cable companies are slowing down the old modems on purpose to get people to upgrade to the new hardware. It seems that when a new standard comes out mysteriously everyones old modems start to run like crap until they hop on to the new standard. ... there's a nice conspiracy theory for you.

I appreciate the kind words. I try as hard as I can to provide the best speed testing service.

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ISP's love the flash testing software so much , most of then use it themselves in a close network proximity to the client, so immediately the results are skewed long before the actual test is taken.

It might do you good to set the scheduled test every hour or what you decide , leaving it run for at least 24 hours first run. Gives a great insight into slow / peak usage times.

that's a great idea-as soon as i have a few minutes will figure how to set that up. i already know that after dinner time into the late evening is the worst by far... right when i'm on the phone with a client trying to work with them on their web site problems!! :tickedoff:

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Welcome to the site zeba!

Good to hear I'm getting some traffic off of Newegg... I send them tons of traffic they kinda owe me :evil6: -- they really are the best though. They usually get stuff to me in 24-48 hours with standard shipping. Out of about $50K of parts I've ordered from them over the years they've never made a mistake... ever.

New cable modem, especially if you're in a DOCSIS 3.0 area often times seems to clear up many issues. I highly recommend Motorola modems, Linksys is also high on my list. I personally have the Motorola SB6120. I recommend getting a docsis 3.0 modem even if you're subscribing to your providers normal package. You will thank yourself in the future when docsis 3.0 is required or when you decide you want more speed. The way I look at it, pay the extra $20 now and you'll save yourself $100 in the future.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if the cable companies are slowing down the old modems on purpose to get people to upgrade to the new hardware. It seems that when a new standard comes out mysteriously everyones old modems start to run like crap until they hop on to the new standard. ... there's a nice conspiracy theory for you.

I appreciate the kind words. I try as hard as I can to provide the best speed testing service.

Thanks for the welcome CA3LE!

What a coincidence-that's exactly the modem i was looking at! and further down in the reviews there is the ref to your web site. OK, it's confirmed then i will buy this one (when we're ready-right now the co-owner of my house who has the Comcast account is trying to lower the monthly bill.. he threatened to cancel and they offered to lower the bill by $8 each for the internet and tv... big whoop i say). i still need to read up on docsis, etc. i haven't delved into this area of tech much yet. that conspiracy theory is interesting... do you know much about how they control/throttle the modems?

yes, i've spent a few thou at the Egg myself. i occasionally build a pc for a friend or myself, or help with a replacement. it's all fun and sometimes a little nerve wracking...

how did you get interested in speed testing?

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do you know much about how they control/throttle the modems?

If they still do it the way they used to...

Basically there's a configuration file the modem gets from your provider. People hack it by tricking the modem into thinking that a TFTP server on the LAN side is where it should be getting it's configuration... then obviously you insert your own values. BUT this is far less common these days because the manufactures have made it so the modems can only get the TFTP from coaxial cable (the cable tv cable). I'm sure there's even more protection built in than there used to be.

how did you get interested in speed testing?

I've always been obsessed about computer speed. Personally, I like things to be instant. The whole speed testing deal came about out of my own necessity. I was one of the first people in the US to get cable internet. Well, coming from a 33.3 dial-up (yes, I never even got to 56K... it was that long ago) I obviously wanted to test it. The problem was at the time that there wasn't really a service to do that the way I wanted to. So I made my own.

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