Slow results across the Atlantic

[CA3LE]

Hello testmy.net-Team,

I think your servers or connection is to slow. I had this tested currently and the result was 11 Mbit/s. Other speedtest pages returns me back very higher results (e.g. speedtest.net = 96Mbit/s). The given connection speed of my provider is 100 MBit/s.

Greeting from Germany...

Volker

Hello Volker,

I wish I had a team. - But I'm solo on this.

So what's most likely at fault is international routing. You're hitting a bottleneck along your route. My servers are all in the United States and your connection has to traverse the Atlantic Ocean to reach me. Having said that, your speeds really aren't bad. I've seen people cross that distance on 100Mbps + connections with little degradation but they're usually on better connected networks, not home connections.

If all goes to plan I'll soon be releasing my software to anyone with a web server. Once it becomes available there will be mirrors using my technology spanning the globe. For now you might want to try testing off my Washington D.C. server... it requires less hops to reach German and may improve your speed... but the bottleneck is most likely crossing the Ocean. BUT, if you visit a lot of websites in the United States this is a more accurate representation of your speed than it is when you test closer to home. Compare your speeds to others in Germany and you'll see that you're doing very well... not many people get those kind of speeds from that distance. The fact is, international Internet routes are hitting a breaking point. Too much traffic and not enough bandwidth so often the peering crossing the atlantic is poor... I think that in some cases the bottlenecks are in place intentionally... to limit consumers in an effort to alleviate the load. The point to my website is that I'm trying to bring this information to light... hopefully one day improving the situation. Because theoretically you could pull your near full speed given any distance... as long as the providers and their peers are delivering the bandwidth as promised.

Cheers, I hope you like what I've built and share it with your friends,

- Damon Mueller

[CA3LE]

Hi there, I just saw that you recently rated the speed of Hyperoptic in the UK and it was quite low. I was wondering if you could share the information behind this and if possible the contact details of the users who tested their speed. Hyperoptic actually has boosts 1gig broadband speed so it seems that your data is skewed somehow.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Olivia

Hi Olivia,

My data isn't skewed. Your provider may provide 1Gbit speed but that doesn't mean that you're going to pull those speeds everywhere. Especially crossing the Atlantic where speeds are often limited due to oversold bandwidth. There also can be restrictions on those links in place by the providers your ISP peers with. Your connection is only as fast as the slowest link between you and the server you're testing from.

My servers are multi-gigabit uplinked in locations that are directly on some of the most powerful trunk lines on the Internet. Users overseas often email me about this but there are people overseas that are able to pull 200+ Mbps despite the distance. Although they are usually connected through commercial connections not residential. My aim is to bring light to these issues in hopes of getting people connected better... providers are in large part misrepresenting the connections they sell. Sure your connection might pull 1Gbit near your home but the further you go out on the Internet the worse it gets. It really doesn't have to if everyone is delivering what they promise.

Having said that, it might not be their fault... it may be the people they peer through... or even the people those people peer through. International routing is way oversold right now and providers always point the finger at the other guy. But the truth is... they choose who they peer through. If they used hosts that were less congested... you wouldn't have as much of an issue.

If you visit a lot of websites in the United States then trust me... you're receiving a fair assessment at TestMy.net. The truth hurts sometimes but no matter what TMN is going to call it how it sees it.

TMN is not a best case scenario speed test. There are other speed tests that offer servers closer to you but that's not how the Internet works. When you visit websites they are rarely near you. In my opinion a better assessment of your connection is by testing far away to locations where the websites you visit are hosted. It might not produce the numbers you want to see but at least you're being real with yourself.

I also offer testing to a servers in Washington D.C. and Seattle Washington ... D.C. being closer to you should provide a bit higher result but you're still crossing the Atlantic which is where you're most likely losing most of your speed.

- Cheers,

- Damon Mueller