Okay Posted December 8, 2012 CID Share Posted December 8, 2012 Hey guys, I was on the phone with RCN and the guy I was speaking to told me that they can't do anything about speed tests that aren't run through ma.speedtest.rcn.net. Coincidentally, the download speed I'm getting here is much lower (around 10 Mbps) than the speeds I'm getting on that site. I explained to him that it's possible that the company was manipulating the results and he seemed to get very defensive about it, telling me we can go back and forth on the topic all day. I just want to make sure I'm actually getting the speeds I'm paying for. Does anyone know about the ma.speedtest.rcn.net speed test? WOT seems to give it a bad trustworthiness rating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA3LE Posted December 8, 2012 CID Share Posted December 8, 2012 Hey guys, I was on the phone with RCN and the guy I was speaking to told me that they can't do anything about speed tests that aren't run through ma.speedtest.rcn.net. Coincidentally, the download speed I'm getting here is much lower (around 10 Mbps) than the speeds I'm getting on that site. I explained to him that it's possible that the company was manipulating the results and he seemed to get very defensive about it, telling me we can go back and forth on the topic all day. I just want to make sure I'm actually getting the speeds I'm paying for. Does anyone know about the ma.speedtest.rcn.net speed test? WOT seems to give it a bad trustworthiness rating. Looks pretty lame to me. While it was supposedly uploading it actually wasn't. I tried to test from one of my ubuntu servers remotely and it wouldn't even work. Tested at TMN at the same time... That's my true speed speed right now. I can only speak for TestMy.net. If you read the speed test legitimacy page you'll understand why the results here can be trusted. ...and why the other speed tests fail to deliver accurate results. Pay special attention to the "What About My Providers Speed Test" tab... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okay Posted December 8, 2012 Author CID Share Posted December 8, 2012 I told the guy about the RCN speed test being manipulated somehow, and he said they can't do anything about speed tests hosted anywhere else (he got defensive). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriRan Posted December 8, 2012 CID Share Posted December 8, 2012 What your getting is the typical run around that isps give when you have any issues its simply easier to point the finger at anyone or anything else. Don't let up. Your the customer just keep insisting something isn't right with your service because after all your the one paying CA3LE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pgoodwin1 Posted December 8, 2012 CID Share Posted December 8, 2012 My real download and upload speeds (measured here) are always about 1/3 of what the Time Warner Roadrunner speed test shows. Their results at times have told me my service was fine when in fact there were signal problems at their amps outside. They and most ISPs advertise falsely. The only thing you can say is that they typically deliver their promised rates as measured on their instruments. When you read the TestMy explanation, all this you will have a better understanding. The reality among many ISPs is that they (as a business) know they are advertising falsely, but each one is advertising not any differently than most other ISPs, so they feel there's a built in immunity to legal action because everyone is doing it. Some are undoubtedly worse than others. In your case, if they "guaranteed " you 20MBPS down, and you're getting 10, you're better off than I am. The only way to fight all of this would be a class action lawsuit. The only solution would be to create a set of specifications for speed measuring (similar to what they did with audio power amplifier power measurements). Then an ISP could either be compliant to the spec or standard or not, and the buyer could decide if he wanted to go with one that didn't claim compliance, or one that did. Right now it's a mess. I don't know if the typical support person you talk to knows anything other than the tools he was given to measure speed at that company. If he/she does know, they're between a rock and a hard place, because they can't tell a customer that their tools are wrong. CA3LE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okay Posted December 9, 2012 Author CID Share Posted December 9, 2012 It seemed like he knew exactly what I was talking about, as he started to get defensive when I brought up the issue of false advertisement. "We could go back and forth on this" "their server must be screwed" etc. Not to mention he hung up on me. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not either, but one time my father called them and the man he was talking to put him on hold for an hour, so he kept that line going and called RCN back on another line to talk to a manager and explained that he was on hold for an hour. The manager contacted the representative and he said that my father hung up. So, my father put the other phone on speaker and put it against the line he was talking to the manager on to prove him wrong. Not sure what's going on to be honest, but it's unacceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted December 10, 2012 CID Share Posted December 10, 2012 I tried that speedtest when you posted it, didn't seem to function too well from here, I've not looked at it's location yet, but it would seem by the lag it's either 50k-350,000 miles from me, and on a over sold node. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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