How to Verify/Confirm Your True Speeds

[Wayne CT]

I am a CT Resident and a COX customer

 

I recently came across your site after experiencing ongoing speed and connectivity issues again with COX and your site was recommended by an audio engineer on YouTube during my current online research for other tools to compare results.

 

One of the issues that I have is the inability to set up a simple Twitch TV feed and the audio is buffering and it may be due to my upload speed poor signal quality and  frequent inability to connect to the internet.  

 

I work myself in the IT support industry and do my best to cover my end tehcnically.

 

COX insisted on using the results of their online test tool, which uses Ookla, and is also used by other ISPs.  I have reason to believe they use this in the name of competition since other ISPs also use this tool.

 

COX’s tool only uses 1 site and one packet size, as do other speed test sites,  and reports figures that I believe are not true as they are at times higher than my account type allows at the time I am having issues.

 

The tech that came to my house said that if the bandwidth was available they provide it (even higher than my account allows) and they don’t’ throttle me down, which I can’t prove myself.

 

I believe your tests are truer than Cox’s tests and my results are not good at 85% lower than my own ”city”  for upload speed and only 60% of my available download speed based on your tests but more supportive in lieu of the issues I have.

 

There needs to be a national  movement to make internet users aware publicly that their ISPs may not be living up to their advertised service levels and specifications, but I don’t have the knowledge nor expertise to direct  and convince internet users how to verify and do that.

 

Besides providing your testmy.net  tool, what else is bieng done nationally to put an end to this poor ISP service level in general across the US?

 

Based on your tests, my average upload speed is only 1.2 to 1.3 out of a possible 5 and download is around 36 out of a possible to 50. COX's tests pass with flyng colors" (really!!) 

 

Thank you for providing a more comprehensive test.

[CA3LE]

Hi Wayne,

 

I wish more people questioned things like you do.  If they did I might be able to catch up to ookla's traffic volume.

 

First I'd like to show you this thread >> https://testmy.net/ipb/topic/28902-why-do-my-results-differ-from-speedtestnet-ookla-speed-tests/

 

There does need to be a movement.  I've been trying to raise awareness of these issues for many years but I don't think it means as much coming from me.  To have a tidal shift in TestMy.net's favor a major news outlet or someone with great influence needs to cover the story.

 

Many people tell me what you're telling me but the majority doesn't question the largest player in the room.  They assume they know what they're doing... and they do, they know how to make things appear better than they are in reality.  Every aspect of their methodology is in place to render a more favorable result.  Is it any wonder why so many ISPs use them?

 

1 hour ago, Wayne CT said:

Besides providing your testmy.net  tool, what else is being done nationally to put an end to this poor ISP service level in general across the US?

 

I focus my time on building the program and infrastructure that's TestMy.net.  I rely 100% on word-of-mouth otherwise.  My hope is that I'll continue to build my program and when the time is right more will know about it.  It's grown organically to this point, it's a slow process but I'm one person.  I don't have a PR team, programmers, designers and system admins.  Just myself.  There is a vision that's far from achieved.  So I focus my time on building.  Slowly more people are starting to understand the difference between my real Internet speed test and all the bs out there.

 

Keep spreading the word.  I appreciate your kind words and strong support.

[CA3LE]

What modem are you using?  What router?  Was your speed ever acceptable in the past?  Have you tried testing with ethernet directly connected to the modem?

[Wayne CT]

First of all, thank you for responding so fast. I only signed up last night!

 

I am impressed that it is a one-man show and that you have such an interest and understand  and why it is such an effort with such an important issue.

 

I question things because I am an IT support person and with so many differences in results, it  has to be looked at and I am fed up with the re-occuring internet issues that never get resolved.

 

I also always ask for the same COX techs to come back If I think they are better, and not always get different sub-contractors who all have different training, experts, and don't fix the long-term re-occuring issues.

 

I did find some interesting reading in your forum about how some fixes to try to compensate for deficiencies can actually harm you later when signals are back up to par which I doubt they have been for me. I don't know what my true results should have been in the past because I was using systems that don't have a "reliability rating".

 

The COX tech was over yesterday and said that I had one of their latest modems, the Mototola SB6180 which he personally said was not such a great "retail modem" anyway, and is only IPV4-Compatible and they are going to upgrade to IPV6 so it will be obsoleted.

 

On thing the tech tech did mention and did to my Cox Cable Box is adding a filter on the connection of the new Cox digital box to reduce noise feedback from those devices but i forgot to mention that we have 2 more of those new cox digital  boxes they issued last year.  

 

I do have an older CISCO WRT320N wireless router which I did bypass and still did not have good results with your tests.

 

I am replacing both devices and am waiting for a new Arris SB6900-AC  modem/router combo which seems to have some great reviews and specs to replace both devices.  (Best price currently at Newegg.com).

 

My system is a custom-built, fanless, not liquid cooled, and air-cooled power house which I built myself because of my audio/broadcast needs for a silent environment and has plenty of processing power and connection speed at all levels. 

 

You should try to get on a morning news show like Good Morning America and be ready to present in a way the general population can understand why the other system test results are so misleading.

 

We also have a Connecticut State Senator Richard Blumenthal, who used to be the state attorney, and is a very active consumer advocate to see if you can connect with him and spark some interest in his involvement in establishing your platform as a standard for testing. That might then spark interest in other volunteering and participating and maybe investors... who knows. 

 

 

 

 

[CA3LE]

I wouldn't be switching out that modem.  In my experience Motorola Surfboard's are the best in the industry.  It's all I ever run at my own house and it's all I ever recommend to friends... the Arris modem/router combo (Arris SB6900-AC) IS a Motorola surfboard by the way.  If you already have a SB6180 you should put your money towards a standalone AC router, if anything.  That modem has great specs, especially when you consider you're on a 50/5 package.

 

I'm looking at the specs for the SB6180...

• DOCSIS 3.0
• Supports IPv4 and IPv6 - the latest Internet standard
• Downstream 343.072 Mbps (8 channels) / 42.884 (single channel)
• Upstream 131.072 Mbps (4 channels) / 32.768 Mbps (single channel)

Your modem specs are the same as mine (I have an SB6141 right now) and I often perform over 180 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up... with room to spare.

 

Even if your modem only supported IPv4, they aren't going to leave you hanging when they start doing IPv6.  They'd more likely support the existing IPv4 customers till they eventually dropped off.  It's a moot point since your modem supports IPv6.  If a tech told you otherwise... it calls everything else he said into question. 

 

Your router is faster than your connection.  If you tested directly to the modem and got similar terrible results I'd be looking first at the modem.  Since it's fairly safe to say that it's not the modem, being newer and all, you then must look beyond the modem.  From the coax connection going to the back of the modem... back through your wall plate, on to the splitter, out to your drop coming into the house, then to the pedestal where your closest neighbors all hook in.... then beyond to Cox's network.  --- it could always be the modem but IMO it's less likely in your case.

 

I see that you've been testing with Firefox.  Have you tried Chrome?  I'd expect similar results but it's worth checking.  Also, if you have other computers or devices you can test, their results will help make sure that it's not an issue with the computer itself.  Similar results across your computers, tablets and phones for instance will show that it's not just an issue isolated to one device.

 

Something else that helps diagnose connection issues is to test against a few more servers and compare multithread results.

 

Don't go running out replacing perfectly good equipment.  Let's be real here.. your router (CISCO WRT320N) isn't bad either.  It's Dual-Band N.  Wouldn't be my first choice today but it's still for sale on Amazon Prime so it's not that old.  Unless you're concerned about the transfer speed of files within your home network, have a bunch of AC wireless devices or have a large number of devices in general.... save your money there too.  Like I said, that router is much faster than your Internet, it's not the weak link.

[CommanderRyalis]

I just went to speedtest.net with noscript enabled which got me to there "no flash" (I'm assuming HTML5) beta, interesting the results are the same as they are here, but when you go to the regular flash site, it says my speed is blazing past what I pay for.