helikvar Posted March 18, 2016 CID Share Posted March 18, 2016 Everyone knows Xplornet uses heavy throttling during peek hours cutting your bandwidth back to 100 OR 300 Kbps for non time -sensitive data. Is this taken into account during a speed test and if it is why doesnt it show up in the results .Being throttled way back should show up in the results yet I dont seam to observe this. Can anyone explain this . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pgoodwin1 Posted March 18, 2016 CID Share Posted March 18, 2016 (edited) Has anyone proven that they are throttling? Since you're not seeing the slowdown using TestMy, there may be a problem with the sites you're trying to access (the slow sites you're experiencing). If there is a customer overloading effect at the ISP or the networks they use outside of their equipment, and throughput is low, TestMy tests will show what the real speed is. If you repeat the test several times during peak hours, you may be able to see if there's a big variation from minute to minute. You can choose a few different test servers (see the link at the top of the Home page. Run several tests, one after the other on each of say two or three different servers. Run 3-4 tests in succession on 2-3 different servers and let us know what happens. If the TestMy tests show good speed, and the sites you're trying to use for normal internet usage still show slow speeds, it may be that that particular site is overloaded with users. You could ask other people from your area that access the sites you're having trouble with if they are having issues. Edited March 18, 2016 by Pgoodwin1 Forgot to finish a sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted March 19, 2016 CID Share Posted March 19, 2016 (edited) Most ISPs that throttle traffic do so by throttling the port #s typically used by the applications they wish to throttle. For example, if an ISP wants to mainly throttle file sharing traffic, they'll likely throttle the ports mainly used by BitTorrent (6881-6889), Usenet (119 and 563) and so on. Unfortunately, such throttling will not show up in speed tests which are conducted over the normal HTTP port 80 (like TestMy) or port 8080 (Ookla's Speedtest). Generally the only time throttling shows up on TestMy is when an ISP either throttles by individual connection (like some Public Wi-Fi hostpots) or more cheekily where they throttle everything but port 8080. With individual connection throttling, streaming services such as YouTube are affected which only make a single connection to the server. With the throttling everything but port 8080 (which I know the odd ISP does), the speed Ookla's Speedtest delivers is not possible to achieve with realworld web access unless it can be delivered over port 8080. Until recently, I never knew why some Usenet providers offer port 8080 (instead of the more port 80) as an alternative port # for connecting over, but recently found out that it's difficult for an ISP to throttle Usenet traffic over port 8080 without affecting Ookla's Speedtest. Edited March 19, 2016 by Sean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampfreakin Posted March 20, 2016 CID Share Posted March 20, 2016 Ok thank you Sean for the explanation. I hadn't known apps and port numbers were tied together. Is there no way these port numbers can ever be tied into Testmy.net's speed tests or is that something we may see in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helikvar Posted March 22, 2016 Author CID Share Posted March 22, 2016 Can it be confirmed then that Speed Tests for an ISP such as Xplornet who use heavy throttling are not at all accurate and on the contrary are very misleading?Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanobot Posted March 23, 2016 CID Share Posted March 23, 2016 On 3/20/2016 at 6:58 AM, ampfreakin said: Ok thank you Sean for the explanation. I hadn't known apps and port numbers were tied together. Is there no way these port numbers can ever be tied into Testmy.net's speed tests or is that something we may see in the future. That may make an interesting idea to make Testmy.net better. Thanks, EBrown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helikvar Posted March 24, 2016 Author CID Share Posted March 24, 2016 Please don't consider me a speedtest basher even if there are severe pitfalls to using speedtests on heavily throttled networks .I use and have been using Testmy.net as my sole tester because I like the different options it provides to me. I run tests fairly regularly just to see if there are network slowdowns or what not or if I am having Netflix streamability or other issues. Speedtests are still the only way to see if my advertised bandwidth is what it should be regardless of the fact it is a heavily throttled connection.That said I strongly feel that internet users such as my self could be better informed about the fact that throttling and its effects on users does not at this time show up in any speedtests. I had puzzled over this for a time before finally deciding to just ask and see what happened. Thanks to Sean I have been set completely straight on this matter and am fully aware of what takes place.And this last statement may be considered a plug for Testmy.net and this is completely true. Any time I think I detect any type of network slowdown(which is a lot)I usually drop whatever it is I am doing and come to this site and run several tests to confirm or deny what I am experiencing. It is in my opinion top notch and the forums exceptional. Pgoodwin1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helikvar Posted March 24, 2016 Author CID Share Posted March 24, 2016 On 3/18/2016 at 11:09 PM, Pgoodwin1 said: Has anyone proven that they are throttling? Since you're not seeing the slowdown using TestMy, there may be a problem with the sites you're trying to access (the slow sites you're experiencing). If there is a customer overloading effect at the ISP or the networks they use outside of their equipment, and throughput is low, TestMy tests will show what the real speed is. If you repeat the test several times during peak hours, you may be able to see if there's a big variation from minute to minute. You can choose a few different test servers (see the link at the top of the Home page. Run several tests, one after the other on each of say two or three different servers. Run 3-4 tests in succession on 2-3 different servers and let us know what happens. If the TestMy tests show good speed, and the sites you're trying to use for normal internet usage still show slow speeds, it may be that that particular site is overloaded with users. You could ask other people from your area that access the sites you're having trouble with if they are having issues. It's a known fact that Xplornet throttles and is stated in their terms of service. Here's what they do with what they consider to be non time sensitive data. I have a 5Mbps advertised connection(not a lot) . During peak hours (which is from 8:00 AM TO 1:00 AM ;17 HOURS) they reduced the speed to either 100Kbits or 300Kbits.. As you can imagine this becomes quite apparent in several apps and web pages at best load slow and if network gets congested with Netflix users even much slower.I totally agree with all you say about the many causes of internet slowdown and all have been checked out vigorously and if you compound those on top of what I have said well you get the picture I am sure. And thanks for taking the time to reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helikvar Posted March 24, 2016 Author CID Share Posted March 24, 2016 To the moderator OK I AM AN IDIOT AT TIMES and somehow I managed to get two different avatars or members posting as me. I am both helikvar and ampfreakin . .. Just tell me what to do to fix this mess up or your welcome to yourself if you decide. I assure you it was not intentional and makes me wonder wtf else I may have done elsewhere that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cipher Posted April 25, 2016 CID Share Posted April 25, 2016 On Throttling... A good test for this is at: http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php FWIW: VirusTotal reports this site as clean. The test does require java... Sean 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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