How to setup a temporary test server?

[fey42]

I am "conversing" with CenturyLink about my congestion problem during the evening rush hours (7PM - 11PM), that occurs almost without fail every night. I live outside Lebanon, OR up in the foothills of the Cascades and CL bought the Qwest backbone in this neck of the country. I am not the only one that has this problem up here. Folks that live closer to the remote central office we use with 8 Mbps also drop down to 60Kbps during rush hour.

 

My first personal problem is that I live at the extreme edge of the the DSL reach so my max is only 3 Mbps on a good day, downhill, with a tailwind. But it is beautiful.

 

They have sent out a technician to "look" at the line and he found that my error rate is almost 0 from my location through the remote central office to the real central office. They have me on a port that is not in overload from here to there. I am convinced the congestion is on the other side of the real central office. The tech agrees.

 

Soooo, IF I could get CL to agree, what and how do I setup a temporary test server?

Also how do I "move" it further and further away until I find where the congestion starts to occur?

 

Please be gentle with me, since I don't really understand the intricacies of doing this task.

If this has already been answered I am sorry I did not find it in the forums.

 

Thanks, Fred (fey42)

[mudmanc4]

Hey @fey42 , here is something you could consider. https://testmy.net/mercury

 

Though not exactly what you are requesting, nor would this likely be very easy for you to find an image, located on a server in the Cascades, but don't let that discourage you. If you take the time, I'm certain you would find websites somewhat locally to accomplish this.

 

There are many VPS (Virtual Private Server) providers in Oregon, for just dollars a month, as in ~$2-4.00,  you could upload a file and then download this file locally at intervals. As well as have various servers scattered around the state. This would require basic knowledge of a linux command line. There are also 'KVM' VPS's which some of which would allow windows installations, where you could RDP or remote desktop to them.

 

Another option might be, to coordinate with local friends, and setup file sharing between your computers, using an FTP client such as filezilla, connecting to the other users machines, you can gauge throughput by sending and receiving a file.