Speed stuck during the test

[Patrick07]

Hello, I have been frustrated since last month. When running testmy.net speed test, downloading gets stuck for couple of secs (4 or 5 times). It starts with blazing fast download, then gets stuck, then fast download (not blazing fast), stuck, fast, stuck and the cycle repeats until the download is complete.

 

Every other sites like speedtest, digital ocean shows I have 900+mbps download speed on a consistent basis. My ISP checked it from there end, they see everything is perfect (and in fact terrific). Yet, I have never crossed 70Mbps speed at testmy.net for the past month. I used to get consistently cross 400mbps before. I am on a Gigabit cable plan.

 

Is it my computer suddenly acting up, or is it my ISP? I can't seem to figure it out. And my ISP won't budge looking into it as every other speed tests looks terrific and they see no issue on their end.

The reason I am upset with my speed test is because my benchmark is testmy.net. I care less about other speed test site. I have always have had a real experience with testmy.net. It gives me more or less accurate speed. Downloading 1GB files takes 2mins in my Gigabit plan as suggested by testmy.net now. Before, it would take less than 30secs.

 

i am not a tech savvy either to figure out this issue. Can anybody sort of guide me to optimize my speed?

https://testmy.net/compID/1589616789534

[mudmanc4]

Hi @Patrick07,

 I would test all testmy.net mirrors at this point while logged in.

 

At that point we will have more information to decipher where the issue starts.

 

[Patrick07]

Hello @mudmanc4 I just tested it logged in, right now.

 

Can you please look at it now?

 

Thank you.

[Pgoodwin1]

I had a problem similar to this once and it turned out to be an intermittently bad router. I got similar high and low speeds during each test. Over a period of a month it was about the same - widely varying speeds. After that it got progressively worse, then the unit finally stopped working.

 

There are a lot of possibilities for what the problem is. Try plugging an Ethernet cable directly from your computer to your modem. If the results are consistently good, then your problem is between the modem and your computer..

[Patrick07]

My computer is directly plugged into the modem.

It is seriously frustrating to see this pathetic speed for a Gigabit plan in Testmynet. As I mentioned before, ookla servers gives me 900+mbps consistently.

And my ISP is looking at that for reference. I am telling them to look at TestMynet as I have a positive real experience with it. But my ISP wouldn't budge as they see everything 'excellent' (coupled with 900mbps speed at ookla) from their end.

 

At this point, I am just wishing there was a big storm and knocked the box outside down so that ISP can come and reconnect everything again.

 

I thought may be it was my PC, so connected my laptop directly to the modem. Still the same result.

I have already swapped modem twice and still no luck

[CA3LE]

(I saw your reply just now while I was typing this... you already did this but I'm leaving this part in case it can help someone else.)

I agree, this can easily be the router.  If you haven't already, power cycle the router.  At the same time I'd do the same for the cable modem.  If you're still having issues directly connect the modem to your best machine, power cycle it (so that it will grab the MAC address of the computer instead of the router's), then test directly connected.  If we can establish that you have the same issue on more than one machine and you've eliminated your internal network variables (your router and cables between) then you may have a case for Rogers Cable.

 

20 hours ago, Patrick07 said:

The reason I am upset with my speed test is because my benchmark is testmy.net. I care less about other speed test site. I have always have had a real experience with testmy.net. It gives me more or less accurate speed. Downloading 1GB files takes 2mins in my Gigabit plan as suggested by testmy.net now. Before, it would take less than 30secs.

 

So... again... more proof of TestMy.net showing results in line with the real world when others fail to.  If it takes you about 2 minutes to download 1 GB then that's 8.53 MB/s or 68.26 Mbps... pretty far off from the 900+ Mbps the other speed tests tell you.  Your TMN average right now is 84.9 Mbps.  I assume when you download a file the speed during the transfer is fluctuating like it does when you run a TMN speed test.

 

It's lame that most ISPs no longer recognize the results here... especially since their techs used to send much more people here.  In some cases TestMy.net was a main step in company training manuals.  Before they had alternatives that made them look better.

 

Patrick07, I feel your love for the site.  I sense that you already understand how it works around here.  This is just general information for others reading.

Note: When you're running perfectly on 1000 Mbps... you'll still never see the the full speed here.  Under the most ideal circumstance I'll see 990 Mbps but you'd never get those conditions in the real world, ever.  The quoted speed that your ISP gives you is irrelevant to this test.  You should use yourself (your best machine) as a baseline instead of what you think you should have.  Like in your case, you used to consistently get over 400 Mbps then all of a sudden you see a huge difference.  It didn't need to originally show you 900 Mbps to determine that there's a HUGE difference there.  People get hung up sometimes because the results don't tell them the number they expect.  They have 1000 Mbps and expect to see that, especially since every other tests tells them that's what they're getting.  My goal is to give you a more realistic picture, including the variables you can expect to run into out in the real world.  ... back to your own words.  "Before, it (a 1GB download) would take less than 30secs." --- again, that puts you right at the 400 Mbps that TestMy.net was telling you.  400 Mbps or 50 MB/s... puts you at 20 seconds for 1 GB.  

 

I'm telling you, demand that they take notice.  Their speed test is obviously BS.  If you feel like you've done everything in your power to make sure the issue is not on your end... force them to come out.  They'll threaten to charge you but if it ends up being their issue... it's on them (make sure you get the tech to agree to no charge in writing, especially if they send a contractor).  If you can't download from any source faster than TestMy.net results suggest, especially if it's confirmed on multiple computers AND you've eliminated additional variables like your router...  AND you've gone through 3 different modems.  They owe you a visit.

[Sean]

This reminds me of something I must try some day.  At my workplace there is an old D-Link router that failed where it kept randomly dropping connections and had high packet loss - It even struggled bringing up its web interface pages in the end.  One thing I remember at the time was that Speedtest.net gave the impression that the router was working fine consistently delivering the same speeds near what the DSL line was synced at.  Yet, if I tried streaming YouTube, it would constantly get stuck buffering.  I'm fairly sure it used to similarly get stuck on downloads.

 

So if I get some spare time at work (e.g. lunch break when it's quiet), I'm curious to try running tests with the router and do a screen recording.

 

I had several D-Link routers fail in a similar way in the past where they would randomly start dropping connections or cause Wi-Fi drop-outs, usually with high packet loss in extended ping tests.