Question on how testmy.net works

[Ianrl337]

I am seeing slow connection speeds through my provider through testmy.net.  It is Ethernet (fiber) fed at 1Gbps symetrical speeds.  Testing through other sources comes out near 1Gbps, but much slower through testmy.net.  One of the issues I'm wondering is how testmy.net gets past issues such as latency from servers out of Texas with tests through the rest of the world?  I'm showing 60+ms latency from AT&T east coast and similar from west coast connections to testmy.net, but less than 10ms from ookla speed tests local servers.  When testing right now I'm getting 230Mbps through testmy.net but 915/952Mbps through ookla speed test,  On a separate, but related question, what kind of bandwidth does testmy.net have?  Does testmy.net have a 100Gbps feed or more given the number of people that use them?

[Pgoodwin1]

I'm getting about total 50 mSec (typical) delay along the route to NY from Cincinnati - some 500+ miles.

 

My test results are always about 70 down and 5 up on a 60/5 plan at Spectrum Time Warner. 

 

Your OOKLA test is likely testing to a server within 10-50 miles of you, that's why your delay is only 10 mSec. So it's not really testing your internet performance. They also throw out drop outs and low speed data when they give results.

 

Look at Speed Test Legitimacy in the Extras pull down - multiple tabs to read.

 

if you select TID in your Results table, you can see what each individual download test did over time 

 

[Pgoodwin1]

Not sure where you're located. Not sure what you ISP plan max speeds are.

[Ianrl337]

I am on the west coast.  My ISP has speeds up to 1Gbps.  

 

Some of what you brought up are some of my concerns with testmy.net.  Yes, Ookla throws out some of the drops and low speed parts of the test.  Any speed test would have to.  When first learning routes, DNS, etc you would have results inconsistent with the full test.  For an accurate test of speed wouldn't you want your speed test with as few hops as possible to your testing server?  Otherwise you are not just taking the local connections into account, but every hop and provider in between?   For instance I have three providers between me and testmy.net.  Within one providers (Cogent) it goes seven hops before exiting their network.  When testing to a number of local ookla speedtests I am 2 or 3 hops away.  I'm not saying testmy.net is bad, I'm just wondering if the testing is flawed for those of us that aren't local.

 

 

Small addition I realized while typing this.  testmy.net defaults to Texas.  I didn't realize there were other options until just now.  I switched it to San Francisco and I am now showing 937.6Mbps.  I test to LA 328.1Mbps and 668.9Mbps.  I think I kind of answered my own question here and proved my point at the same time.  Latency, especially at high bandwidth I am using matters a lot.  I'm not sure if it does by I would highly recommend adding some form of geolocation to the test server choice.  

 

Thanks for the response here.  If anything it got me digging deeper.

[mudmanc4]

testmy.net is designed to show real world results, as in internet browsing well as issues within the route. Therefore I'm sorry to say, your question becomes moot in this case. Default testing location or not.

 

See, a real world test, is meant to determine the results as if you were using your connection 'normally' (if that is a real term) considering everyone uses their connection differently.

 

Testmy.net is not designated specifically, to show you how well the lines and networking infrastructure is designed and held up by the ISP, however, it will exploit such flaws as well.

 

I understand completely what you are saying, so don't get me wrong. But as well all should be aware of, testing with as few hops, or within our local, as in ISP network, is more or less useless unless we are specifically targeting the ISP. Which then again, that would not be 'internet' speeds, it would be 'how well are we connected to who we are paying for access to, the rest of the web'.

 

As far as adding geo locations, testmy.net already encompasses this issue, by offering various geographical locations to to to/from.