Help troubleshooting TMN speeds that do not seem accurate

[dxearner]

First, really appreciate TMN.  Really helped in the past troubleshoot why in my office we were observing much slower speeds, than speedtest.net was showing.

 

On to the help portion.  I have noticed now for a week my TMN is averaging around 1-5 mbps, where I normally score 150+ (Comcast cable 125 mbps package). 

 

Have verified this score on multiple separate devices on the network (Win 10 machine and s10+ phone), so it is independent of the device accessing the network.  For my setup, I use a surfboard 6190 for the modem and Google Wifi for the router.  

 

Is there something on either of these devices that could be causing the weird speed reporting.  Tried switching from cloudfire to google dns, in case that was causing an issue, but reporting was the same. I am inclined to believe TMN is reporting incorrectly in this instance, as my screenshot shows the result of a test run at the same time as I am updating from Steam. 

 

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Additionally, with the speeds that TMN is reporting, would expect severe streaming issues, which I do not see.

Any advice?

[CA3LE]

If you were running the test at the same time Steam was updating... Steam is taking all of your bandwidth, leaving little for the speed test.  Steam is also slowing down slightly while you test, works both ways.  Steam is taking up multiple threads and thus able to use more of your bandwidth.

 

Your results are still accurate, it just has less available to test with.  I have the same thing happen with my upload speed sometimes, "why is it so slow... Oh yeah, Google photos is syncing..."

 

If you run a multithread speed test while Steam is downloading I imagine you'll be able to steal more of the bandwidth from steam.  But you're always limited to your max speed.  If you add the speed your downloading on Steam + your TMN download test result.  It should be equal to your max speed.

 

Have you been downloading a ton from Steam over the last week, while you've tried to test?

[dxearner]

Thanks for the quick response.  Should've clarified in my comment that the steam screenshot was taken after the test wrapped, started the program update and was consistently hitting 20mb/s+. To your question, have not been downloading a lot from steam or any other large file service. Did also check the devices on the network and the traffic, which there was no issues there either that I could see.

The odd thing is my TMN score for the last couple of days has not broken 5 mbps. However, do not seem to run into issues when downloading from Steam, or see an quality degrading when watching 1440p videos on Youtube or HQ on Twitch. Spot checking all other speed tests (fast, google, speedof.me, etc.), I am always 100+, so does that mean it is a DNS or ISP issue potentially?

 

Attached a screenshot from the modem and looking at the values and the recommended from Arris, everything seems in spec.  Anywhere else I should look?

 

As I mentioned, seeing the results across the network on multiple devices, so it is not something local on my PC causing the issue.  

[CA3LE]

Go to https://testmy.net/mirror and select a different location, run a few tests then do it again to another location.  Let's see if there's any difference.

[dxearner]

Seems switching to Miami server made a difference....

 

 

Thanks for the help. Odd I was getting such weird results prior without changing servers or any settings.

 

[CA3LE]

There may be poor routing from your host to mine or vice versa.  These types of problems are outside of your control and mine.  Sometimes it can affect larger portions of your traffic other times it can be more specific to certain data centers.

 

As long as you feel that your running normally everywhere else, I wouldn't be at all concerned.  

 

Glad that the mirrors helped clear things up.

 

I see you're using the beta, do you like it better?

[dxearner]

The beta is much cleaner and a good improvement. Might be interesting to make the learn and details/share aspect a bit more visible, as people could easily miss them.  Given the quality of the information in those sections and the marketing implications of the share portion, could be worth drawing a bit more attention to them.

 

Also, think it could be a good addition to add the what makes TMN different somewhere a bit more visible on the results page as well. This is good content, especially for new people to the site and shows your competitive advantage. 

 

Overall though, great job with the new version.

[CA3LE]

Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate the feedback and will work on those ideas. ?