Speed test

[abcdmCachers]

Not really related to geocaching, but we all need fast connections to download those large .gpx files right? http://www.speedtest.net has a way-cool site that measures the speed of your internet connection. Here are my results (roadrunner cable):

But it’s not about the numbers, right? 😉

[cacheseekers]

There are many sites available to do this from, and results will vary as servers are located in different locations around the country.

For those who use Charter internet I recently was given info on their speed test location for so business troubleshooting: http://speedtest.wi.charter.com and http://speedtest.mn.charter.com

Then there is always http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I put a speed test page on my works webserver as we’re an ISP also that I like to use because I know what our transit is and such.

Then there is always iperf testing which will test raw tcp/ip traffic to and from a server running iperf. I suppose I’m getting to geeky now. Time for bed 😉

[Mama Fishcacher]

@cacheseekers wrote:

Then there is always iperf testing which will test raw tcp/ip traffic to and from a server running iperf.

What? 😯 LOL. I am soooo NOT a technology person. I use words like *whadjamajigger* and *thingy*. LOLOL.

~MF

[hogrod]

I saw this speed test on digg.com a few weeks back. I agree it is one of the better New speedtest out there, to bad I’m stuck with a crappy charter 3mb connection to test with. http://www.speedtest.net

[OuttaHand]

Please bear in mind, with all of these online speed tests, that you are not only testing your speed, but the speed of the entire connection between you and that site, as well as the speed of the site itself.

If there is a lot of traffic on the routers between you and that site, or there are a lot of people hitting that site at that time, your speed may not be represented terribly accurately.

The only way to test your actual speed, is if your ISP (Charter, etc.) has a speed test loaded on a computer near the “entry” into their system. That way the test does not include traffic thru that ISP, thru the internet’s routers, or at the site in question.

Using a speed test located out on the ‘net will give you a real-world speed, but don’t use that information if you wish to complain to your ISP that you aren’t getting the speed you’re paying for.

[hogrod]

@OuttaHand wrote:

If there is a lot of traffic on the routers between you and that site, or there are a lot of people hitting that site at that time, your speed may not be represented terribly accurately.
Using a speed test located out on the ‘net will give you a real-world speed, but don’t use that information if you wish to complain to your ISP that you aren’t getting the speed you’re paying for.

of course your right, I definitely loose speed if I test to a long distance location on a normal speed test….. the funny thing is this speed test is very accurate even at long distance, the only thing that changes is the latency. when I have had issues with my speed charter local Madison speed test shows perfectly normal, but EVERY other speed test, even local ones( a diff Madison speed test) were showing me at dial-up speeds or lower. if you call charter about this they wil blame your pc when obviously if the connection to charter is great but everything else is slow/useless that the problem is on their end.

I would never complain to charter if i had a problem again, I would wait out the issue and if it didn’t resolve itself I would call and tell them I’m switching to a DSL. Last time when my modem died they sent out a tech that the first thing he said was ” I don’t know nothing about PC’s” 3hrs later I end up fixing it myself with three techs standing there watching me & after one of them using my cell phone to call charter for a hour.

Even after that issue I had another when the neighbors tree fell on the cable coming to our house….. scheduled an appointment and after 2 no shows when I stayed home from work the the finally showed up the third time. Same thing happened to my friend who lives 20 miles away, he is now happily using a DSL.

[cacheseekers]

@hogrod wrote:

of course your right, I definitely loose speed if I test to a long distance location on a normal speed test….. the funny thing is this speed test is very accurate even at long distance, the only thing that changes is the latency. when I have had issues with my speed charter local Madison speed test shows perfectly normal, but EVERY other speed test, even local ones( a diff Madison speed test) were showing me at dial-up speeds or lower. if you call charter about this they wil blame your pc when obviously if the connection to charter is great but everything else is slow/useless that the problem is on their end.
.

Using speedtests located even within Madison generally wont make a difference. IP traffic is routed througout the US and if there isn’t a peer with Charter in Madison then you’ll be routed all the way down to Chicago, usually on Alter.net or a ATT peer. My current employeer is working on peering with all the local providers to help local speeds and better routes. We currently peer with Norlight, TDS, Charter (still having issues with their technical team), JVLnet and soon with UW-Madison.

Charter has a lot of problems with the peers they use and the routes which their traffic goes. (Follow the cheapest $ route first!)

You can tell the route you go through for tests by doing some traceroutes to the speed testing server. (tracert when within windows) That’ll show you latency and a general indicator of where some bottlenecks may be.

Of course your discription of the problem does indicate a problem with Charters routing and such. Especially if there was slowness to ALL sites. Tracerouting would probably help tell where that is.

Sadly enough, even having access to some of the hire level Chartere techs in the business transport side doesn’t really change/speed results. Even when the entire city of Madison an surrounding areas is completely without internet from Charter. (A couple months ago when that happened we noticed it on our monitoring system and tried and tried to get Charter to acknowledge it. It took about 4 hours for them to agree that there was a problem.)

Good times

[GeoPink]

Ameritech/SBC/AT&T DSL Line…

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