Broadband speed

[Fjool]

I don't trust speedtest.net

It's pretty reliable as far as I've seen, but it will certainly vary depending on the server you use to do the comparison. But that's just the way the internet works, of course; some servers will give you better performance than others.

[Para Handy]

I don't trust speedtest.net

It's pretty reliable as far as I've seen, but it will certainly vary depending on the server you use to do the comparison. But that's just the way the internet works, of course; some servers will give you better performance than others.

 

 

 

Try

 

http://www.speedguide.net/

[DamnSaxon]

For comparison, a fairly typical ("2Mbps") result from about 500 miles south ...

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/207216023.png

 

(through my mate's wi-fi what I share). Other sites give similar results.

[Marvin]

Thanks for the responses.

 

I'm not 100% convinced by speednet because BT's own speedchecker is supposed to be the most accurate and it is saying I'm getting 0.5mbps when speedtest is saying I'm getting 2Mbps. It certainly feels a lot closer to 0.5 than 2.0....I'm going to report it as a fault....If Twerto is just down the road and getting 5Mbps then there must something wrong with my line.

 

Cheers

 

Marvin

[Fjool]

I'm back to getting ~1.5 - 2mbit this evening. It does seem to vary hugely by time of day.

 

Not sure why you think BT's checker is particularly accurate, Marvin; it's never given me a sensible reading yet.

[Guest posiedon]

Because of where I had my PC sitting, I was having to use an extension from the telephone jack point to the livebox, spent all day today rearranging the dining room and am now plugged into the phone line without extension, my connection speed seems to be much better now.

[Medziotojas]

I don't understand the figures. I have a cable connection. Is this good or bad? Can someone please tell me what it all means in layman's terms.

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/207887437.png

[Pooks]

It really depends what the cable company has sold you. What connection speed did they say you could theoretically get? At the moment you are getting a little over half a meg which is basically the slowest broadband connection available in the UK.

 

512kb/s - half a meg

1024kb/s - one meg

2048kb/s - two meg

3072kb/s - three meg

and so on...

 

You also have to take into account the overheads involved with the connection. Imagine sending a letter to somebody, you don't just send the letter you bung it in an envelope and put a stamp on it. It is the same when you send and receive data over the internet. It bungs it in a packet and adds various compression and error correction. These overheads can add 10 to 20% to the overall 'weight' of the connection.

 

So if you were managing to connect at 1024kbps (1 meg) then you would never be able to download anything at that speed.

 

To confuse matters further you connect in kilobits per second and not kilobytes per second. 8 bits to a byte and all that.

 

So anyway, if your cable company has sold you a product that guarantees a 4 to 8 meg connection then you are getting a poor connection somewhere. If they have sold you a product offering upto 1 meg then you are doing alright.

[Medziotojas]

Many thanks for that. I'll have to dig out the contract and have a look.

[Pooks]

I should point out that no bandwidth speed tester is reliable. You would really need to run a series of tests over a few days/weeks at different times of the day to get an accurate average.

 

I find a good rule of thumb is to divide your connection speed by ten. If you are downloading from a reliable website at full speed then the download speed should be roughly the speed of your connection divided by ten. So if you connect at 1 meg (1024kbps) then your top download speed should be around 100KBps. If you connect at 56kbps (dialup) then your top download speed should be around 5.6KBps.

 

Note the difference in casing:-

 

K = Kilobyte

k = kilobit

 

There are a million and one things that could happen between you and your download though so take these figures with a pinch of salt. The only real way to know is to undertake a series of tests over a long period of time and work out the average.

[Medziotojas]

Many thanks for the information Pooks. It seems that this is as good as it gets with a cable connection in Vilnius.

[trooter]

I upgraded from 2MB to Tiscali Max (8MB) on receiving it my best speed was just over 5MB but since has generally run slower than when I was on 2MB , occasionally peaking at 2.5. Tonight I have done tests using 2 different sites and it is peaking at 0.5MB. Very poor when I have paid for an upgrade!

[Pooks]

The broadband speed has been utter poo poo down here lately. Roll on the fiber.

[JordanKZ]

No one is going to be willing to pay for that.

 

The broadband is throttled really badly here, i barely get over 40kb/s on most downloads these days.

[Pooks]

There should be no paying involved. BT will be leasing the cable which should result in an overall better bandwidth for Shetland residents.