How accurate is the "SPEEDTEST.NET" site?

[#1]

Just been on a forum reading session. saw one saying BT speedtester not working. Halfway down, there is a link  http://www.speedtest.net/ ; which I had not tried out..... so I gave it a whirl,
what worried me was the locations used and the distances in miles, from me, to the locations...
Speedtest location                    speed test distance from me              actual distance from me
Maidenhead                                          150 miles                                          50 miles
London                                                  200 miles                                          62 miles (to centre)
Even if they measured it as a "return" journey, they are still inaccurate.

If they can get these distances so far wrong..... makes you think what the actual speed test results are.....

[#2]

You shouldn't spy on me    I think that it relies on the Ping test and not a genuine through put, It takes the distance as Via Sheffield if you look at the map, but we are switched via Dockland, London is that a QED to my other comments?
Whers that Dang Afro

[#3]

Not sure how the distances are calculated, but the London server is always the one which is actually closest.
It might be geographically further, but as Pierre says, all our connections join up onto the internet in London, so from a traffic POV it should give the best results.
However, this has to be taken with a pinch of salt, because as with all speedtesters there are lots of factors at play. One of them is how congested the link is between our 'exit point' onto the internet and the speedtesters connection. Another is how busy the actual server is.
There are other factors at play too, which is why its worth using a few different ones each time, and drawing a conclusion based on averages.

[#4]

Another factor some people forget is some other app on your PC using the internet at the same time as the speedtest e.g. an email client, auto-update of applications, even the windows update process. So even though you may close down all apps, there could still be some background apps / services that use the connection.

[#5]

Quote

by Pierre-pierre It takes the distance as Via Sheffield

Quote

by James_H Not sure how the distances are calculated, but the London server is always the one which is actually closest. It might be geographically further, but as Pierre says, all our connections join up onto the internet in London, so from a traffic POV it should give the best results.

Distance from my home  po8    to          maidenhead    via    sheffield  345 miles
Distance from my home  poi    to          London            via    sheffield  360 miles
so regretably, I consider both your answers are incorrect.....
(no.... I don`t know the correct answer)    I thought someone else would.....

[#6]

Quote from: Peter

Another factor some people forget is some other app on your PC using the internet at the same time as the speedtest e.g. an email client, auto-update of applications, even the windows update process. So even though you may close down all apps, there could still be some background apps / services that use the connection.

Peter, All of the above are irrelevant..... I am querying the mileages as being inaccurate, See previous post to this one, and if the mileage information is inaccurate, then how reliable is the speed test information....

[#7]

no no silly speed test thinks you are in Sheffield, it calculates the distance from Sheffield to Maidenhead. not for you to London

[#8]

Quote

silly speed test

   
so it`s not me that`s silly then   

[#9]

Quote from: pierre_pierre

no no silly speed test thinks you are in Sheffield, it calculates the distance from Sheffield to Maidenhead. not for you to London

Just had an "afterthought"  (if that`s possible on a forum).....
If the speedtester thinks that everyone on PlusNet lives in Sheffield, then no wonder the speed shown is
    s  l  o  w  e  r      we`re all clogging up the line with traffic,
So how FAST is my speed to, and from, Sheffield then?    How can I measure that? 
And I don`t mean motorway or train speeds either.....

BRING BACK AFRO MAN

[#10]

go fly a kite

[#11]

It's worse than that - on repeated tests it's told me I'm <50ml from London (correct) and ~200ml from London.
The difference is because one was when I was connected direct to the BT network using RIN and the second was using the normal Plusnet network.

[#12]

My guess is that the site uses the RIPE registry to determine where you're located.
It takes your IP address, feeds it into RIPE which then returns physical address of the owner of the netblock (which happens to be Plusnet in Sheffield)
It won't do any calculations based upon your distance from the servers apart from showing you the approximate mileage.
What it will actually do is record the ping speed and the bandwidth from it's own process.
B.

[#13]

Everybody on Plusnet connects to the Plusnet gateways which are in London. However all the IP ranges are registered to Plusnet with a Sheffield address.
The most accurate measure of your speed is to check between your PC and a speed test server located in the same location as the gateway to which you are connected. Luckily there is such a speed test server using the same technology as speedtest.net (Ookla). It is
http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/

[#14]

Quote from: Barry

My guess is that the site uses the RIPE registry to determine where you're located.

Spot on - I was wondering how long it was going to take people to realise that all Plusnet users (except those on RIN) are shown as being ~200ml from London!

[#15]

Isn't one of the computer mags using this test site in a broadband survey they are running.