Broadband Speed Testers

[#1]

I notice PlusNet use the Ookla Speed tester.

Friday I complained my  Ookla tester linked to a Shrewsbury server was showing my fibre broadband speed had dropped to 1,2 MB/sec whilst in another area (Telford) it indicated all was well). 

The BT wholesale tester indicated the same but it does not itemise what sever is testing the ping.

Are the servers critical to what broadband speed I should have.

[#2]

If it's any consolation,it uses different routes and servers so difficult to expect consistent results. The 'thinkbroadband' speed tester is more consistent and realistic.

I recently 'upgraded' to  fibre and the testers show a good increase in up/down speeds and in the real world, connecting is still sluggish st the best of times.

We used to have lots of disconnections and variable speeds, so we have solved one problem and the other looks like a plusnet 'pipe' capacity issue (not that I would know and they won't tell).

At our old address we had standard ADSL2+ and an indicated speed of about 10M, (different ISP) but our perceived speed was faster than our current 37.5M fibre.

[#3]

your better off with Multi-Threaded testing (downloading several files at once) as this saturates your bandwidth and gives more realistic results, as the previous poster said use Think Broadbands tester, Ignore the first 1xTBB result, this is a single file download from TBB and usually will start of slow and slowly climb to your max throughput (if it gets there before test is finished) - its the next HTTPx6 test that will really tell you whats going on, this downloads 6 files simultaneously from the web and measures the speed, on mine it goes straight to 38Mbps...and jumps between 37-38Mbps which means the connection is working fine!

Ookla don't use Multi-Threaded testing.

also you have to factor in

1. How many other people could be using that testing server at the same time as you

2. Can that server actually provide bandwidth enough to give you true results

3. How many people in your home are using your connection while your testing, for TRUE results where your suspicious its slow, you should always connect a device (Laptop/PC) to the router via LAN Ethernet cable (this removes possible Wi-Fi interference issues) and run the test with no-one else using the connection

[#4]

Ignore the first 1xTBB result, this is a single file download from TBB and usually will start of slow and slowly climb to your max throughput

A consistently low single threaded test speed compared to the multi-threaded can indicate problems - and this has been raised in another thread

[#5]

This is what a thinkbroadband speed test result should look like:

As SteveA said, a significant difference between the single and x6 indicates issues.

[#6]

Thanks for resonse

I think my understanding of servers(test servers is wrong)  since my posting questioned whether these servers are used(Shrewsbury) to bring my broadband connection.

Evidently a  totally wrong assumption in making me think my connection was slow.(I did query by e mail to the Shrewsbury centre why their test server was showing a low figure but never received a reply).

I now only test my speed with BT Wholesale Speed Tester.

My question now is,  my broadband speed is fine at around Up 38Mb/sec Down 1.8MB/s but my computer seems just as slow or slower than when I had Standard broadband at 7Mb/s.

Is it my laptop(7 years old) 1.6 Ghz  2GB Ram is past its sell by date or is it to do with the frequencies on my new Fibre Router being mixed between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.(which is another subject I do not understand)

Further comment would be appreciated

[#7]

I notice IPv6  enabled . What does this mean as not showing on my Thinkbroadband test results.

Would not enable in Ethernet/Properties/Internet Protocol version 2 TCPl/IPv6 as you need a disc?

Thanks for advice

[#8]

It means he's on an IPV6 connection and not an IPV4 (which is what most of us are on).  PN don't support IPV6 as part of their normal network so you don't need to worry about it.

[#9]

I use the "cup o' tea" speed tester.

If i can download a single tune by the time i've made a brew then my data speed is literally flying!

Anything over 90 mins to download a full 720p movie though means plusnet are throttling the life out of me!

[#10]

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@robinhood wrote:

I notice IPv6  enabled . What does this mean as not showing on my Thinkbroadband test results.

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It means that I can access some parts of the internet that can't be accessed by Plusnet users unless they use an IPv6 tunnel broker.

IPv6 is such a modern version of the internet protocol (the standard was finalised in 1995) that Plusnet don't support it natively. AAISP have supported IPv6 since 2002.

[#11]

Thank you I will stop thinking about it.

[#12]

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@jelv wrote:

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It means that I can access some parts of the internet that can't be accessed by Plusnet users unless they use an IPv6 tunnel broker.

Would be useful if you were to enlighten people here about the parts of the Internet that plusnet users can't access

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The reality is if you are on an IPv4 connection you are not missing out anything important on the Internet for usual domestic users, and if you are aware of a very specific ipv6 only site you will also probably know how to get to it still.

No commercial company will go ipv6 only for a very long time, so if you are on plusnet you aren't really missing out on anything at the moment.

[#13]

If you believe IPv6 is so unimportant, why do you think Sky and BT invested in bringing it to all their users?

[#14]

Not often Sky and BT are heralded as the drivers leading  the Internet 🙂

ipv6 becomes more important for things like CGNAT - you can reduce the need for so much traffic on CGNAT platform if you can send your video traffic via a different route (important for service providers using cgnat that is).

What I was pointing out was your statement that plusnet users were missing out on parts of the Internet by not having ipv6, which I was challenging as not very balanced argument if you dont then tell people what they are missing out on that you can get access to with your IPv6 enabled.

Anyway, somewhat offtopic from the OP so I will leave it to people to decide if they are worried about missing out on the ipv6 parts of the internet (google ipv6 only sites if you are interested!)