Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Speed Test

I do internet connection speed test.
They say upload at about 6700kbs.

When I'm checking my flash website to see how fast/slow the thumbnails load up, this is uploading correct?

Anyway, other night super slow.
Today is nice and fast. But the online test don't deviate that much from the 6500 to 6700 number. ARe these speed test worth anything?

Data from your computer to a site is uploading. Data from a site to your computer is downloading.

So if you are watching thumbnails appear in your browser window on your computer, that is downloading, even they they "show up".

As far as the speed tests are concerned, I believe that those from reputable testing sites are valid--for the moment in which the test is made. Conditions can change.

And that change can be from minute to minute depending on network load and from one test site to another because of where they are located geographically. I have found the WhatIsMyIP Speed Tests to be reasonably reliable and consistent plus they offer four different sites to compare your connection speed.

Thanks guys--
what I'm saying is that the other night my sites thumbnails were loading absurdly slow, I was infuriated.
I did speed test and it said 6700.

Today they were loading great, it said 6500. what's the deal?

also someone mentioned to me something about latency which is the ping test, I dont get that...

I'm in LA, Joe your site had SF, will that do?

Glad to find this site, I was an old Macfixer.

I'm new here, also belong to the great TS forum.

Looking at speed tests, we are Comcast and my download speed is
4158 kbps, and upload is 350 kbps.
Reason that I am interested in this, is that Comcast had a notice in our local paper months ago, that everybody's speed would be doubled. Hasn't happened. Im satisfied with this speed, not complaining a bit, but just curious as to why it hasnt doubled here, and if there is something that we have to do to make it happen?
Thank you,
Jane

I am so pleased I found you, as there is a lot of great info here, and I will be taking the time to scan thru the posts and learn more stuff.

I don't have Comcast, but with my service you usually have to toggle the power on the modem so it re-acquires it's basic info, which if it's ready-to-go would be your new bandwidth caps. So, try turning off the modem for 30-60 seconds and then turn it back on.

The speedtest measures the route between you and the speedtest location. It's possible that your web site was having bandwidth issues or server issues that were localized there.

There are many things that can effect the loading speed of an internet page or page element other than internet speed. The most likely culprit in your situation would be the host server being overloaded or in need of a restart. For example Facebook is notorious for slow response times because they are having difficulty adding server capacity fast enough to keep up with the growth in traffic. Your slowdown could have been be the result of a damaged cache file on your Mac as well.

Maybe this Wikipedia article will answer your ping question.

Since you are in LA, San Francisco would definitely be you closest test site and would be less effected by network delays. However if most of the sites you are accessing happen to be on the East Coast, New York would give a more realistic reading of what you can actually expect to see. I have seen as much as 25% to 30% speed differential between different test sites which reflects network load.

Your apparent internet speed can be effected by what is going on your Local Area Network too. I regularly see download speeds in the range of 5200 kbps but last night I tested and I was only getting 2700 kbps. Then I discovered my wife had a big download going on her Mac while I was running the speed test on mine. Each of us was getting roughly half the bandwidth of our shared DSL connection.

thanks Joe. & Kevin,
Joe you mentioned a while back as I got on DSL with Verizon that it should be much better than cable modem as it does not have to share lines with neighbors. Do you still hold that is true. Things were great in beginning, so really puzzled why having some real slow periods.
Also, is email notification working on this site. does not seem to be working for me.

Yes, email notification is working.

I just posted instructions for using that feature: How to get email notification of replies

If those don't get emails going for you, go ahead and post a new thread in FineTunedMac Feedback and we'll work on that problem there so this thread can stay focused on your speed questions.

I still stand by that line of thought. There are too many other factors besides your local line loop speed that can and will effect your overall network performance. The case you cite in this thread is a perfect example. Almost all of those factors are beyond your control and many of them are beyond the control of Verizon. Among the factors are:

• The speed of other networks and backplanes your ISP interconnects with
• The speed and/or congestion on the server where the site you are accessing is hosted. Don't forget that often includes third party servers that are hosting advertising banners, etc that appear on the web page you are accessing
• congestion or poor response from the DNS server you are accessing. (I generally find the OpenDNS DNS servers to be faster than the ISP's own DNS servers)
• Traffic between other computers, printers, disk drives, etc on your local area network
• Internet traffic from other computers on your LAN that are sharing the same internet connection you are using.
• Congested cache files on your computer and other applications on your computer that are competing for CPU, memory, disk I/O resources
• etc., etc.

Cyn, thanks, got it.
Joe, great post. Helps me get my head around this. So you stand by the dsl still better choice than cable model (ie, don't share with neighbors)

This went over my head, what does it mean,
"(I generally find the OpenDNS DNS servers to be faster than the ISP's own DNS servers)"

Just to be sure we are all on the same page, I will begin my response at the very beginning. If you already know some of this, please bear with me, I will get to the point — eventually. The links are mostly to Wikipedia articles that provide a lot more detail than I have either time or inclination to go into here. Depending on how deep you want to go they will provide a lot more background and detail.

DNS (Domain Name System) is the service that translates a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) such as finetunedmac.com into the IP address (Internet Protocol address) that is used by the internet to route traffic, ie. 68.178.234.219.

Since most services use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to obtain the network settings such as your IP address, your Subnet Mask, and the IP address of the DNS server, the DNS server you use is pretty much invisible to you. Nominally all DNS servers around the world share their information with one another and all supposedly have the same URL/IP linkage. (NOTE: there are hostile DNS servers that attempt to hijack URLs and IP routings for nefarious purposes but Tacit is far better informed on that than I am and that is another topic altogether.) The bad guys aside the DNS servers provide a lot of services and effect how your traffic is routed. Additionally the speed of the DNS server hardware and software can make a noticeable difference in how quickly your request reaches a site which appears to you as a concomitant element of network speed.

You can, and I do, override the the DNS server settings received from your ISP's DHCP server and use alternate, perhaps faster and/or more routing neutral "public" DNS services. A Google search for "public DNS" will turn up a number of free public DNS servers including Google. The one I use is perhaps the most popular, OpenDNS. Most of these public DNS sites provide detailed instructions on how to configure your system, including Macs, to use their servers instead of the ISP's so I won't go into all of that.

NOTE: I used so many links to various Wikipedia articles in this post I felt guilty and ended up making a contribution. Hopefully, if you find these articles as useful and informative as I did, you too might be moved to contribute as well. Every contribution, no matter how small, helps keep a valuable service available for all of us.

Joe, just spoke to Verizon today.
I want your great opinon.
I can save $10/month if I downgrade from 7mb to 3 mb upload/download.
The guy from verizon says I wont notice anything unless I download/watch movies, which I don't do.
that said I don't trust those idiots opinons. What do you think? Would love to knock $10 off the bill.
Real glad I switched to DSL as you suggested. It's been much better than Time Warner Cable. thanks for that tip!

kevs,

I have the Verizon 3MB plan (the 7 MB plan is not [even] offered in my area).

When I moved to my current home, I left an area that had 10 MB Comcast cable. And indeed I was most apprehensive re the reduced capability.

But for all practical matters, I detect no difference. Well, almost none. Day to day surfing: no difference at all. But when I download very large files, such as a Mac OS Combo Updater, then the slower speed is apparent. And likewise when I upload large files. So when that happens, I take the opportunity to talk to my wife (my generosity knows no bounds).

So yeah, I agree with the Verizon guy. And FWIW, I find my Verizon DSL to be far more stable and reliable than my former Comcast cable.

So I say, gopher it. And if you don't like it, you can always change back.

Capecod, Happy to see you, and pleased that you found this place

If you have not checked out the Comcast Internet Forum, you might give that a go.

Often, they have specific data re specific locations, nodes and such. The site can be a bit murky as it supports PC users as well, but a good resource nonetheless (IMNHO).

The recent MacWorld article The truth about broadband speeds provides some relevant information on current broadband speed offerings.

Thanks Harv!
I'll give it a go.

I didn't go to any great lengths to try to discover the precise circumstances under which it happens, because even one time is one time too many, but What Is My IP occasionally brings a dreaded and dispicable Flash pop-under along with it. I suggest Speakeasy, which offers an 8 city selection and which I have found yields comparable, pop-under-free results.

IMHO the answer is it all depends.

• with three or four or more fast Macs, and assorted other devices sharing the bandwidth and all in heavy internet use, the difference would most definitely be noticeable.
• As Pendragon and the Verizon guy said, even a single computer downloading large files, such as a movie, you would notice the reduced bandwidth.
• With a single computer doing routine internet browsing, email, etc. you might notice some, a few, graphic intensive sites loading a bit more slowly.

As I say it all depends on your needs and to a certain extent your tolerance for delay.

FWIW, my ISP, AT&T, only accepts speed test results from Speedtest.net. I have found their results to be in line with what I get from WhatIsMyIP and Speedtest.net has test servers all over the country to choose from.