Which broadband speedtest is best?

jim22

Hello, which of the broadband speed tests do you consider to be the best? And do you hold much faith in their results given that they can vary widely?

Speedtest.net gave me 14.4 but another whose name I can't remember gave me 5.

bengalknights

It depends really on the server location and the time you do the test.Best to run it 3 times in the morning afternoon and evening to get a precise speed result.

Speedtest.net does generally tend to be accurate though as long you have kaspersky paused (for those who have it).

John_Gray

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/broadband.html

GunJack

I use thinkbb, speedtest and speed.io

all of them measure in different ways, and you need to get used to how your connection performs on each of them, especially if you're planning on using the info for troubleshooting, both on your connection and of the speedtesters themselves, e.g. if you normally get 6 meg on both speedtest and tbb, but one night you only get 3 meg on one and the normal 6 meg on the other, it could well be that the tester's servers are playing up that night.....

santer_2

Your ISP may only accept figures from their designated tester

GunJack

santer wrote: »

Your ISP may only accept figures from their designated tester

true, they usually direct you to a specific site. However, the point I was making is that the performance of these sites does vary, so if you know what you're expecting from a certain site but don't get it, check with the other couple before complaining to your ISP

santer_2

I only mentioned it because after spending a while running tests the ISP said they wanted them from speedtest

asbokid

A less reputable ISP (such as PlusNet) could prioritise its network traffic, allocating a disproportionate bandwidth to the traffic from speed tests, so as to artificially inflate its own performance ratings.

It's not unusual for this to happen. It is often claimed that CPU manufacturers tweak their processor dies to artificially improve performance figures in CPU benchmark tests.

RussJK

Only test that matters is a real world test. Download some large files from servers you're going to use and see where you're at.

GunJack

RussJK wrote: »

Only test that matters is a real world test. Download some large files from servers you're going to use and see where you're at.

Absolutely true Russ....for such purposes I use Filehippo as their servers hardly ever run slow, so download an AV or ad-aware (50-odd meg and 120 meg respectively) and see what d/l you are ACTUALLY getting

p.s. and don't forget, the d/l will be reported in kilobytes per sec, so you'll have to multiply by 8 to be in the region of the megabits per sec your line speed is reported in

John_Gray

GunJack wrote: »

don't forget, the d/l will be reported in kilobytes per sec, so you'll have to multiply by 8 to be in the region of the megabits per sec your line speed is reported in

Err, huh?!