Speed test...

SmileyHappyBeing

Hi,

I have just done a speed test with broadband speed test checker, I am with Aol and am meant to be on 2mb, the results came up as this

Thank you for carrying out your speed test with BroadbandChoices, your results are shown below:

• Your estimated download speed is: 435 kbits/sec - (0.42Mb) - (54 KBytes/sec)

• You told us your speed was Up to 2Mb and your ISP: AOL

• Check Again? - Would you like to leave your comments/reviews on AOL?

• With ONSPEED your connection could be up to 2.12Mb with no need to change your ISP

What is this service and why do I want to use it?
Dial-up 56k DSL/Cable 256k DSL/Cable 512k DSL/Cable 1mb DSL/Cable 2Mb DSL/Cable 4Mb DSL/Cable 8MbYour connection 0.42Mb
Now i gather this is bad yeah? Sorry not much of a techie....:o

Ive just swopped to sky, ( three for £26 as i already had tv package with them for £21, so for extra £5 got tv and internet), and am waiting to be activated within 10-15 days but did this out of interest, with sky they said my phone line should support 2.5 mb, depending on traffic etc.. and that im quite close to the telephone exchange, so hopefully it should be better with sky?!?

Im a bit peeved though at the speed of aol... as im not even gettin 1 mb!

Any thoughts anyone,

Thanks in advance ...

ok my pics messed up , it was on the marker for 512k..

bat999

Hi
Those creeps are trying to peddle ONSPEED internet.
Try another test at an unbiased website such as this one here:-http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

swift_gti

Speedtest websites aren't always the most reliable source of your true connection speed.. as it all depends on how good the link to their servers are, you could have a slow route to their test servers or they could be under heavy load which will skew your results.
I'd go to somewhere like www.winamp.com and download the player, and download Winzip from www.winzip.com and maybe Winrar from www.rarlabs.com
You don't need to install any of them, but just note the download speed reported by internet explorer, if you are truely on 2mb you should get speeds of around 250KB/s
Checking this way does require a little more work, but will give you a much more accurate picture of your connection performance.

SmileyHappyBeing

bat999 wrote: »

Hi
Those creeps are trying to peddle ONSPEED internet.
Try another test at an unbiased website such as this one here:-http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

Thanks bat999,

Did this one and got these results

451.1 kilobits per second
Communications 451.1 kilobits per second
Storage 55.1 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 18.6 seconds
Subjective rating Not bad

I did it for cable, is that right? I know i use an ethernet cable to connect to router, but adsl sounded familiar too , i really havent got a clue have i !

At least the results were a bit better this time, i was just below average..

albertross_2

there is an important word next to all promised adsl speeds,, UPTO

bat999

Hi
No, 'cable' means such as NTL cable tv system's internet.
I think that you should have used ADSL.

SmileyHappyBeing

swift_gti wrote: »

Speedtest websites aren't always the most reliable source of your true connection speed.. as it all depends on how good the link to their servers are, you could have a slow route to their test servers or they could be under heavy load which will skew your results.
I'd go to somewhere like www.winamp.com and download the player, and download Winzip from www.winzip.com and maybe Winrar from www.rarlabs.com
You don't need to install any of them, but just note the download speed reported by internet explorer, if you are truely on 2mb you should get speeds of around 250KB/s
Checking this way does require a little more work, but will give you a much more accurate picture of your connection performance.

K, did this and i was looking at the transfer rate yeah, well it went from 70 kb down to 50 kb per second..so nowhere near 250, aaah well, Thanks for your help

SmileyHappyBeing

bat999 wrote: »

Hi
No, 'cable' means such as NTL cable tv system's internet.
I think that you should have used ADSL.

K, here goes again lol,


Personal test results

.bigSpeed{ font-size: 180%; color: #369; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;}Speed

452.8 kilobits per second
Communications 452.8 kilobits per second
Storage 55.3 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 18.5 seconds
Subjective rating Not bad

Explain results

Comparison

.compareBar !! width: 100%; padding: 3px; border: solid 1px silver; } Your speed

ADSL in United Kingdom (avg. 0.51 Mbits/sec)

T-1 (max. 1.54 Mbits/sec)





So not lookin to bad now, thanks again bat999... (ok my pic went dodgy again, but the camparison between mine and the average was virtualy spot on)


Albertross, I know they say speeds upto, but on the 1st test i did it said i wasnt even getting up to 512k, so i was a bit shocked.... hence the further tests.

albertross_2

On adsl it varies, dependent on time (4-11.59pm is a bad time), distance from exchange, because of congestion, also the route to the test site may be slow, the test server may be slow etc. If you torrent or p2p, then you may be getting throttled.

You never get the advertised rate, but may come close. I have an 8meg sync speed, but at 6pm it can go down to 50kbps. Most of the time it is much faster than this.

512 or so isn't bad, still a vast improvement on dial-up, which is what we all had not so many yrs ago.

If you want better speeds, and better value, AOL is not the isp to use, 29.99 for 8meg is overpriced when compared to the competition.