Kitz Forum

Broadband Related => FTTC and FTTP Issues => Topic started by: Bald_Eagle1 on December 21, 2011, 11:15:19 AM

Title: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Bald_Eagle1 on December 21, 2011, 11:15:19 AM
I have noticed discussions in various threads regarding online speed test accuracies.

I don't know for sure which are the most accurate, but the most consistent ones I use are speedtest.net & mybroadbandspeed.co.uk

They both give reasonably similar results & appear to be consistent with their reporting.
e.g. when my connection is poor, I get poor results.

I personally prefer speedtest.net as it logs your test results over longer periods than mybroadbandspeed.co.uk, & these results can be easily exported to a csv file for really long term monitoring etc. (also recording the IP address in use at the time of the test, so showing re-syncs etc.).
Registration with speedtest.net is not required for these basic & useful facilities.

The TBB speed tester can, on occasions, appear to give poor results, even when a user's connection is otherwise "O.K."

The usual BT performance/speed tester ALWAYS produces slightly more pessimistic results, but apart from the occasions when it experiences obvious "problems", is also quite consistent.
It does take much longer to conduct & can only be conducted once every hour, so not so good for instantly monitoring what happens if you should choose to reboot/re-sync the modem.

To me, consistency is the most important aspect & switching between speed testers just to get a better result doesn't assist at all.

Always using the same speed tester, regardless of whether results are ALWAYS pessimistic or ALWAYS optimistic, at least demonstrates a definite pattern to your connection's real-life performance (subject to any contention / traffic management for various types of traffic etc).

So, in addition to sticking with the same speed tester, I believe that speed tests should always be conducted at the same time of day/evening/night to truly monitor a connection's performance over as prolonged a period as possible.

Again, for consistency reasons, timing the download of a fixed sized file at regular times of day appears to confirm connection performance patterns.

One of BT's URLs for just this purpose can be found at this link:-
http://www.btopenworld.com/speedtest (http://www.btopenworld.com/speedtest)

The largest file is only 15MB (15,675,392 bytes on disk), which was probably ideal for much slower ADSL1 connections, but it IS a constant to use even over FTTC connections.

e.g. For my own connection from when it was "problem-free" (speed tests & ability to download at up to 33 Mb), I could usually download the 15MB file in 3 seconds.
It currently takes 5 seconds (pretty much at any time of day or night).

When my connection was variously performing even worse than it is now, it could take up to 14 seconds.

I accept that the "accuracy" of the timings is a bit loose (whole seconds only), but again, over a prolonged period a pattern emerges, & a sudden difference really does highlight "problems".

I would be curious to see timings for downloading the 15 Mb file from other FTTC users, especially those whoose speed tests are around 33 Mb.

Mine are shown in the attachment.

The above is purely my own opinion, so please feel free to agree/dsagree accordingly.


Paul.

P.S. I have no idea what the test file (largedownload.me) contains, but suspect it is just typical & consistent "data", specifically designed for testing purposes.

(http://speedtest.net/result/1660848101.png)

[attachment deleted by admin]
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: jeffbb on December 21, 2011, 09:55:09 PM
HI
Have you tried to run netlimiter monitor 2 or Netmeter  whilst running speed testers both of thes actually measure what's happening on your machine.
Regards Jeff
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Bald_Eagle1 on December 21, 2011, 11:33:27 PM
Hi jeffbb,

I have used Netmeter for a few years.

It does appear to show very similar values to my usual speed tests & timed file downloads.

My post was meant more as a general statement of my own opinion & experiences than a query, in the hope that it may prompt a debate & possibly provide a little feedback from other FTTC users..


Paul.
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Oranged on December 22, 2011, 10:48:40 AM

e.g. For my own connection from when it was "problem-free" (speed tests & ability to download at up to 33 Mb), I could usually download the 15MB file in 3 seconds.
It currently takes 5 seconds (pretty much at any time of day or night).


For comparison purposes, does it make any difference whether it's fibre or not ?

On my 9.58Mb ADSL2+ connection the 14.9MB file took 15 seconds to download.

So my 15 seconds @ 993kB/s more or less equates to your 5 seconds @ 2.98MB/s.....give or take a kB or nanosecond or two.
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Bald_Eagle1 on December 22, 2011, 11:56:43 AM
For comparison purposes, does it make any difference whether it's fibre or not ?

On my 9.58Mb ADSL2+ connection the 14.9MB file took 15 seconds to download.

So my 15 seconds @ 993kB/s more or less equates to your 5 seconds @ 2.98MB/s.....give or take a kB or nanosecond or two.


TBH, that file is probably too small for FTTC testing purposes as it would be all done & dusted too quickly using a proper high speed connection.

It was interesting to see your own ADSL2+ result though.

For a proper test, I would imagine 20 or 30 seconds (or more) typical duration would be more appropriate.

TBB's main site has some larger test files, but their downloads appear to be restricted by ISP traffic management policies (or some other criteria) whereas the BT one isn't.
I could only achieve one third of my usual download speed when trying TBB's files, so they would appear to give a "false" impression.
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: burakkucat on December 22, 2011, 07:29:30 PM
My view, with regard to "Speed" testers, is to make your choice and use it consistently. Never use or quote the absolute result but always work with the delta (the difference) between two successive results. Depending upon which tester I use, I get widely differing absolute results. However the various deltas are consistent.

To be honest, I don't pay too much attention to speed test results. I prefer to keep a check on my sync speed.

I know that Mr Eagle, in his everlasting quest to seek out factual rather than speculative information with regard to VDSL2 lines, has performed a comprehensive search of the on-line literature but I would like to highlight the paper by "S. Bauer, D. Clark, W. Lehr. Understanding Broadband Speed Measurements. Technical report. 2010" [1] for examination by all interested persons. One of the main conclusions of that report is that the Speedtest.Net tester [2] should be considered to be the method of choice.

At a personal level, I rely upon the results of SpeedTest.Net [2] and that of the Measurement Lab's Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) [3].

[1] http://measurementlab.net/sites/default/files/Bauer_Clark_Lehr_Broadband_Speed_Measurements.pdf
[2] http://www.speedtest.net/
[3] http://www.measurementlab.net/run-ndt
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Jonny on December 23, 2011, 10:51:15 AM
My last two ISP have accepted www.speedtest.net

What annoys me is this bares no resemblance to the number of routings to reach the destination. Likewise when sub 1mb speeds its dismissed as high activity, tough. Wheres the guaranteed 15mb come in.
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: waltergmw on December 23, 2011, 10:54:01 AM
Hi Johnny,

I think you'll need to start an epic battle as Paul has done.
Records of line statistics and bit loading diagrams will help significantly with what is almost bound to be a long drawn out struggle.

Kind regards,
Walter
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Jonny on December 23, 2011, 11:15:50 AM
Thanks Walter the last week i have tried the ole tracert, as far i can tell its after the ISP where pages time out. Trying to see if theres a pattern.
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: Bald_Eagle1 on December 24, 2011, 10:43:52 AM
Thanks for the links b*cat.

I think I'll stick with http://www.speedtest.net (http://www.speedtest.net)

It seems very consistent, maintains a downloadable log & it lets me know when my connection is O.K., bad, or slightly less bad.
(For a while, in the early days, it also used to tell me how really good my connection was - It should now be telling me how much even better it became after the switch to the 17a profile, but that topic has been flogged to death now)  :(

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1666344068.png)
Title: Re: FTTC Speed Tests
Post by: burakkucat on December 24, 2011, 01:42:00 PM
Well, at least you can say that your upstream speed is nearly as good as my downstream speed!  :P

Best --
(http://speedtest.net/result/1455718032.png)

Current --
(http://speedtest.net/result/1666462306.png)

 :-X