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[skyeci]

So after a lengthy process trying to get to the bottom of the issues with my new FTTP circuit it would appear that it was either a duff port on the cbt or the fact that my cable was re-spliced. Whichever it was it now seems much better. Whilst I'm not obsessing about speed tests they have been the only way to prove from the beginning that my circuit had a fault. My question is even though there are many speed testers around why do they vary so much in results when compared on the same machine etc. I find speedtest now gives me full whack up and down but various other testers that are well known will still give me a random result.. tbb for one.

Discussion appreciated and what's your preferred tester?

thanks

[Alex Atkin UK]

Server load, routing, browser load, any fudging of the numbers they do to try to account for overheads and/or buffering.

I've noticed self-hosted LibreSpeed for example has a real hard time on the upload test.

[skyeci]

Thanks  upload is the one thing I need to keep an eye on as that was where the fault was most troublesome. The only one I can get any consistency out of is speedtest at the moment. Speedtest test gives me around 945 up and down but tbb  is a bit hit at times...tried a few others with  random results it seems...

[Alex Atkin UK]

I think upload is particularly tricky given web browsers are really optimised for downloads as there's a lot of overhead on the server for uploads.

LibreSpeed in particular I think its the inefficiency of using a PHP script to handle the uploads, speedtest.net I assume uses compiled code for this, something which is less common these days given the security implications of running anything that potentially could accidentally be run as root or have been compiled on libraries with security problems.  Interpreted/JIT languages inherently get bug fixes when the underlying software get upgraded.

[XGS_Is_On]

TBB isn't great. Use the Ookla app and the YouFibre London / Manchester / Edinburgh servers or the Community Fibre server.

[skyeci]

TBB isn't great. Use the Ookla app and the YouFibre London / Manchester / Edinburgh servers or the Community Fibre server.

Thanks, I do notice if I flip to You fibre Manchester servers the latency increases to 12 where as on London its 8 or 9ms. Still doesn't beat openreach/zen for overall latency though... Opnsense sees latency of 5.2ms on Zen via the wan port where as you fibre is currently giving me 8 or 9 directly on the wan port, same machine/cables etc.....not an issue, I just hope the upload issues have been sorted.. time will tell.

https://www.speedtest.net/result/14872610844

[craigski]

Discussion appreciated and what's your preferred tester?

thanks

Isn't the business model of most speedtest sites to harvest users data and resell?

A while back I ran a few, all gave different inconsistent results (obviously, due to different times, networks, servers etc), using Chrome, opened the 'Developer Tools', all using slightly different methodology.

A better approach to test the connection is surely to do 'your stuff' (whatever that is, downloading, uploading, VPN, streaming, etc) max out the connection and look at the WAN port utilisation on your router/firewall. This is what is relevant, not a 'guestimate' from a server that you only connect to for a speedtest?

[meritez]

I prefer https://www.orange.md/speedtest/ which is www.speedtest.net without adverts.

[Alex Atkin UK]

A better approach to test the connection is surely to do 'your stuff' (whatever that is, downloading, uploading, VPN, streaming, etc) max out the connection and look at the WAN port utilisation on your router/firewall. This is what is relevant, not a 'guestimate' from a server that you only connect to for a speedtest?

This is why TBB still have the actual download test files, so you can test the single-thread speed in a real-world download.

I also use iperf3 to test to my VPS.

I prefer https://www.orange.md/speedtest/ which is www.speedtest.net without adverts.

Yeah but you CAN run adblock (though I usually don't) and the beauty of speedtest.net is its got my historic tests going back to 2015.

[craigski]

This is why TBB still have the actual download test files, so you can test the single-thread speed in a real-world download.

Is a single thread download of a test file on server that is only used to host test file, probably on a TBB network that you wont access for anything else really 'real world'?

My definition of 'real world' would be multiple users running multiple applications on multiple devices sharing a WAN connection to connect to multiple services on multiple networks, ie everyday normal use.

[XGS_Is_On]

Depends what you want from the test I guess.

Speed tests are more a tool to test the network's capabilities more than how applications run. Running applications is how to see how applications will run. Too many parameters for any tester online to replicate that accurately.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Admittedly I keep my own historical record:
https://csdprojects.co.uk/ping/show/alexatkin

[XGS_Is_On]

To each their own.

If upload is the main thing you're interested in you could do a lot worse than http://speedtest.tele2.net/

It's pretty well connected to most things and you should be good for well over a gigabit.

Let me try it out on a YouFibre connection via 2.5 GbE port. This hits full speed routinely on various Ookla servers.

More generally the wavelength XGSPON upstream runs on is more vulnerable to impairments on the fibre path, and the ONU optics are a lot more involved than GPON.