Speedtest Results speedtest.net vs Mikrotik bandwidth test

Wed Apr 3 21:54:58 UTC 2013

On Wed, Apr 03, 2013 at 05:48:00PM -0400, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:07:48 -0700, Mike said:
> 
> > These speedtests are pure unscientific bs and I'd love to see them
> > called out on the carpet for it.
> 
> As far as I know, it's possible for the end-to-end reported values to be
> lower than your immediate upstream due to issues further upstream.
> 
> But if it reports 20MBbits/sec down and 5MBits/sec up, then the link is
> able to go *at least* that fast.
> 
> (If anybody's got evidence of it reporting more than the link is technically
> capable of, feel free to correct me...)

I've had speedtest.net report above ADSL sync rate on ADSL connection.  

Also from my testing, speedtest.net usually under-represents upload speed on fast
upload connections.  And for some reason ping shows higher in chrome than in internet
explorer.

It also tends to underrepresent far away connections by using too small file sizes. If
you use curl on the speedtest random.jpg files and grab the 4000x4000.jpg it'll give a
more representive test of download speed.

Ben.