Speed Test Results

Joel jaeggli joelja at bogus.com
Fri Dec 23 23:08:43 UTC 2011


On 12/23/11 11:16 , Joel Maslak wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 2:18 AM, jacob miller <mmzinyi at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> Am having a debate on the results of speed tests sites.
>>
>> Am interested in knowing the thoughts of different individuals in regards to this.
> 
> It's one data point of many.
> 
> Depending on the speed test site, the protocols it uses, where the
> test is located, any local networking gear (I've seen transparent
> proxies get great speedtest ratings!), etc, they can be useful,
> particularly in verifying that a provider's off-net interconnects and
> partners are doing well.
> 
> However, they are susceptible to things like wireless network issues,
> TCP limitations (one stream vs. many streams), and misconfiguration of
> devices at the customer location.  And the speed test box isn't
> necessarily configured/speced correctly either.

I don't imagine it accounts for l3 emcp either... To be clear, what one
is I assume generally looking for from a speed test is usable throughput
from the vantage point of the end-user running it.

> I second the thoughts on NDT and I like the ICSI Netalyzer.  But I
> wouldn't necessarily put either tool in most end users' hands (I think
> they are too complex for most end users to interpret the results
> properly).
> 





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