Speedtest Results speedtest.net vs Mikrotik bandwidth test

Thu Apr 4 15:30:17 UTC 2013

The MT speed test is a multi-connection test, think 20 streams or connections at once.    Most web based tests are single stream.  Now you get into 802.11N speedtests where they are optimized for many connections MIMO operations, hence, a single connection don't show good results, where a MT test at 20 streams would.  

Dennis Burgess, Mikrotik Certified Trainer Author of "Learn RouterOS- Second Edition"                                 
 Link Technologies, Inc -- Mikrotik & WISP Support Services                                                                                    
 Office: 314-735-0270 Website: http://www.linktechs.net - Skype: linktechs                                                     
 -- Create Wireless Coverage's with www.towercoverage.com - 900Mhz - LTE - 3G - 3.65 - TV Whitespace  

-----Original Message-----
From: Lorell Hathcock [mailto:lorell at hathcock.org] 
Sent: Monday, April 1, 2013 7:19 PM
To: nanog at nanog.org
Cc: Nathan Hathcock
Subject: Speedtest Results speedtest.net vs Mikrotik bandwidth test

All:

I am having some speedtest results that are difficult to interpret.

I am a small WISP multi-homed with Cogent and Level 3 in Houston, TX.  I am running BGP with each with 100 Mbps+ on each link.

Some of my customers have begun complaining that they are not getting the proper speeds.  They are using speedtest.net and/or speakeasy.net to test the results.

My network is Mikrotik based and as such, I have access to Mikrotik's built-in bandwidth testing.

With a laptop on site, running against speedtest.net (which kicked me over to the Comcast speedtest server instance) I can only get 4 Mbps up and 1.5 Mbps down.  That is consistent on their desktops too.  We eliminated their routing equipment and other consumers of the bandwidth and tested and got similar results.

But when  we run the Mikrotik bandwidth tests (even to off-net Mikrotik devices in Hawaii and Mission, TX) we get 25+ Mbps synchronous.

We have run traceroutes to various traceroute servers and they go through Cogent and/or Level 3.  For the most part it does not seem to matter which path it takes, the bandwidth seems to be about the same going both routes.

When we run the laptop-based btest.exe against Mikrotik bandwidth test servers, the laptop got significantly better results (14 Mbps) , but not 25+ Mbps.

It is almost like there is a Java based problem with speedtest.net.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Lorell Hathcock