Lifehacker posted a poll for readers on their download speeds to compare to a report detailing average speeds by state. Using the Speakeasy website speed test, your Uncle Dave got between 18.5 and 24.8 mbps down and 1.5 to 3.3 up. The difference depended on which server I chose (being near the West coast I used Seattle, SF and LA) with Seattle being the fastest for download and LA the fastest for upload. Interestingly, my cable plan is for 10 mbps.
So, using the Speakeasy site to test, how is your connection?
After reading so many horror stories online about evil ISP’s, I count myself lucky to have a reliable non-evil provider (Videtron in Montreal). My connection has never failed for a minute (that I know of) since 2003. I have 30gig (down) and 10 gig (up) cap but they were very upfront about it from the start and I have only gone over once or twice.
I’ve been told I have a big, fat pipe.
[No, you have a short skinny pipe. – ed.]
My ADSL is very A. I’m lucky to get 400 up. This is very painful when using offsite backup for RAW photos. Even including medium jpg’s in email is frustrating. I would pay for the synchronous bandwidth, but not for a T1, which is my only option.
I have Time Warner’s Triple Play:
Cable, Internet and Phone.
It has been a fantastic. I live in a small town of 8,000.
Your speed poll is ill-conceived.
Should be
0-1 mbps
2-4 mbps
4-8 mbps
8-16 mbps
16-32 mbps
32+ mbps
Your second step 1-5 covers a 5-to-1 range. Probably a lot variation in there.
Whoops left out a step
1-2 mbps
A somewhat more accurate speed test can be found here.
Hit ‘quick start’.
Thanks, ECA.
I got 84,000 k down from Dallas and not kidding.
Time Warner Austin
23/4.6 this am on Wifi, hard wire usually runs faster, like 30/8.
Comcast Docis 3 25/5 service.
BTW, Alot of outages since Doc 3 came to town, and comcast doesn’t seem to care natch.
The biggest problem with all these tests is that they don’t move enough MB to determine the true speed of Cable systems using a Comcast like Speed Boost method. While my speed tested just a touch above 25Mb/s I know that in actuality I sustained throughput is actually around 14Mb/s.
Thanks Bubba.
MANY of these speed tests DONT test much.
ImterentFROG is an interesting test and one of the First to show a QOS(Quality of service)(reversed error rate) where if you get 100% you have the BEST connection(or god is on your side).
A good testing, TESTS more then 1 time and over a time period. Test 1-5 times then wait an hour, do it again, wait an hour..do for at least a Day, if not a whole week, and you should figure out the Best times to use the net.
ALSO, complaining about service at 1 place, PROBABLY wont get things fixed. Call the local, CALL the 1-800-#(these guys are mostly software), then if you can call the MAIN office and FIND the right persons..TALK to them.
WARNING dont piss these people off. you MAY get WORSE service. ALSO, write down your call info. Write down WHO you talked to and ABOUT what was said. THERE is ALOT of CRAPPY lines out there that havnt been replaced in 20-40 years. ALSO talk to your neighbors and see if they can CHECK their own speeds WITH THE SAME LOCATIONS YOU HAVE.
And I would LOVE to find a GOOD/simple program that would test my NIC and MODEM, NOT just my connection. Tests..Nic to modem/Nic to NET/modem to net.
I’ve got a 20mb/5mb connection, I’d test it but I’m using it at the moment and therefore would get a misleading reading, but every time I’ve tested it through various services, it’s been consistently 19mb download with occasional bursts as high as 24mb.
Supposedly, they’re going to have a 100mb option rolled out one of these days as well.
#9 BubbaRay
Thanks for the link, it indeed gives much more accurate results than the posted site. I tried a couple of other sites as well and they agreed with your link and what my ISP is advertising.
The posted site gave a very large abnormal number (3x) no matter which server I picked (I’m in western Canada). I guess not all speed tests are created equal.
Benchmarks are fine, but there’s the question of how much of that speed you actually utilize. I had a reliable 8 mbps with Comcast, but found that most of my activities were occurring at less than 1 mbps. Sure, if I got up early on a Sunday morning I could get some great performance downloading the latest Linux release from a local mirror, but really, that wasn’t a frequent occurrence. For the most part, I was waiting on websites. So I moved to 1.3 mbps ADSL at less than half of the price and have noticed little difference. If my situation changes and I can actually utilize higher speed, I’ll get it.
I get 15-20mbps “raw” through my cable modem, but factor in my router and wireless-n and I am down in the 2mbps range. Even with direct connection to my router I only get about 6mpbs.
Next time I am buying a wireless router I probably won’t get a Netgear again. Does anybody actually test these things for throughput?
I got 100 Mbit down and 10 up. I’ll get on the phone tonight to upgrade too 100/100 though.
If I lived 10 miles south of where I’m at right now I could get 1 Gbit at home, since some Swedish ISP’s are testing that out right now. Awesomeness.
yep,
its funny.
You can have the fastest connection in the world..
and the sites you visit DONT go that fast.
Cant even DL that fast.
You could DL 10 files at a time(really mess up windows) and still wonder the net and watch movies…and still not top out your connection speed.
BUT..
Between the servers and Limiters on the net..you cant get that much speed. And windows REALLY dont like it.
I would LOVE a NIC that would save to RAM or direct to Hard drive, and NOT bother with the CPU/windows.
As is SOP with windows. Your system is ONLY as fast as the slowest device IN USE. try it with your DIALUP MODEM running.
Im on campus with 1Gig connection to the backbone. Down 231 Mbps up was only 14.148 Mps
You need more categories.
I’m just curious – who, the fuck, still uses ISDN?
I have the lowest tier internet package from Cox Cable here in central Oklahoma. The advertised speeds are 1.5 mbps down and 256 kbps up. I generally get slightly faster speeds than that (~1.65 mbps down).
Faster service is expensive (for a starving college student, anyway) at $40 month for 12 mbps, $60 for 20. Still, Cox is one of the better cable companies in terms of support and privacy… for the time being anyway.
#18
Sounds like you either have a bad router, bad wireless adapter, or really awful signal strength.
When I ran the speakeasy test, I couldn’t believe the numbers. The speed it reported is certainly not a realistic measurement of my surfing experience. speedtest.net measures my connection as being significantly slower. However, I think that the link provided by BubbaRay at #9 was far more realistic.
i PAY
$53
5Mbps Down
500kbs up..
You all got better prices then I do.