Speed Tests

Freddie59 · 10-09-2006 1:11pm #1

Just a quick one on speed test sites. Did two checks for someone who has NTL 6 Meg. Speed test site reporting 2.95 Megs last night and today. However, when download from www.apple.com/itunes and downloading the iTunes software as a trial I get a transfer rate of 720 Kbps (whiuch roughly translates into 5.76 Megs).

ghostdancer · 11-09-2006 9:13pm

i don't find speed test sites to be very reliable at all. the best test i think is downloading a large file from an irish server, and leaving it about 30seconds to see what the average transfer rate is

try this and leave it a little while and then it should give you a much better idea of what it is:
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/debian-cd/3.1_r0a/source/iso-cd/debian-31r0a-source-3.iso

steve-hosting36 · 12-09-2006 1:51pm

What does www.speedtest.ie tell you?

Cabaal · 12-09-2006 3:51pm

Downloading a large file from the likes of heanet is the only way to go to be honest, never found speed test sites to be reliable at all.

vibe666 · 12-09-2006 4:55pm

I'd say with a 6meg line that you might want to do 2 or 3 ISO's to get a fully accurate estimation of speed. I quite often don't get full speed on a single file from heanet n my 3meg line with just a single file.

ChilliNuts · 12-09-2006 10:04pm

Um, so pardon the dumb question but I just started downloading that hea file over ftp and I'm getting a pretty constant 650 KB/sec... that suggests I'm getting the full 6Mb speed I'm paying for with NTL, right?

ta

vibe666 · 12-09-2006 11:26pm

cool, i guess it's all good then. guess i caught them on a bad day or something.

jimmycrackcorm · 13-09-2006 1:47am

steve-hosting36 wrote:

What does www.speedtest.ie tell you?

It tells me that it is useless. Both irishisptest and smart speed test tell me I'm getting 5.92.

steve-hosting36 · 13-09-2006 9:30am

5.92Mbps on a 6Mbps line? How is that useless or am I missing something

jimmycrackcorm · 13-09-2006 11:52am

Forgot to mention the crucial bit. speedtest.ie tells me it is only 3.14 hence speedtest.ie is useless.

steve-hosting36 · 13-09-2006 11:58am

It's all a matter of perspective. From the speedtest.ie server, you are getting 3.14Mbps. If you try at different times you will get different numbers.

The issue isnt with the tests, its the connection. Your 6Mbps is not a direct link, it's a contended internet conection. Other users on the line and NTL's uplinks will impact your performance.

Those speeds are pretty good and more than acceptable for the service you are buying imho.

shrapnel222 · 13-09-2006 12:04pm

720 is bang on anyway

a 6 meg line is 6 megabits not megabytes which is 725 kilobytes per second

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