Speed test results and distance

mehmeh12

Hi

Whenever i do speedtests from Ireland, Europe or America I generally get the same speed results. But when I choose servers from eastern europe, Russia and asia i get really slow results. Why might this be?

Snaga

When you get an internet connection of a certain speed - thats the speed you get (all going well) to your ISP's breakout point to the Internet in Ireland - after that there are many many reasons why you dont get full speeds to any particular point around the world.

As a generaly rule (without TCP tuning) - the higher the latency to an end destination - the lower the TCP throughput. (Look up the 'bandwidth delay product' if you are really interested).

There are other factors that can affect it though - some networks are better connected than others (Richer nations unsurprisingly tend to have better networks), have less packetloss and (as mentioned) less latency (though you canna beat the laws of physics - so the further away you get - the higher the latency). Also some speedtest servers can handle more connections than others (So they can be overloaded when you use them - they dont always give consistent results).

So for testing your speed, use your own ISP's speedtest site, or the one geographically closest to you if you want (more accurate) results. But bear in mind that speedtest websites are guesstimates only (usefull as an indicator but not absolute proof of a problem with your internet connection).