Speedtest.Speakeasy.net Accuracy

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
For several months, I've been fighting with Comcast over my internet transmission speeds. I'm only able to get about 1/8 of the internet speed that I'm supposed to be getting. When I had 16mb dl speed, I could only get 2mb dl, no matter what site I went to. I have since downgraded to 1mb dl and I can only get 128kb dl at best.

The issue is with both my pc and 2 laptops even when directly connected to my modem(which has been swapped with a new DOCSIS 3.0 modem). Comcast has been over 3 different times and everything checks out fine except that my cable line that is run from the street is split with my neighbor. I have requested that they run separate lines for each of us and so far they have procrastinated to do so.

The current problem is that b/c running tests thru speedtest.speakeasy.net shows a 900mb dl speed that I'm within spec.

I am having them come out a 4th time(their top level tech and field manager are coming with their own laptops) so that I can demonstrate to them outside of speedtest no other website provides me with a dl of more than 128kb.

Cliffs:
Only get 1/8 of the internet speed that I'm supposed to be getting going to any website
Comcast says b/c speedtest shows that I'm getting the supposed speed that they're off the hook
How accurate is speedtest?

Comcast sucks and I can't switch to Verizon
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
Those speedtests load a java app that then moves random data to the central test server. If they say they got 900Kb/sec I would assume that it is pretty accurate +- 10% or so. There are about 30 "main" test servers out there, try testing against several of them. How exactly do you "know" your getting 128kb?
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
Those speedtests load a java app that then moves random data to the central test server. If they say they got 900Kb/sec I would assume that it is pretty accurate +- 10% or so. There are about 30 "main" test servers out there, try testing against several of them. How exactly do you "know" your getting 128kb?

I have tried multiple speedtest servers. I use Netmeter, Netlimit, Firefox's and IE's download manager to tell me the dl speed. Also just counting the time, a 6mb file shouldn't take a minute to dl if I was getting 900kb/sec dl.

No matter what website - Nvidia, Apple, Majorgeeks, Work, etc I only get 128kb at best.

Justed tried testmy.net and got this:

:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 969 Kbps about 1 Mbps (tested with 1013 kB)
Download Speed is:: 118 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2010-04-15 22:01:18 GMT
Bottom Line:: 17X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 8.68 sec
Tested from a 1013 kB file and took 8.565 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 13.75 % of your hosts average (comcast.net)
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-5ZR6AX2YW
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.2) Gecko/20100316 Firefox/3.6.2 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) [!]

What's the difference between Download Connection and Download Speed?
 
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imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
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I have tried multiple speedtest servers. I use Netmeter, Netlimit, Firefox's and IE's download manager to tell me the dl speed. Also just counting the time, a 6mb file shouldn't take a minute to dl if I was getting 900kb/sec dl.

No matter what website - Nvidia, Apple, Majorgeeks, Work, etc I only get 128kb at best.

Justed tried testmy.net and got this:

:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 969 Kbps about 1 Mbps (tested with 1013 kB)
Download Speed is:: 118 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2010-04-15 22:01:18 GMT
Bottom Line:: 17X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 8.68 sec
Tested from a 1013 kB file and took 8.565 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 13.75 % of your hosts average (comcast.net)
D-Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-5ZR6AX2YW
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.2) Gecko/20100316 Firefox/3.6.2 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) [!]

What's the difference between Download Connection and Download Speed?

Download speed is in KiloBytes /s, connection is in Kilobits/s

Just off hand (I am not trying to be a jerk here): Comcast's 8Mb/1Mb service will only give you about 1 megabyte a second download (minus some overhead about 10% max) because the service is 8 megabits a second which 8bits/byte so 8Mbs = 1MBs. That ratio is 1/8... are you sure you have bits and bytes straight? 1mb/s = about 128KB/s which is right where the 118KB/s says you are above.

--- edit ---

6mb file I assume you mean 6 Megabyte not 6 megabits. so @ 1Mb/s or 128KB/s a six meg file should take 48 seconds in a perfect world. Add in about 10% of overhead and your looking at about 52ish seconds.
 
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drebo

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,034
1
81
I think the OP is getting confused by the units.

Comcast's 16mb (megabit) service will get about 2MB (megabyte) download speed (as reported by Internet Explorer/Firefox/etc). Notice the different capitalization.

A 1mb connection will get you around 120 KB.

The 1/8 ratio isn't an accident.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
Okay, I'm a friggin moran. Thanks guys.

Never realized that when they advertise a particular speed it's mb and not MB.

Of course, I wonder why nobody at Comcast hasn't tried to explain this to me.
 

nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
7,093
3
81
I'm not so sure op's test results are inline or not. I ran the test myself from the same site and here are my tests for Comcast:

Your connection is: 17352 Kbps or 17.4 Mbps
You downloaded at: 2118 kB/s
You are running: 303 times faster than 56K and can download 1 megabyte in 0.48 second(s)
Member Ident: CompID:1.60035335254E+12
Test Time:: 2010-04-16 01:25:09 GMT
Test Browser and OS info: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Test ID: W234QOCIM (if this is a screenshot go to testmy.net to see if this is fake)
Diagnosis ^info^: Awesome! 20% + : 146.3 % faster than the average for host (comcast.net)
This was tested from a 25600 kB file and took 12.086 seconds to complete

 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
Okay, I'm a friggin moran. Thanks guys.

Never realized that when they advertise a particular speed it's mb and not MB.

Of course, I wonder why nobody at Comcast hasn't tried to explain this to me.

I didn't find tier 1 Comcast support to be... smart... or unscripted... lol
 

ImDonly1

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2004
2,357
0
76
I'm not so sure op's test results are inline or not. I ran the test myself from the same site and here are my tests for Comcast:

Your connection is: 17352 Kbps or 17.4 Mbps
You downloaded at: 2118 kB/s
You are running: 303 times faster than 56K and can download 1 megabyte in 0.48 second(s)
Member Ident: CompID:1.60035335254E+12
Test Time:: 2010-04-16 01:25:09 GMT
Test Browser and OS info: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Test ID: W234QOCIM (if this is a screenshot go to testmy.net to see if this is fake)
Diagnosis ^info^: Awesome! 20% + : 146.3 % faster than the average for host (comcast.net)
This was tested from a 25600 kB file and took 12.086 seconds to complete


Op downgraded his service to the 1 Mb plan. So 115 Kb/s is normal for that. You have the 12 Mb probably.
 

kevnich2

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2004
2,465
8
76
Yeah sounds like the OP is getting confused with bits and bytes - the speed tests show what your internet speed is in bits. Downloads of files will be in bytes (roughly 1/10 is what I go by) so if you were originally getting 2mbyte/sec download of files, for a 16mbit/sec cable connection, that's exactly where it should be.