0

I have been having some issues with internet speeds, particularly in the evenings. I realize doing sporadic speed tests on a website like speedtest.net won't exactly give me a reliable idea of my true internet speed. Also, Comcast is my ISP and I've heard they do shady things like improving connection speeds to speedtest.net's servers and things like this.

So if I wanted to conduct a speed test over a long period of time and see something like a graph of internet speeds over that time period what could I use? Also, what would you recommended as a time period? Let's say that I pay for 75mbps, what is reasonable to expect at all times?

Thanks!

Improve this question
1
  • "what is reasonable to expect at all times?" - Due to the differences in how Cable, DSL, and Fiber all work this is not possible to answer. Comcast just happens to offer all 3. The speed of most of those depends on the distance to the nearest node, the distance to the main hub, and how much they oversell the connection itself.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 28, 2016 at 20:25

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
0

In my opinion, the best real-world test is to actually download some large files. I happen to live near a university that hosts a public FTP site where you can download ISO images for various Linux distributions. So if I want to test my speed at any given time, I just download one of their images and see how long the transfer takes to complete. Granted, I know there are variables such as other traffic, but I figure that's lost in the margin of error when the server I'm connected to is some 10 miles away.

Improve this answer
0

A single file transfer is often not enough to tell how your connection is working, if you are looking for transient problems.

You should repeat latency and bandwidth tests in different times of the day and then analyze them... but this is not easily done by hand..

For a "spot" misuration I usually run the Ookla speed tests, but if you want a "certified" measure, you should be aware that there are several national projects to address the problem of a "standard" speed test. Try reading the "Broadband access network speed tests by country" page, which lists "Speed tests: Official measurement projects in OECD area"

I tried the italian project Ne.Me.Sys. (just because I happen to live in Italy) and it tested my line for 24 hours to give me a certified minimum and maximum bandwidth of those 24h..

HTH

Improve this answer
0

I've had pretty good luck with the speedtest located here http://www.dslreports.com I don't think they are biased, and they seem to pick points that are not near my home.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .