How acurate are speed tests (ISP conflict)?

Hi all

We've just had a new fibre to the home service go live in our village and I've taken out the ISP's 1GB service.
When doing a speedtest though from speedtest.net, I always get very wild and random speeds. For example, I've never yet seen a download speed above 600megs while the upload speed can vary between 940megs to just 80 megs.
Often I get poor speeds from both the upload and download then other times a great speed from one but not the other - or a 500/500ish from both.

Should this be happening from a FTTH connection as the first time I called the ISP about it, they said I should be getting faster but the second time I called they said to ignore the speeds from a speedtest as there are many variables and things are normal.

I'm running the tests direct from the new modem with a new cat6 cable direct into a PC with a 1GB network card with no other network or internet activity over a period of 4 days now.

The speeds are way better than I'm used to but I want to get the maximum as the ISP advertise as I'm paying £99 per month for the service.

Can anyone advise if the speeds I'm getting are normal or should they be faster and should they be more stable and consistent?
I know some servers will struggle to give 1gb but are speed tests included in this?

Entirely possible that the PC cannot keep up with Gigabit speeds.

What speed test does the ISP recommend?

We of course suggest our own http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest that we know can go past Gigabit if given a 10 Gbps PC

Speedtest.net will pick a server based on latency and many of those servers may not have Gigabit connections themselves.

Getting a test to run at Gigabit can be pretty hard, as even when you have Gigabit FTTH, the variables including browser you are using, PC performance and congestion and what peering a provider has to the wider internet still impact a lot.

It's worth trying the thinkbroadband one, and also the BT Wholesale one. (Ignore all the red instruction of that second one, and the Further diagnostics won't work on your connection).

I'd ignore the BT Wholesale one totally, very much doubt it is configured for handling a Gig from a non BT Wholesale user

Even the supplied hardware can reduce the maximum speed. I think Hyperoptic say their hub tops out at 940 Mbps.

940 Mbps is actually a limit of Ethernet, i.e. even in a perfect work Gigabit Ethernet has a maximum TCP/IP speed in a single direction 940 to 945 Mbps (think exact is 943 Mbps)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Entirely possible that the PC cannot keep up with Gigabit speeds.

What speed test does the ISP recommend?

We of course suggest our own http://labs.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest that we know can go past Gigabit if given a 10 Gbps PC

Speedtest.net will pick a server based on latency and many of those servers may not have Gigabit connections themselves.

Getting a test to run at Gigabit can be pretty hard, as even when you have Gigabit FTTH, the variables including browser you are using, PC performance and congestion and what peering a provider has to the wider internet still impact a lot.

Thanks for that but that checker is showing I'm getting 240/221 megs and the BT Wholesale shows pretty much the same download speed but a woeful 28meg upload.

My concern is really what I'm paying per month for a supposedly 1gb connection when in reality I'm getting much less. On the ISPs Facebook page, it shows the ookla speedtest (where they're showing off there great speeds) at around 940megs both ways which is surely what I should be seeing?

While you should be seeing similar speeds to the ISP posting on Facebook, there are a number of variables that can affect your speeds and these are more pronounced with a higher speed package.

Is it possible for you to post a link to your TBB speedtest results?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

While you should be seeing similar speeds to the ISP posting on Facebook, there are a number of variables that can affect your speeds and these are more pronounced with a higher speed package.

Is it possible for you to post a link to your TBB speedtest results?

Sure, here you go:
Speed test

That very much looks like something is limiting you. Have you tried a different browser? Have you disabled any firewalls and antivirus?