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?

Have tried in FF, IE and Chrome and get similar download speed results but the upload changes. This always seem to happen with the upload speed however.

I tried again with 2 different speed checkers just seconds apart and even these sppeds vary
:
Think BB Speedtest

Speedtest.net

I also tried on my standalone editing machine which has no anti virus nor firewall and the results are pretty much the same in 2 different browsers.

The fibre network is completey new however with all our roads dug up a few months back which makes me wonder if theres any problem with the speed I'm getting as its a 'new set up' or am I just worrying about nothing?

With fibre, the connection probably runs at the rated speed as far as the cabinet, 94x Mbps is the most you can get out of a 1GB connection.

After that your problem is contention. In simple terms, and no doubt depending on the supplier, the more you pay the better the contention is managed to your advantage.

If you are an earlier adopter, you may find that the service you get deteriorates as more people get connected.

IME and I am a Gigaclear customer.

I have one of the early contracts which do allow the maxium speed, at the lowest price. These days if you placed an order for the same money you would get a 'committed' 50Mbps service, which may well be a better way of sharing the backhaul.

I use the dslreports.com speed tests. The results are what you might call variable. On one speed test I thought my upload speed was about 940x till I noticed the units where kbps. It recovered the next time I tried. Generally when I use these speed tests the speed tends to build up.

It is not like my ADSL days when the speed was limited by the 6km length of my telephone line.

You also tried Internet Explorer which gave better upload speeds?
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

Chrome also did better on the upload too
http://tbb.st/1446496545852586555

We know our tester will go faster on the download, as we have people running tests like this
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

We have some test files you can access at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html the 1GB file should obviously be around 8 seconds to download for you beyond that maybe worth asking Gigaclear if they have an on-network set of files or tester and then verify the traffic levels by monitoring your network connection in Windows.

Possibly not the local fibre, but the links between the ISP and the rest of the Internet

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

I use the dslreports.com speed tests. The results are what you might call variable. On one speed test I thought my upload speed was about 940x till I noticed the units where kbps. It recovered the next time I tried. Generally when I use these speed tests the speed tends to build up.

That gave me the best result of the evening Test

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

We have some test files you can access at http://www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html the 1GB file should obviously be around 8 seconds to download for you beyond that maybe worth asking Gigaclear if they have an on-network set of files or tester and then verify the traffic levels by monitoring your network connection in Windows.

The 1g file took approx 3 mins for me.

So either a PC issue or a network issue somewhere.

DSLreports uses 24 downloads at once to really over saturate a connection, we use six as we believe that is enough on a reasonably well setup connection.

Time to find out if Gigaclear has any files on its network to eliminate some of the variables.

Ok, thanks guys and I'll contact Gigaclear tomorrow.

In reply to a post by mattcee:

The 1g file took approx 3 mins for me.

I manage 53 secs

You mentioned you were paying £99 pm but I don't see that on the Gigaclear price list. There are uncontended packages on the Enterprise business price list.

If you try several sites and your PC is up to the throughput, then you might see speeds a little above 900Mbps on a Gbps. Whatever the highest figure you come across you will at least know that your PC and local interconnection is capable of at least that speed.

Beyond that, any variation you see will be due to contention issues. If a speed test site is set up properly, then it should not be contention there as they should be designed so they aren't contended whilst running tests (and if you see the same variability over several sites then it's definitely not a single bad site).

That gets you down to contention. One of the things the gigabit fibre outfits do not make clear is that Gbps speeds are not guaranteed. The service is always contended at some point (unless you get a very expensive leased circuits). So just how much bandwidth you'll get will be down to how much capacity the service provider will put in place to cope with peak loads. It's simply uneconomic to guarantee 1Gbps to everybody. It's one of those dark secrets which are not advertised.

Apologies, Its Seventy- something Pounds and not £99.
I wasn't aware that fibre speeds could be lower than stated so I've learned something tonight.
Its still better than the 1meg speed BT can offer - and I don't have to deal with them

Edited by deleted (Mon 02-Nov-15 22:21:31)

I presume you have the H1000 product. It is interesting to see what you actually get for your money!

I have the cheapest package. Gigaclear +Voipfone does not cost me much more than I was paying for a BT phone + Plusnet ADSL BB with Call Minder and CLI. The BB is normally 100 times faster.