Single thread speeds on iMac vs Android phone

The new HTML5 tester has always given me poorer single thread speeds than the old Flash based tester.

Having decided to try and confirm that it was the line rather than the iMAC that was causing the issue, I ran some comparative tests on using Chrome on my Android mobile and was somewhat surprised to see that even with a wireless 5G connection, my mobile was giving me much better single thread results than the wired connection on the iMac.

iMAc results from yesterday evening:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/but...
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/but...
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/but...

Phone results:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/but...
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/but...

I've just run some more now and seen some similar results. The phone results are a bit more variable but the average single thread speeds are still almost 10mbps better on the mobile.

I've tried doing a clean up of the iMAC, repairing the OS, running it with all extensions disabled in Chrome and running without the AV, none of which have improved things.

iMac:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14955480578...
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14955480253...

Mobile:
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14955478395...
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14955478814...

Does anyone have any constructive thoughts about what might be causing the difference?

There is an ongoing discussion here http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/newsite/f/4548619-s...

How do your devices handle http://beta.speedtest.net ?

A non related issue, other than the same speed test web app

Old flash was a custom protocol which meant it was sometimes handled a little differently.

The newer test is a much better proxy for the performance in the browser, and as video moves out of flash to browser is still important.

Seems the browser can manage the same speeds, but does not hold it for long, reason why is an unknown, it is possible that multiple threads have same issue in that browser but the interleaving resolves that issue.

If there is a total browser/platform that has issues with single threads I can stop them from running at all, but if the reported sample of issues is small

http://tbb.st/1495362708432810355 same browser/os and similar speeds with no untoward issues

I had a similar problem with my Windows 10, some browsers were giving good single thread results some not and my windows phone was fine. I ended up resetting the network in the settings app and that seemed to cure it, all browsers now all the same, so took a backup.

Not sure what the equivalent button is to reset the network on IOS sorry.

It looks as this is down to ESET Cyber Security Pro slowing down the single thread throughput.

Here is an example of a speed test with the AV uninstalled

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14975169336...


With the AV reinstalled and with all components running:

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14975172952...


And with the AV running with the Web Access Protection switched off.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14975175806...

....but you said in your first post ....

I've tried doing a clean up of the iMAC, repairing the OS, running it with all extensions disabled in Chrome and running without the AV, none of which have improved things.

..... so it WAS the AV ?

Interesting, suspect connection fast enough you don't really notice in practice when it is enabled

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

....but you said in your first post ....

I've tried doing a clean up of the iMAC, repairing the OS, running it with all extensions disabled in Chrome and running without the AV, none of which have improved things.

..... so it WAS the AV ?

Good spot and I really can't remember exactly what I did when I 'stopped' the AV previously.

This was a belt and braces uninstall and reboot, which I have done twice now with a reasonably repeatable outcome, once a week ago and again today.

Having played about with the AV components, it looked like the firewall component the first time I reinstalled ESET, but this time it seems to be the Web Access Protection. so the jury is still out on which ESET component is the actual root cause.

I'm sure I have a valid Kaspersky licence as well, so may just see if that works any better; although Kaspersky for Mac didn't used to be that good.

Looking better with the big red K.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/14975483385...

Results can be a bit intermittent though, either slowing down on occasion a bit like ESET or stupid speeds from buffering issues.

Nor sure it's enough to make me revert to Kaspersky longer term, but I'll give it a few day to see how it goes.