Why are broadband speed tests results so different?

I just upgraded my broadband connection and wanted to see what I was getting. I googled "speed test" and checked the speed with the top three website results:-

www.speedtest.net - 13.52 Mbps download and 15.07 Mbps upload
www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk - 5.58 Mbps download and 7.69 Mbps upload
www.thinkbroadband.com - 4.85 Mbps download and 15.44 Mbps upload

There doesn't seem to be any consistency?

Ian

I suppose it depends on how congested the route is between you and the test site at the time of the speed test.

On ADSL you could guestimate 85% of your sync as the best speed you will get.

Is there one you use that you feel is accurate/consistent?

thanks

Try the Maidstone server on speedtest.net ... at least that is connected to a data centre with a 10Gbit backhaul. Others often only have 1Gbit or less and become congested very quickly as it seems doing speedtests is an every day activity for some people!

Afraid not. Don't worry about speed tests as they rarely indicate the speeds I'll get from the sites I'm actually using.

Different testers use different methodologies e.g. the ookla based ones tend to show the peak speed, where as ours tends towards showing what speed you will get from a sustained non-HTTP download.

Server speedtests are useless for measuring speed of your local network. You need to write your own to run between your devices.

Best way to test your speed is load up a well seeded torrent, run a few http downloads and monitor your bandwidth activity through a program such as Networx or TbbMeter. You should then see a filled green graph going at pretty much a straight line, and you can get your max download speed from that.

Edited by Aaron_01 (Sat 02-Jun-12 20:53:46)

a good program is Jack Dinns Auto SpeedTester, load it up, set it to 58 minutes & leave it to chug through the day. You will then get a chart that shows your speeds throughout the day & an average.

You can also change the site & size of the file you download, depending upon any limits imposed on your connection.

Being on VM30 7Gb am 3.5 afternoon & 1.5 evenings, lets me use some of the larger files, you need these to get a decent reading & the download completes before the true speed is reached.

Here is a sample of Speeds Using Jack Dinns AutoSpeed Tester, note the wide range of results, sources are as far away as Australia. These were done using a VirginMedia 30 mbit connection.

31.8 Mb/s http://speedtest.tweak.nl/1000mb.bin 1000
31.7 Mb/s http://www.bbned.nl/scripts/speedtest/download/file1... 1000
31.7 Mb/s http://test.unet.nl/1000mb.bin 1000
31.6 Mb/s http://speedtest.tweak.nl/250mb.bin 250
31.6 Mb/s http://london1.linode.com/100MB-london.bin 100
30.2 Mb/s http://speedtest.tweak.nl/500mb.bin 500
30.2 Mb/s http://speedtest.tweak.nl/100mb.bin 100
30.1 Mb/s http://noc.cdp.pl/get/500mb.cdp 500
27.4 Mb/s http://download.thinkbroadband.com/50MB.zip 50
27.1 Mb/s http://download.thinkbroadband.com/100MB.zip 100
26.3 Mb/s http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test 100
2.44 Mb/s http://chi01-spd.neosurge.com/1GBtest.bin 1000
19.3 Mb/s http://www.pro-noc.nl/1000mb.bin 1000
17.4 Mb/s http://newark1.linode.com/100MB-newark.bin 100
17.3 Mb/s http://mirrors.nfsi.pt/speedtest/10000mb.bin 1000
16.1 Mb/s http://atlanta1.linode.com/100MB-atlanta.bin 100
13.9 Mb/s http://vinax.net/1GBtest.zip 1000
13.5 Mb/s http://limestonenetworks.com/test500.zip 500
13.3 Mb/s http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test5... 500
12.9 Mb/s http://noc.gts.pl/500mb.gts 500
12.9 Mb/s http://dallas1.linode.com/100MB-dallas.bin 100
11.3 Mb/s http://speedtest.dal01.softlayer.com/downloads/test5... 500
11.1 Mb/s http://208.85.242.69/1g.bin 1000
10.9 Mb/s http://www.singlehop.com/speedtest/500megabytefile 500
10.3 Mb/s http://76.73.0.4/1GBtest.zip 1000
9.52 Mb/s http://95.215.63.211/1000mb.bin 1000
9.27 Mb/s http://fremont1.linode.com/100MB-fremont.bin 100
7.68 Mb/s http://lg.denver.fdcservers.net/1GBtest.zip 1000
6.95 Mb/s http://speedtest.sea01.softlayer.com/downloads/test5... 500
6.04 Mb/s http://tokyo1.linode.com/100MB-tokyo.bin 100
4.04 Mb/s http://mirror.intrapower.net.au/500MB.dat 500
3.68 Mb/s http://test.north.kz/downloads/1000mb.test.txt 1000
1.07 Mb/s http://74.63.66.114/1GBtest.zip 1000
0.670 Mb/s http://67.159.44.209/1GBtest.zip 1000