[147839] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: Speed Test Results
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brandon Kim)
Fri Dec 23 09:48:02 2011
From: Brandon Kim <brandon.kim@brandontek.com>
To: nanog group <nanog@nanog.org>
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:46:59 -0500
In-Reply-To: <2E6C90F0-61A6-42EB-86EE-40C65123C033@consultant.com>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
I love using speedtest. My FIOS at home is 25/25. And speedtest consistentl=
y hits that mark
so I know FIOS is giving me what I paid for.
When Verizon was having internet issues last week my numbers were bad.=20
Like someone else said=2C I would not use it much more for quick gauge. To =
get more granular info
you should be using other tools....
> Subject: Re: Speed Test Results
> From: james.cutler@consultant.com
> Date: Fri=2C 23 Dec 2011 09:02:01 -0500
> To: nanog@nanog.org
>=20
>=20
> On Dec 23=2C 2011=2C at 8:07 AM=2C Paul Stewart wrote:
>=20
> > In my opinion they are only "somewhat reliable" if they are on your net=
work
> > or very close to your network -we operate one of the speedtest.net site=
s and
> > for our own eyeball traffic find it to be a "reasonable indicator" of w=
hat
> > kind of speeds the customer is getting.
> >=20
> > To put it a different way=2C if a customer is getting 20X1 Internet ser=
vice
> > and the speedtest shows 17 X 0.8 then case closed - if they are getting=
a
> > speedtest result of 5 X 0.5 then our helpdesk will take a further look =
-
> > this is really in rough terms...
> >=20
> > Paul
>=20
> From the consumer viewpoint:
>=20
> No single data point should be extrapolated to infinity=2C but comparing =
problematic behavior with "normal" behavior is a standard process across al=
l fields.
>=20
> Speed tests from several locations done regularly give a baseline for per=
formance. Major departure from expected numbers from a set of speed test s=
ites can be regarded as an indicator of local loop problems. Did you know t=
hat local loops suffer from backhoe fade? And=2C DSLAMS fail.
>=20
> In my home office=2C speed tests are just another useful diagnostic helpi=
ng to locate problem areas - just like in Paul's example. DSLReports line =
monitoring service is a similarly useful tool.
>=20
> James R. Cutler
> james.cutler@consultant.com
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
=
