Reliability of broadband speed tests

I had BT Infinity installed yesterday. It is only 24 hys I know but I hve been running speed tests on a regular basis to see what download speeds I am getting. Before signing up to Infinity I was told by bT I 'should' get around 27MB based on my tel/ line. I have been using the uswitch speed test and that has been reporting between 2MB and 13MB. The average over the past 24hrs has been around 6-7MB ie far, far short of the 27MB I expected! What is worrying is that looking through the forums it appears taht a lot of people find their speed DECREASES after settling in rather than increase which doesn't promise well for the future! What is confusing is that whilst the uswitch test regulraly reports on average 6-7MB when I tried BT's own broadband spped tester it said i had a download speed of around 24MB which was within 'acceptable limits'. This test was done immediately after a uswitch test that said I got a download speed of 8MB! Who is right and can I trust any of these readings? The Infinity guide says to wait for 10 days before reporting any perceived problem with speed but if there is a problem with my setup that is hindering better download speeds I'd want it sorted asap!
PS Just down a test using speedtest.net that said my speed was 17MB this was immediately after uswitch test that said 10MB . Even more unsure now about which speed test to trust!

jimgardner wrote:
I had BT Infinity installed yesterday. It is only 24 hys I know but I hve been running speed tests on a regular basis to see what download speeds I am getting. Before signing up to Infinity I was told by bT I 'should' get around 27MB based on my tel/ line. I have been using the uswitch speed test and that has been reporting between 2MB and 13MB. The average over the past 24hrs has been around 6-7MB ie far, far short of the 27MB I expected! What is worrying is that looking through the forums it appears taht a lot of people find their speed DECREASES after settling in rather than increase which doesn't promise well for the future! What is confusing is that whilst the uswitch test regulraly reports on average 6-7MB when I tried BT's own broadband spped tester it said i had a download speed of around 24MB which was within 'acceptable limits'. This test was done immediately after a uswitch test that said I got a download speed of 8MB! Who is right and can I trust any of these readings? The Infinity guide says to wait for 10 days before reporting any perceived problem with speed but if there is a problem with my setup that is hindering better download speeds I'd want it sorted asap!
Hi there,
Most people use www.speedtest.net as their preferred speedtest site.
You can also try www.thinkbroadband.com for another accurate speedtest.
The thing with some other speedtest sites is that they sometimes don't have the capability to test faster connections, such as infinity, because their site has very limited bandwidth, or a poor implimentation of a java, or even a combination of both.
Also, I would wait for the 10 day period to pass, prior to attempting to log a fault with BT, as this is purely a training period and BT aren't likely to be able to do anything regarding a fault in this time period.
I hope this info helps.

Similar Messages

Difference between BT Broadband Speed Test and all...

I have recently moved to BT Broadband from TalkTalk as I was dissatisfied with the speeds that I was getting with my TalkTalk line – they were OK outside of peak time but woeful in peak time. With TalkTalk, I was on their ‘up to’ 8Mbps which, in practice, translated to about 6Mbps for download outside peak times but dropped to below 1 Mbps in peak (around 500Kbps and sometimes even lower!) – these measurements were taken regularly with both the TalkTalk and Think Broadband speed tests which were usually roughly in agreement and I haven’t had to rely on memory as I downloaded the spreadsheet records available to Think Broadband registered users.
I am now posting this in the hope that somebody can explain the difference between the BT Broadband Speed Checker (Here) and all the others available on the web.
When you are first connected to BT Broadband they warn you that your speeds will vary over the first ten days while they test your line to ascertain optimum speeds for it. During that time, I checked it every day early, mid-day and evening (usually around 0630, 1230 & 2000 hrs) with Think Broadband and, yes, it did vary – the first day it started at around 1Mbps for download but rose to 10Mbps by the end of the day. On the second day, it rose to a peak of 17.8Mbps which was unbelievably fast to use (well, to me anyway) but never reached that speed again as over the rest of the ‘test period’, the download speed dropped and dropped to the point where I am now outside of the BT test period and consistently seeing only 2 to 2.5Mbps over a 24 hour period.
I emphasise that those speeds were all recorded using Think Broadband but I am now doing tests using the BT checker mentioned above and the speeds which BT indicate for downloads are consistently in the 14 to 18 Mbps range. If I do the BT and TB test in quick succession, they generally show the BT calculated speed to be better than that of TB by a factor of around 7 (ie. TB at 2 Mbps whilst BT show 14Mbps). Now either they are measuring different things (or the sams things differently) or one of them is lying – all I know is that my general browsing experience is slower outside of peak times and I can tell by the time it takes to load pages.
I might have misunderstood something in these tests but I am now beginning to regret that I fell I for the BT sales pitch which promised me ‘up to’ 20 Mbps but ‘more likely’ 17 Mbps. I have tried to discuss thisl with BT Broadband technical support but they were no use whatsoever – indeed, I got the impression that he was reading from a script and as it didn’t cover my issue, I was wasting my time – it would also have helped for English to be his first language!
According to the BT test, I am well within their ‘minimum guaranteed access speed’ (Here). for my area (about 4Mbps) and therefore cannot do anything about it. BUT that is only when measured using the BT speed tester – with any other, I am well below. I am beginning to feel very conned and might even start looking to withdraw from BT if I cannot get this settled.
Can anybody help. I will happily post detailed records of my various tests or router stats if they will help.
Thanks in advance.

OK, I have now done all the tests etc. And here are the results:
ADSL Line Status from HomeHub 3
Connection Information
Line state:
Connected
Connection time:
0 days, 00:27:11
Downstream:
23.71 Mbps
Upstream:
1.176 Mbps
ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI:
0/38
Type:
PPPoA
Modulation:
G.992.5 Annex A
Latency type:
Fast
Noise margin (Down/Up):
3.4 dB / 6.4 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up):
5.3 dB / 2.1 dB
Output power (Down/Up):
19.4 dBm / 11.6 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up):
0 / 0
CRC Events (Down/Up):
41 / 24
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up):
20 / 7
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
61 / 13
BT Speed Test Result
Download Speed: 6.59Mbps
Acceptable Range: 4Mbps - 21 Mbps
IP Profile: 21.42Mbps
Upload Speed: 0.99Mbps
Upstream IP Profile: 0.83 Mbps
Think Broadand Speed Test
Download Speed: 1.8 Mbps
Upload Speed: 0.9 Mbps
Uswitch Speed Test
Dowload Speed: 1.7 Mbps
Upload Speed: 0.9 Mbps
For what it's worth, I followed the guidelines for the BT test and took all of the tests within a 10 minute period.
All I know is that my daytime BT connection is nowhere near as fast as I had from TalkTalk. Indeed, it was not even quick enough to watch non-HD YouTube videos earlier this morning without freezing to buffer.

ICM Research Broadband Speed Test Panel

I signed up for the Panel and received a test box which I had connected for the past week.
I noticed that my Broadband usage went up significantly - between 3 and 5 Gigabytes per day!
I did ask ICM Research but received no reply until I got Thinkbroadband (who originally advertised for people to join the Panel) got involved.
They then said that the data transmitted and received was considerable for high speed testing. Apparently they have contacted the ISPs for those who sign up so that, if you are on a limited package, you shouldn't get charged for the extra amount!!
Richard

I'm pleased to see your post, as I am in the same boat, with the Linksys WRT160NL flashing away with its orange light and using up a large amount of my broadband usage, both up and down. It is reassuring to know that this is normal, and I am looking forward to the £25 in due course for my participation. Gordon

Broadband speed testing - any suggestions?

I want to make some broadband speed comparisons - does anyone have any favoured tests that work with Mac?
Thanks!

Hi - Switchebalde, 2 that work with my machine http://myspeed.visualware.com/ and http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ ... Good Luck, Rick
iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD in Slimming Black - HP Pav and Toshiba Sat Mac OS X (10.4.6)

What is the popular broadband speed test app for the iPad?

Realized that speedtest.net app that everyone uses for the iPhone doesn't offically have an app for the iPad (althought you can use the iPhone version on the pad, the resolution is not there.)
What is the popular app for the ipad?

Dayvidpriddy wrote:
How about you "get a life" loser, how often I use something isn't a concern of mine.
I guess most of your 4K posts are mostly bully posts...
Please read the ToU for the forum:
"You must be at least 13 years old to post to the Site. If you are over 13 years old but have not yet reached the age of majority, you must have your parent or guardian's permissions to post to the Site."

Replacement HD reliability and speed tests

Hi,
Does anyone know if there has been a review of replacement HDs anywhere?
I want to replace my 60GB drive with a new, bigger one (running out of space) but want to read some reviews about different manufacturers reliability and comparative speed tests before I buy. - I don't want to go in blind and end up with a noisy, slow drive that crashes after 12 months!
I googled it but go nowhere after an hour!
I've read all the threads here about how to do the change and what spec to look for - thanks (very informative)
Thanks very much for your help.

Thanks - that is just the kind of thing I found - stand alone reviews by a shop.
What I am after is a comparison between competing brands - a Kind of Which? review with a 'best buy' in terms of cost per GB vs performance vs reliability. You know the sort of thing - magazines seem to do it all the time.
I know there has been much talk of 5400 vs 7200rpm - I don't need my mac to be running as fast as possible all the time, so i think that the 7200rpm HDs would be unnecessary - more expensive and I wouldn't use the extra performance.
All I need is more space, so a 160GB 5400rpm drive would be ideal I think.
Thanks

New contract, new hub, same broadband speed.

Went online to look at my broadband options - it suggested I could get 12-17MB/s on a new contract.
So I rang and got a new contract. The new hub arrived, works great.
Now, when I go online to bt.com and run the speed estimator, it suggests I could get only 12MB/s. OK this is right at the bottom end of the initial range, but fair enough.
However, the actual BT broadband speed test says I'm only getting 7.9MB/s - exactly the same as I got before the new contract.
So, my question is, should I actually expect a greater speed? Is BT providing a newer, upgraded form of VDSL? I mean, is there some technical reason why I could expect a greater speed?
(edit) OK I've done a bit of self-help... see some results below. Doesn't help me but maybe somebody can make use of this information. And yes of course I tried the speed test again and it didn't make any difference.

you are on broadband with fibre vdsl which is the same as infinity but because your speed estimate was <15mb BT do not sell infinity where speed is <15Mb but you get broadband with fibre instead. this is still fibre to the cabinet and copper from cabinet to your home - just the same as infinity.
this is the second post recently where the estimate was the checker 'A' speeds but the reality is your line is not good enough for 'A' so you have somewhere between 'A' and the 'B' speed
the diagnostic test normally does work but sometimes you need to try a few times
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Broadband speed slow

My Broadband speed is nowhere near what is advertised.
Is there anything I can do to improve things?
BT Home Hub 3
ADSL Line Status
Connection information
Line state:    Connected
Connection time:    12 days, 15:45:27
Downstream:    5,184 Kbps
Upstream:    448 Kbps
ADSL settings
VPI/VCI:    0/38
Type:    PPPoA
Modulation:    G.992.1 Annex A
Latency type:    Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up):    7.8 dB / 17.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up):    48.5 dB / 31.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up):    19.3 dBm / 12.6 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up):    36918351 / 3940
CRC Events (Down/Up):    64685 / 3271
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):    0 / 11
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):    5 / 11
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):    0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote):    0
HEC Errors (Down/Up):    763004 / 3343
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):    0 / 0
Broadband Speed Test
at 11:20 14th March 2014
From Exchange   5.18Mb
At PC Download   4.54Mb
           Upload   0.36Mb
Quiet Line Test is quiet, no noise.
Master Socket is where the phone line enters the house.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

welcome to the forum where customers help customers
your conenction speed appears about what I would expect for someone with an attenuation of 48/49db on adslmax
your download speed appears consistent with your connection speed suggesting that your ip profile is correct
check speed here
check speed
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Broadband Speed Experiment

Hi I'm going to start posting daily stats in an attempt to prove to BT that the quality of the Broadband they are supplying me is substandard. For info, I am currently connected to the test socket with a brand new filter and ethernet connection to my Mac. ADSL Line Status
Connection Information
Line state:
Connected
Connection time:
11 days, 22:14:36
Downstream:
1.117 Mbps
Upstream:
967.9 Kbps
ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI:
0/38
Type:
PPPoA
Modulation:
G.992.3 Annex A
Latency type:
Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up):
14.7 dB / 5.6 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up):
54.0 dB / 30.9 dB
Output power (Down/Up):
15.0 dBm / 12.6 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up):
0 / 0
CRC Events (Down/Up):
294994 / 7264
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up):
89667 / 4507
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
53793 / 5512
Broadband Speed Test: Results
1.14Mb
Download
0.96Mb
Upload
0.77Mb
The connection speed between your telephone exchange and your Home Hub could be improved. Try using the tips below and then re-test your speed.
The speed coming into your house
The speed you get at your computer
Connection speed 1.14Mb
Could be improved
Download speed
0.96Mb
Upload speed
0.77Mb
Poor
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Router reset. Stats below:
ADSL Line Status
Connection Information
Line state:
Connected
Connection time:
0 days, 00:10:13
Downstream:
1.117 Mbps
Upstream:
999.9 Kbps
ADSL Settings
VPI/VCI:
0/38
Type:
PPPoA
Modulation:
G.992.3 Annex A
Latency type:
Interleaved
Noise margin (Down/Up):
18.6 dB / 6.2 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up):
53.9 dB / 30.8 dB
Output power (Down/Up):
15.0 dBm / 12.6 dBm
FEC Events (Down/Up):
0 / 0
CRC Events (Down/Up):
97 / 53
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):
0 / 0
HEC Events (Down/Up):
47 / 15
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):
24 / 11

Safari - speed tests and pings

Hi
Not sure this is a Safari 6.x or 7.x problem as prior to upgrading to Mavericks I was experiencing similar issues.
On our work network, 200MB leased line, we're connecting our Mac estate over CAT6 yet we're experiencing extremely slow loading and hanging with Safari.
Having run some speed tests using other browsers and Network Utility it's apparent that there is an issue with Safari on upgraded machines and those 'out of the box' machines.
Ping tests on Chrome and NU are approx 1-3ms which is what we would expect (PCs are always 1ms), however in Safari ping tests range from 30-500ms constantly. We cannot get it below 30ms.
We have reset browsers, turned off extensions and still no joy.
Anybody else noticed the difference in speed?
Thanks

I am guessing that you are running a 'broadband' speed-test. These run their tests either in Adobe Flash or Javascript, the web-browser itself cannot do 'pings'. The different therefore is more likely to be how fast either Javascript or more likely Flash runs in a particular browser.
If you want to test a ping test at a computer level then you should either do this in Terminal.app by typing
ping address.to.ping
or use Network Utility which used to be in the Utilities folder but is now in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications
Note: Most broadband speedtest sites do not work well on corporate high-speed leased-lines like yours, they have been designed for testing ADSL level speeds of up to 20Mbps and not leased-lines of 100Mbps or more.
I would not expect a ping response of below 10ms for any host outside your own local network no matter the speed of your link, however anything above 30ms would equally be considered slow for a leased-line. A mobile phone over a mobile data link would (alas) typically get much slower ping responses.

Speed test giving erroneous results

I recently came across a broadband speed test. I have two computers that I use on a regular basis, one of them is in my bedroom and is connected to my BT Hub 2.0 by about 20 feet of lan cable. When I test the speed of my internet on this particular computer it gives me various results depending on when I test. Normally it gives me a result of less than 2 MB download speed, sometimes just less than 3 MB. However, I tested it on my other computer and I couldn't believe the results. The two tests I carried out back to back gave me results of 31 MB download, and 28 MB download. To be quite honest, I don't think these results are correct because as far as I know, BT Internet only provided download speeds up to 20 MB. So what the heck is going on?
http://speedtest.net/index.php
This is my bedroom computer
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/796517901.png[/IMG][/URL]

The best tester is BT's own at : http://www.speedtester.bt.com/
Reason being, it falls within the BT network boundary layer, and is less influenced by other issues, that affect net based testers.
It should be the tester of choice, as Ian as implied.

BT Speed Test Problem

Sorry if this is a silly question
Most of today I have not been able to do a BT Speed Test it keeps saying unable to complete when talking to the hub was wondering if there was a problem at the moment with it - I can get BTW to work with out a problem
Thanks
Maggie 060
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Thank you for your answer yes it did give me spead
Was wondering if there is a problem as this is the message I get my speed has been good for a while I don't want to have hub problems or am I worrying for nothing??
Thanks
Maggie06
Broadband Speed Test
We haven't been able to complete the speed test at this time.
This may be due to a problem with the speed tester, or your line may be running very slowly.
Click here for advice on how to improve your speed >
Click here to try an alternative speed tester >

BTW Speed Test High Ping

This afternoon using the BTW speed test our infinity1 speed dropped from 36/37Mbps to around 24, however testing via speedtest.net and think broadband speed test (along with several others) gave our normal speed and ping (around 30-35 ms) A short while later tests via BTW returned normal speeds but ping is still much higher using BTW than any of the other available test sites.
What could the reason be?

The BTW test could be congested.
If you found this post helpful, please click on the star on the left
If not, I'll try again

Broadband speed of 0.3Mb and yet BT wholesale test...

Frustration at BT Broadband
For the past 10 months DSL was fine, a reasonably steady 3.5 Mb speed. Then for most of last week our BT Broadband connection seemed very slow indeed. Websites were sluginsh and the whole network was slow. A call to BT resulted in them claiming that the network performance was just perfect. Using the BT Wholesale DSL speed test resulted in a test to the router of 4.3Mb.
Then on Saturday the network ground to a halt. Websites would not load and the concept of using the BBC iPlayer for television was alien. After an hour of buffering the iPlayer had downloaded enough content for 6 seconds. Amusingly enough the test programme was the Great Invention series on Communication.
The BT Speedtest refuse to load let alone run. A swift call to BT confirmed a problem that would be rectified.
On Monday BT called to close the call as they regarded the fault as fixed. This is where things get interesting. The performance still seemed super slow, file transfers were taking a huge amount of time and video on YouTube impossible.
I have used two DSL testing sites for some time as well as an iPad app. These tests are run on a Dell PC running Win7 64Bit with 8GB of RAM, by most standards a reasonable to good PC connected to the BT router with Ethernet cable.
DSL reports showed 30K and then 134K. Speedtest.net. showed: 0.29 Meg. QIP Speed Test on an iPAD . recorded 0.3 Mg.
So in summary three different systems show a network speed of about 300K and yet BT claim this is a 4.2Mb connection.
How can this be?

welcome to the BT community forum where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods
in order for the forum members to help please can you post the adsl stats from your router may need to 'show detail' to get all stats (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser and navigate to adsl or use a-z, if netgear enter 192.168.0.1) and run btspeedtester (MAC users may have problems). when first test completes then run diagnostic test and post the results .
are you connected directly via a filter to the NTE5 master or test socket or to somewhere else? Is the master the only phone socket in your home?
Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal
Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem
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Reliable speed test?

I recently changed my service from DSL to cable and, naturally, I was curious about the actual Internet access data rate. I'm paying for 12 Mbps download. One speed test site consistently reports 22 Mbps. Another site has three available servers. I get 8 Mbps from the Parsippany server, 5 Mbps from the Los Angeles server and 1 Mbps (no, that's not a typo) from the Palo Alto server.
In all cases, my upload data rate is reported as 2-3Mbps which, with the Palo Alto test, exceeds the download rate!
What's going on? What is my rate? Is there another site worth looking at?
By the way, I'm in southern New Jersey. Parsippany is in northern New Jersey, perhaps 80 miles distant.

use DSLREPORTS website
just visit google and type in dsl reports speed test and visit the link
the above is for safari web browser test then they have a free app to download as well from the app store

Reliability of broadband speed tests

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