Testing upload/download bandwidth speeds for verification

[Robert L Cochran]

Do remember that your final throughput can be influenced by many 
factors. One that hasn't yet been covered is the type of physical wiring 
you have, the age and condition of that wiring, and whether or not it is 
twisted pair (as in "unshielded twisted pair" or "shielded twisted pair" 
Category 5e network cable. Replacing the 40+ year old phone cable 
between my Branch Exchange Protector and my DSL splitter with Cat 5e 
cable resulted in a huge improvement in the quality of the voice signal 
my wife was getting over the phone and the data throughput rate we were 
getting over DSL. I didn't do any measurements but downloads completed 
much more quickly.

Bob

On 08/14/2009 11:29 AM, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
>
> I have been testing my residential ISP/DSL-Landline
> connections and wanted to make sure that I was getting
> what I am paying for. Supposedly, one can use the various
> website based "speed test" tools to determine their upload
> and download speeds.
>
> Are these "speed test" tools credible and can they
> be trusted?
>
> Of the several sites I have tried, they all more or less
> seemed to be in close agreement with one another in
> terms of the bandwidth speeds, i.e. my connection
> speed is quoted at 768KB/s up and 3MB/s down,
> and the farther away from central, the more reduced
> is the speeds are.
>
> The average speed tools says that I have measured
> speeds of 720-30 KB/s up and 2.0-5MB/s down.
>
> Why is it however, that when downloading software
> from the various Linux/M$ and other downloads sites
> I am seeing on average, speeds of 200-320(max) KB/s
> and never see anything much faster than that?
>
> Is this normal?
>
> Has anyone gotten download speeds any faster that
> what I have reported?
>
> What I am trying to determine is if my ISP only shows
> un-throttled speeds between me & them, but then somehow
> throttles my bandwidth usage when I am using the Internet,
> or is it more probable that download speeds are being throttled
> from the download site itself?
>
> Other than by using `speed testers', I have yet to find a download
> site that pushes out more than 2-300KB/s?
>
> I have tried HTTP, FTP & Bittorent and there is very little or no
> speed improvements as far as I can tell.
>
> Just wondering,
> Dan
>