nanog mailing list archives

Re: Speed Test Results


From: Joel jaeggli <joelja () bogus com>
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:08:43 -0800

On 12/23/11 11:16 , Joel Maslak wrote:
On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 2:18 AM, jacob miller <mmzinyi () yahoo com> wrote:

Am having a debate on the results of speed tests sites.

Am interested in knowing the thoughts of different individuals in regards to this.

It's one data point of many.

Depending on the speed test site, the protocols it uses, where the
test is located, any local networking gear (I've seen transparent
proxies get great speedtest ratings!), etc, they can be useful,
particularly in verifying that a provider's off-net interconnects and
partners are doing well.

However, they are susceptible to things like wireless network issues,
TCP limitations (one stream vs. many streams), and misconfiguration of
devices at the customer location.  And the speed test box isn't
necessarily configured/speced correctly either.

I don't imagine it accounts for l3 emcp either... To be clear, what one
is I assume generally looking for from a speed test is usable throughput
from the vantage point of the end-user running it.

I second the thoughts on NDT and I like the ICSI Netalyzer.  But I
wouldn't necessarily put either tool in most end users' hands (I think
they are too complex for most end users to interpret the results
properly).




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