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Speed Test·Does the test ever overestimate speed?
·There are speed tests that claim to be more reliable
·Kilobit = 1000 bits per second
| | | No. It is impossible for this Java-based speed test to overestimate speed. It can, however, underestimate due to prevailing "Internet weather" between you and the test site (which is why, if you are most interested in your last mile speed, finding a nearby test site is important), but it can never overestimate.
If you try a few different test servers, including some of the third-party ones that also use our Java test applet, then the highest speed reported is closest to your last mile speed.
Don't forget that protocol overhead will mean that you never reach the actual speed advertised by your ISP. In some cases, especially PPPoE connections, you can lose almost 15% of advertised speed in protocol overhead.
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edited by JMGullett 
last modified: 2007-05-02 10:24:28 | | | The fact is, 90% of the speed tests out there are junk. They provide results that are not reproduceable from run to run. There is at least one speed test (visualware) that offers ISPs a server-side program that claims to eliminate all speed test error. If your ISP is prepared to locate a speed test server inside its network, then it will give you the most accurate measure for last mile speed -- but is that the speed you are most interested in? Or are you more interested in testing whether your ISP is well connected to the Net and can give you full speed to many high performance download servers?
Either way, we have a large selection of Java-based speed tests located both in ISPs and elsewhere on our speed test list. If your ISP is one of those, then you will probably be able to test last mile speed the best by using their local test server. If you are interested in real world test results, then pick another well-connected server. It is your choice.
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edited by JMGullett
last modified: 2007-05-02 10:28:24 | | | For the purposes of presenting speed test results, we adopt the data communications convention of k = 1000, not k = 1024. For example, 28.8k modems ran at 28800 bits per second, and 56k modems ran at 56000 bits per second.
The transfer rate expressed as kilobytes per second is based on 1024 as per data storage conventions.
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edited by JMGullett
last modified: 2007-05-02 10:29:38 |
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