"Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Virgin Media claims many speed testers available online use 'dirty data' and don't accurately record speeds.

They are concerned that when they launch the 50meg service, it will be difficult for users to verify that they are actually getting that speed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7669713.stm

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

I had to phone VM a few months ago as my 10Mb downhill they had me use fuller.zen.co.uk/test to test my speed

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Dedicated speed tests are naff, I don't use them anymore, I only believe what speeds I get when downloading from the newsgroups, and I have to say, my speed is always maxed out on them.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Whereas VM seem to have a point, this is the magic cop-out card for some tech support agents. I suspect they have already been prepped on this in India. It'll make a change from blaming the firewall I guess.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Down load speed are difficult to quantify.

VM have done a lot of research on this. *


How can I test that I am downloading at my correct speed? *


* Ripped from VM

** ripped from http://broadband-faq.brion.me.uk/

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

The indian call centres usually tell me to use the speedtest at:

http://www.numion.com/

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

To be fair, I have personally experienced a firewall killing download speeds - ZoneAlarm (free) used to limit my downloads to about 3mb when the 10mb package first came out, it took me ages to work out what the problem was (eventually i tracked it down when i noticed that a machine i was reinstalling downloaded much faster, using the same nic type, and a low end cpu).


Back on topic, i've noticed how many speed tests vary tremendously from what i've seen, i've had speeds varying from about <4mb to 19mb from different test sites (or even different servers on the same site) within minutes of each other, so I never pay much attention to them.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk always seems to hit the spot for me.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

The obsession with speed-tests reminds me of my CB days when everyone was obsessed with signal strength and used to spend more time doing tests than actually using the CB to talk about non-CB related topics. Personally, the two private trackers I use max my 20meg any day or night and usenet gets pretty close too. Those are my two main download sources and if they are working 100% then I couldn't care less what a speed-test says, I mean that's the point, it's not about e-penis waving, it's about actually downloading quick enough to justify the price you're paying.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

WOW, CB,that takes me back.

The good old SWR meter :):)

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Totally off topic, but I met my husband through CB radio :D

Our CB is now in the loft but our Antron 99 is still standing poker straight on the roof.

Still use it when travelling down south with modulator on the car, any trucker who sees it on your car will let you in or out etc etc.

Back on topic, I've yet to have a speed test give me an accurate result, I rely on my download speeds for that.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Well if i believed speed tests then why bother with faster than 10mb, the speed test site on here reads
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:02:27 GMT

Test 1: 1024K took 134 ms = 7641.8 KB/sec, approx 62968 Kbps, 61.49 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 192 ms = 5333.3 KB/sec, approx 43946 Kbps, 42.92 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 901 ms = 1136.5 KB/sec, approx 9365 Kbps, 9.15 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 1843 ms = 1111.2 KB/sec, approx 9156 Kbps, 8.94 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 31359 Kbps, 30.63 Mbps
Speedtest.net reads as follows
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2008/10/18.png

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

lol... one nine a rig check!

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Bump with a new bit of info:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/3760.html

Thinkbroadband appear to disagree with Virgin Media's assertion.

I also note that other speed testers appear more than capable of handling 50Mbit as well.

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk - confirmed, measured via 100Mbit result ~90Mbit, uses a customised Ookla tester.

I do partly agree with VM, however speed testers that perform badly are bad speed tests, nothing more. Good ones such as the above happily cope with 100Mbit+

http://members.chello.nl/m.bhola77/120.jpg

Even much maligned speedtest.net is ok, so long as you use the right servers:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/337150440.png

A very poor speed tester that consistently gives bad results on anything apart from low bandwidth links and should be avoided is, amusingly, this one:

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/speed-test.asp

For all their metrics, etc, I have never been able to break around 6Mbit on their tester across two ISPs, while others give a good result. The reason for this is simple. Thinkbroadband and BBMax live off n x GigE kit in Docklands, while this tester lives in a host-it.co.uk datacentre in either Milton Keynes or Northampton and appears to have 100Mbit maximum. Their off the shelf unmetered bandwidth goes up to 50Mbit/s which costs £1050 a month.

Seems a bit strange that various other places in the world that have had 50+Mbit for a while haven't suddenly gone up in arms over speed tests, while the UK, home to the 2nd largest by volume Internet Exchange in the world, suddenly is going to have issues with 50Mbit.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/10/1.png

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/res...1835&v=5411395

Both of those are "acceptable" sites as far as I can see. Tested via my Windows 2003 box co-located in interXion, London.

Tested at home, on my VM 20mbit connection:

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/res...2090&v=5411423 (10mbit)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/10/2.png

Gee - I'm sure pleased I'm paying £36 for this 10mbit quality service. :|

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Post your modem stats here please 192.168.100.1 username and password is root root

also can you post what UBR your connected to

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Not that it'll help - I do ocasionally get 20mbit - occasionally being the operative word. It's oversubscription. Combined with STM, it's just not worth the hassle. Hence I'm leaving.

Edit to add connection: cpc1-hatf2-0-0-cust83.lutn.cable.ntl.com

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

to me, 10mb on 20mb wouldnt mean oversubscription, it would be if they sold it with a contention ratio of anything better than 2:1

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

They avoid mentioning any contention ratios.

Back when I first got cable in 1998, Cable London promised a contention ratio of 20:1 in their terms and conditions. It was used as a selling point because BT ADSL (the only type available then - pre LLU) was a choice between 25:1 (premuim cost) or 50:1.

However, mentioning contention ratios is deliberately avoided now - shame, because it would be an easy way of nailing ISP's to the wall for failing to keep to their side of the contract. They just simply keep piling more and more subscribers onto the UBR & POP's. I am currently getting slower speeds on 20mbit cable than I used to get on ISDN!

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

they probably avoid saying it because it's less relevant now, having 20x20mbit customers fighting over 20mbit of bandwidth would be fine for people who don't use it a lot, but 20 of the high downloaders and it looks worse

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Your downstream power is a little low for an ex ntl connection.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Like I said - I occasionally get 20mbit. Just not today. Or yesterday. Or for more than an hour during 10am-3pm, or 4pm till 11pm...


;)

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

I still find the test here is the most consistant ;

Today I get this ;

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:11:05 UTC

Test 1: 1024K took 453 ms = 2260.5 KB/sec, approx 18627 Kbps, 18.19 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 437 ms = 2343.2 KB/sec, approx 19308 Kbps, 18.86 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 438 ms = 2337.9 KB/sec, approx 19264 Kbps, 18.81 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 890 ms = 2301.1 KB/sec, approx 18961 Kbps, 18.52 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 19040 Kbps, 18.6 Mbps

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Broadband doesn't work on contention ratios but visible contention. In a lightly used area 200:1 might be fine, in a heavily utilised area 20:1 may not be good enough.

Areas are considered oversubscribed when contention becomes visible. No contention ratio is given as it would likely scare people :)

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Was going to post some speedtests but I appear to be getting a bit of congestion this evening.

Download Speed: 9011 kbps (1126.4 KB/sec )
Upload Speed: 708 kbps (88.5 KB/sec )

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Ditto.

I was STM'd from about 17:00 this evening - since about 22:00 I'v ebeen getting 1.4Mbit/sec - nothing more. I used to get 2+Mbit. Congestion/oversubscription etc.

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Back on topic ;) If you look at the detail of the Press Release that VirginMedia made you'll see that they were saying some tests are not as good as others. If Virgin kept their testing environment consistent then this is pretty good insight. Reference this graph;

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...008/11/109.jpg

where you can see several sites (not named) were close at the top, and the rest ranged from not so good to downright bad.

The slide also referes to headline speed so perhaps these results were 20Meg rather than 50Meg?

The whole article is at Hexus.channel

The article also mentions monthly testing so maybe we will see some more in the next couple of weeks.

I'd guess www.thinkbroadband may be predicting some good results so have got their piece in early if they are confident!

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

My issue with said article is this though:

Who cares what the access speed is though? What does it prove if 50Mbit is available inside the Virgin Media network if it's not reachable as soon as you step outside it?

IMHO while it may give a truer picture of your connection to the CMTS it does not give a picture of 'actual throughput' in practise. If there were issues due to routing, bandwidth costs, etc, I'd much rather find them out through a speedtest located at LINX than be constantly told all is fine as I can achieve good performance inside my SP's network.

Thinkbroadband's article demonstrates that they are able to serve 50Mbit to any well connected network, and realistically there is no reason why any ISP in the UK cannot at least provide 50Mbit from their core network to TB or any other site that has sufficient bandwidth - this is what LINX is for.

While it's useful to have an internal speedtest to eliminate issues closer to home I will continue to go offnet to measure my performance. After all, the internet is not hosted on the Virgin Media network, it's merely a conduit to the internet.

Something from these chaps http://www.ookla.com/ on the VM network would be ideal to assist with resolution of access / transport speed issues though!

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

10.33 for a corkscrew

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Just checked Broadbandchoices out and you've made an interesting / confusing point :confused:

Their speedtest is Attachment 17165

It also clearly offers the user a chance to choose "Up to 50Mb" through a drop down, yet it seems from what you say that is the absolute max their host can offer?

Seems like this is (again) the point that VM are making? Why would a site purport to be able to test up to 50Meg when it clearly cannot support that rate?

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

An update on this topic published at Think-Broadband.com

Re: "Don't blame us, blame your speed test"
 

Yup. Interesting stuff.

I posted a brief news article yesterday on this, based on a media briefing that VM sent us.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...ts-the-testers

VM also sent us a Powerpoint presentation of the results for the October testing, which I've attached to this post (zipped as the ppt file is too large to attach).

The speedtest sites are all anonymised, although they have revealed that ThinkBroadband.com was "Hotel" and Speedtest.net London was "Bravo". They were the only two to consistently pass the 20Mbps test, while ThinkBroadband.com was the only one of the ten to consistently pass the 50Mbps test.