Broadband speed testing

[waylandzoo]

I have 20 gig Virgin Media broadband and the speed tester via ComputerActive magazine checks the speed hourly automatically.
This gives 13 gig with small variations each way.
When I use Speedtest.net, the usual answer is about 21 gig, when I use ZDNet UK speedtester the answer is usually 6 to 8 gig.
How come these big differences and which one is right, does anyone know?

[Richy99]

never trust a speed test there are too many factors to take into account

[r00t]

Try this
http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blu...h/ifhsetup.exe
What speed do you get?

[xpod]

20gig????
Will i need a new modem for that???

Sorry,just joking.....but me thinks you mean 20Mb
The best way to test your speed is download some files from Virgin or MS etc.Somewhere with good bandwidth you will get a reasonably reliable result with.

Speedtest are about as much use as having a guess based on browsing speeds if you ask me.

[waylandzoo]

Originally Posted by r00t

Try this
http://gamefiles.virginmedia.com/blu...h/ifhsetup.exe
What speed do you get?

As it downloaded the speed in the last column started at about 1600kB/s and finished at about 1300.

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by waylandzoo

I have 20 gig Virgin Media broadband and the speed tester via ComputerActive magazine checks the speed hourly automatically.
This gives 13 gig with small variations each way.
When I use Speedtest.net, the usual answer is about 21 gig, when I use ZDNet UK speedtester the answer is usually 6 to 8 gig.
How come these big differences and which one is right, does anyone know?

I note that, when testing the speed via a test download from a capable source such as a news group, that it takes a quite a little while for the download to reach full speed. Now this could indicate that my newsreader is mis-reporting the speed or it could mean that quite a large amount of data must be throughput before a true reading is arrived at. I prefer the latter explanation and would hazard an opinion that the test sample size used on most speed test sites is insufficient to test a 20mbps connection accurately.
Lack of consistency could be attributed to the browsers cache entering the equation and further muddying the water.