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Thread ID: 107158	2010-02-06 19:42:00	Speedtest	Greg (193)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
855812	2010-02-07 22:56:00	Don't believe a speedtest, just did one and got 10mbps down / 0.13 up / 163 ping on ADSL2, yet to watch a 2 min youtube video will take a lifetime to buffer, and everything else is slow as .... How much difference can a router make? Am still using the free gen 2 wireless one from telecom (dont actually use wireless and am with Xnet) but can no longer stand this crap speed. Why should you not "believe" a Speedtest? It has no relationship to download from YouTube or any other site, it is only testing/measuring the speed of your internet connection to and fro the Speedtest server you select at that moment in time. The connection speed, line attenuation and signal to noise figures from your router/modem are the significant ones.	Terry Porritt (14)
855813	2010-02-07 23:55:00	You'll never get anything good from youtube. Even downloading an FLV from them the max I get is 90kb/s. Took me under 20 mins to download a linux ISO though. (3.7 or 3.9 gb). Which ain't bad at all. It's not just you who matters, it's also the source. I have found that a lot of the porn video sites are MUCH faster than youtube. Youtube just grew too big, too fast and they aren't doing enough to cope with the load. (As well as them having one of the worst video players right now.) TMI! Let's not go there.... ;)	johcar (6283)
855814	2010-02-08 00:14:00	You'll never get anything good from youtube. Even downloading an FLV from them the max I get is 90kb/s. In the not-too-distant past, I could easily get 270kb/s off youtube. And that was with a single-thread download-manager! Try 2.2mb/s off revision3! Oh fiber, how I miss you :( Why should you not "believe" a Speedtest? I've heard of ISP's giving speed test traffic priority, thus inflating the figure falsely.	ubergeek85 (131)
855815	2010-02-08 01:20:00	I can't give any numbers from buffering off Youtube (was just an example, get crap speeds from porn sites too, any video sites, ANY sites) Am comparing to my brothers connection who lives in Belfast and is with a different ISP, different router. He can fully buffer a video (on youtube) by the time I've buffered about 10 seconds of the same video myself. He can download a 800mb movie in less than 20, 30 mins. I can download one in 3 hours if I'm lucky. Here's the fun part. He get's 10mbps down on a speedtest. So do I. Show me the fact in that.	--Wolf-- (128)
855816	2010-02-08 01:57:00	I can't give any numbers from buffering off Youtube (was just an example, get crap speeds from porn sites too, any video sites, ANY sites) Am comparing to my brothers connection who lives in Belfast and is with a different ISP, different router. He can fully buffer a video (on youtube) by the time I've buffered about 10 seconds of the same video myself. He can download a 800mb movie in less than 20, 30 mins. I can download one in 3 hours if I'm lucky. Here's the fun part. He get's 10mbps down on a speedtest. So do I. Show me the fact in that. What fact do you want to be shown ?? He is in Belfast, you are in NZ, so how can any comparison be in any way conceivably meaningful. He is not at the end of an n thousand mile long S-Cross cable. The 10Mbps speed you get on a speed test is the speed of a speed test, is the speed of a speed test, is the speed of a speed test. Shall I repeat myself again ? :) Your router figures will give the speed to your nearest cabinet, the attenuation will give you an estimate of the distance from the cabinet, and the speed test will measure the speed from the speed test server to your computer.....that is all. Here are some traceroutes to YouTube, and to the Wellington City Link server option on Speedtest: www.imagef1.net.nz Notice the extra nodes to go through to get to YouTube. Whether or not an ISP gives priority to speedtest is neither here nor there, it is still a measure of what the connection is capable of, and that is all the speedtest is meant to do.	Terry Porritt (14)
855817	2010-02-08 02:00:00	I can't give any numbers from buffering off Youtube (was just an example, get crap speeds from porn sites too, any video sites, ANY sites) Am comparing to my brothers connection who lives in Belfast and is with a different ISP, different router. He can fully buffer a video (on youtube) by the time I've buffered about 10 seconds of the same video myself. He can download a 800mb movie in less than 20, 30 mins. I can download one in 3 hours if I'm lucky. Here's the fun part. He get's 10mbps down on a speedtest. So do I. Show me the fact in that. ISP's use different hops especially once your international. This most effects single source like Youtube. Downloading multi-source the speed is usually a lot faster obviosuly. Keep in mind also a lot of content is cached in NZ and you wont know it which may explain "some" of that difference. Speedtest is just single source, its just testing the single source connection to the specific Speedtest server. Some ISP's will be slower and others faster just like slower and faster to other download servers, that's excluding throttling and local factors like distance to exchange etc, its all a bit of a lottery. Best basic way to think of the Speedtest result is "my connection is at least this fast", I don't see any value in a test that is often 50% out due to hops. Nothing beats doing a multisource download from a known fast source to get a accurate indication of your true broadband performance.	Battleneter2 (9361)
855818	2010-02-08 02:09:00	He is in Belfast CHRISTCHURCH. Sorry should've pointed that out, I'm in a different area in Chch. My point is, the speedtest is misleading. He gets 10mpbs, I get 10mbps. That means nothing when I can't do anything anywhere near as fast as him. The way I see a speedtest - 'My connection is never this fast, will never be this fast, is just a number which means nothing unless I want to see how fast I can do a speedtest, which again means nothing'	--Wolf-- (128)
855819	2010-02-08 02:33:00	He is in Belfast CHRISTCHURCH. Sorry should've pointed that out, I'm in a different area in Chch. My point is, the speedtest is misleading. He gets 10mpbs, I get 10mbps. That means nothing when I can't do anything anywhere near as fast as him. The way I see a speedtest - 'My connection is never this fast, will never be this fast, is just a number which means nothing unless I want to see how fast I can do a speedtest, which again means nothing' :) I see, reminds me of the 2 Degree advert, talking about Cambridges all over the place, and the real Cambridge in NZ, whereas everyone knows the real Cambridge is in England. en.wikipedia.org Sounds as though you have a problem, possibly with your ISP. Can you easily change ISPs ? Edit: for interest, have you tried doing a speakeasy test to different parts of the US? www.speakeasy.net	Terry Porritt (14)
855820	2010-02-08 03:30:00	Xnet has gone to crap, don't know who else to change to as there is no cable in my area and Xnet is pretty cheap. Just did some tests on that site: LA: Download Speed: 1401 kbps (175.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 97 kbps (12.1 KB/sec transfer rate) NY: Download Speed: 1704 kbps (213 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 136 kbps (17 KB/sec transfer rate) DC: Download Speed: 1470 kbps (183.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 134 kbps (16.8 KB/sec transfer rate)	--Wolf-- (128)
855821	2010-02-08 04:02:00	With Orcon I get from around 1700kbps to about 2600kbps on those Speakeasy sites, maybe a bit faster than your results, NY was the same as yours. My plan is nominally 8Mbps down and 128kbps upload, though the line is Telecom ADSL2+ enabled, and the router reports 13551 kbps down. Orcon haven't got their gear in the local cabinet. I expect that will be a year or two away yet. With the NZ speedtest site I get around 3.8 Mbps, sometimes more when traffic is light. Edit: most times on YouTube but not always, the video loads faster than it plays.	Terry Porritt (14)
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