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I've tried a bunch of broadband speed tests. Up until the last year or so, they usually agreed fairly closely when measuring my connection. Recently, the reported speeds have been much more diverse. I've read that Flash-based tests are all currently unreliable due to technical limitations in the current versions of Flash, so I've been trying non-Flash tests as well, but the results are inconclusive.
Why do the results vary so much? Is my ISP gaming the results of speed tests somehow? Is there a truly accurate test out there? I'd like to be able to say to my ISP that "test X is known to be accurate and it shows my speed is less than it should be."
Here are some of the results I've gotten recently, on a Shaw Cable plan in Canada (25 Mbps down; 2.5 Mbps up) (all speeds in Mbps - Down / Up):
- Speedtest.net (Flash): 24.27 / 2.37
- NCSI Netalyzer (Java): >20 / 2.4
- TestMy.net (HTML5/PHP): 3.5 / 2.1
- SpeedOf.me (HTML5): 9.03 / 2.55
- BandwidthPlace (HTML5): 2.4 / 2.25
- AuditMyPC (Java): 31.7 / 2.61
- Shaw's speed test (Flash): 22.94 / 2.21
- Speedguide.net (PHP): 3.54 / 2.22
- Speed.io (Flash): 23.42 / 0.59
- Speakeasy (Flash): 9.32 / 2.29
- Internet Frog (Flash): 5.38 / 1.61
- DSLReports speed test (Flash): 3.81 / 1.95
Ask your ISP which one THEY trust. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-04-20T14:26:07.897
@techie007: They're going to tell me to trust their own test, listed above as "Shaw's speed test". But with my cynic hat on, it seems obvious that it's in their best interest to fudge those results. Unless you're saying that I should ask which one they trust, then NOT trust that one at all. – boot13 – 2013-04-20T14:38:44.370
I'm suggesting that if you're going to complain about the speeds you're getting, you have to base it on the tool they trust, or they'll just blame the tool. :) Really as others have mentioned, time of day, weather, server traffic, network traffic, etc. ALL play a huge part in how accurate a speedtest is at any given time. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-04-20T14:41:07.947
@techie007: Although I didn't mention it in the question, the speeds I quoted are fairly consistent. The tests that show download speed at ~4 Mbps do that consistently; same for the ones that show download speed at ~24 Mbps. I've run the tests on weekdays, in the middle of the night, etc. and while there is some variation, the general result is basically the same. – boot13 – 2013-04-20T14:54:20.400