[PLUG] Tool to test internet speed

John Meissen john at meissen.org
Wed Feb 17 23:00:07 UTC 2016


keithl at kl-ic.com said:
> Various websites like "internet speed test" are usually too optimistic; they
> connect to test servers with good bandwidth and low congestion.  But most let
> you choose the test server. I often select a test server in Boston or Atlanta
> or Miami to test the whole internet, not just my last mile of it.

Isn't that the whole point? You want to know if your physical connection is 
running at its rated speed, not the Interweb as a whole. To know that you have 
to eliminate as much latency from the rest of the route as possible.

When I had Aracnet I would test by ftp'ing a file from my system to the ftp 
server at Aracnet, which was as close as I could get to a direct link. With 
something like Comcast or Frontier the best you can do is a speed test that 
talks to a system on their internal network. That's usually good enough.

john-





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