Speedtest.net - Unreliable???

A

Ashton

2[H]4U
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Nov 13, 2004
Messages
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This is something strange I've come up against lately with my cell phone (if this belongs in the mobile phones forum, I apologize) When I run a speedtest on my phone (using the speedtest.net app) I'm getting insanely low speeds, 300kbps is a SPIKE and often I get 80kbps or less... but the phone reliably loads webpages quickly...

Today I instead went to an old standby, toast.net and did their (non-app/non-flash) speedtest, and it consistently got 1.2-1.8mbps, spiking at 2.2mbps! This is consistent with the speed the websites load at, and with what speeds I've always gotten on this connection in the past...

So is Speedtest.net not reliable? is it unreliable for cellular only? or is toast.net misreporting my speeds?
 
Cell phone you got a ad driven copy, I notice the cpu running the ad at the same time sometimes chugs it or gives it an inaccurate reading. Another thing is, make sure you set to smoothest performance vs smoothest graphics, and lay it down on a flat surface. Example, if you're testing wifi disable 3G/4G.
 
Its not bad for a real computer, but I've had iffy results sometimes on phones.
 
http://testmy.net/mobile/details


Almost always pretty accurate for a website based test(a lot are garbage).Works well on my HTC One X.Make sure, whether your testing a phone or PC,that you choose a close server to you.I think the "SmartTest" lets you choose,or maybe all of them i forget.



It's also one of the only websites that gives you a accurate speed result on a PC with Powerboost(Comcast).It keeps scaling in test size till you maintain a download for at least 7 seconds,making sure its not just Powerboost.

For the most accurate,,,,this only applies to PC(i think, don't know if it will run on a smart phone) as its a download....It also will give you an accurate result even with Powerboost. It's called ShaperProbe...

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~partha/diffprobe/shaperprobe.html


For shits and giggles here are some cool/interesting network tests....

http://measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools



And for download,another VERY good tool to mess around with(trial for all their software)

http://www.myconnectionpc.com/index.html

Business edition of this one and the other they make(Visual Route),are the most feature rich.All the different programs they make are pretty interesting to mess with.They also have a web based version of all of programs,but i don't think they are as accurate as running them locally. Unless they have changed it,all versions are included in the trial you download,you just go into options and pick the version you wish to run.



.
 
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Thank you all! I re-tested with the sites listed and got consistant speeds of ~1.2mbps!

Looks like speedtest is simply not accurate on Sprint/CDMA devices (my ATT iPad with HSPA+/LTE reported speeds that were identical on speedtest and the other sites) I even got my old flip-phone out, tethered it and ran the test, again Speedtest.net reported <500kbps while the other sites reported ~1.2mbps.
 
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