Just an observation

[Hex]

Noticed something unusual over the past few days, not sure if its just a coincidence, or some new bandwidth saving trial, but anyway. A few times after my connection has been borderline idle (just MSN, a few web pages etc) I've fired up the speedtest on the forums and it tends to report it at around 4-7mb, which is fast enough for your average website.
Wondering if this was the actual speed or not I fire up GrabIt and pick a random file to download to test the speed, and off it goes at 1.2MB/s.
Once it's stopped I check the forums speed test again and it reads the usual 9.5-9.7mb

Is this some kind of new bandwidth saving system, reducing or increasing bandwidth as needed (sounds a bit far fetched I know, but possibly a good idea if you stop and think about it...) or just a coincidence?

[Toto]

No, its the way speed tests work compared to actually downloading.

[Hex]

Shame, it would seem to be a good idea.

Anyway, care to elaborate on your previous post?

[Mr Clean]

It's quite simple really. Speedtests are 9 times out of 10 useless. Grabbing something from a NewsServer or a decent http server with Linux ISO's or something is a much better way to get an accurate recording of how your connection is performing.

Speedtests are usually being used by more people than just you and only have a limited bandwidth themselves for users to take the test files from and they just cant cope and give you a good recording.

That Speedtest.net has never given me a decent test on my 10Mb yet but I can leech @ 1.2MB/s all day everyday on other sources.

JG

[Hex]

It's quite simple really. Speedtests are 9 times out of 10 useless.

Believe me I'm well aware of that. What I was after was a reply to Toto's post on how the difference in the way they works means a lower result before a download and a higher result after.