ThinkBroadBand Speedtest

[kwikbreaks]

In my ADSL days the ThinkBroadBand speed tester always gave me results in line with other decent quality testers. Since moving to cable it always gives results that are way down on what I see from decent Speedtest.net servers.

This isn't just a case of TBB reporting average speeds while others show peak speeds as suggested by MrSaffron on TBB as a Networkx graph clearly shows it really does run slower. Some of the difference but not all may be down to the number of connections used. It can't be congestion either as was suggested - at least not at 6:30am when I did one of the tests.

MrS claims that he sees VM tests that hit headline speeds yet mine never do whereas Speedtest.net virtually always shows close to 50Mbps for me even when the upstream is a bit down.

Does anybody here see results from TBB in line with their product speed or do you all see lower as I do?

Standard http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

Flash http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/broadband.html

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/131331201484358912472.png (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/131331201484358912472.html)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/93.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[qasdfdsaq]

For me it's scoring a lot lower right now, but since my connection is currently b0rked my experience isn't really going to be a reliable indicator.

IMO it's mostly down to the number of connections. Speedtest.net uses 4, and I presume TBB uses one. VM connections suffer the biggest drop when going from multithreaded to single threaded testing, that seems to match what I'm getting right now (10mbps on TBB, 40mbps on ST). The 50mbps package is more affected by this than others.

There's also the fact that the peering links between VM and TB are pretty bad - as can be seen from the peak time packet loss already mentioned elsewhere, the path between VM and TB is close to full capacity and quite congested.

And finally, yes ST uses some funny weighting that reports closer to peak speeds, so I think it's a combination of all 3 factors.

[Cycobac]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/131331597462999813024.png


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/92.png


i always find Thinkbroadband Speed test return lower results.
:D

[kwikbreaks]

Yours look fair - probably the average v peak way of presenting the results. Notice that TBB actually reported as faster than mine on 50Mbps.

Strange stuff.

[Cycobac]

lol.. Could Be the SuperHUB ! Everything else is blamed on that !
I cant complain about the Speed, Had the Superhub since install, one of the lucky few who hasnt had any issues..

[kwikbreaks]

lol.. Could Be the SuperHUB !
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< errrrmm

[qasdfdsaq]

No you don't get it, the existence of everyone else's superhubs is bad karma and making your connection feel bad for being better, so it has to bring itself down to their level to stop feeling guilty.

[kwikbreaks]

Be interesting to see what TBB reported for Edinburgh University which your link in the other thread shows as close on half a gig on speedtest London.

6:30 am pretty much rules out congestion so why this difference.....

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/67.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/131355844717576712977.png (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/131355844717576712977.html)

http://www.kwikbreaks.webspace.virginmedia.com/networx2.jpg

[Cycobac]

No you don't get it, the existence of everyone else's superhubs is bad karma and making your connection feel bad for being better, so it has to bring itself down to their level to stop feeling guilty.



lol... maybe it is Karma....

[Blairhoyle]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/131360188759091818841.png (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/131360188759091818841.html)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/56.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[qasdfdsaq]

Be interesting to see what TBB reported for Edinburgh University which your link in the other thread shows as close on half a gig on speedtest London.


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/53.png

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/131361281819972320818.png

And my home connection (broken VM 50mb):

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/54.png

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/131361328561911320886.png

So not only is the typical VM internet connection slower than my mobile phone, but the fastest VM connection available in the area is also a huge amount slower now too!

[KungFuKitty]

Just browsing but.. thinkbroadband's speedtest cards look rly nice lol

[Nicosia]

Speedtest.net shows me getting full 30/3mbit speeds but your speed test site is showing..

Broadband Speed Test Result - 11.99 Mbps (down); 2.63 Mbps (up)

[horseman]

Speedtest.net shows me getting full 30/3mbit speeds but your speed test site is showing..

Broadband Speed Test Result - 11.99 Mbps (down); 2.63 Mbps (up)

Depends what speed you're trying to test, if you're trying to benchmark your ISP connection then try a UDP capacity test and avoid the TCP overheads(eg TCP Reno,congestion,slowstart algorithms and application shaping etc):
http://mcslhr.visualware.com/myspeed/mycapacity_50mb.html

[Nopanic]

VMNG300
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13145203654340778666.png (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/13145203654340778666.html)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/13.png

both **** as I max out with downloads 24/7.

---------- Post added at 09:37 ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 ----------

The times are wrong too .. unless I've gained an hour somewhere ..

[kwikbreaks]

The times are wrong too .. unless I've gained an hour somewhere ..
Both show time as GMT not BST

[caph]

I've got to agree with NoPanic. Neither of these sites are a reliable test for 50Mbit. In fact the only one I find reliable is bbmax.

Thinkbroadband is currently giving me 20.4 down and 3.9 up.
Speedtest is currently giving me 40.2 down and 4.6 up.
BBmax is currently giving me 49.6 down and 4.7 up.

Given that everyone who has posted so far is getting much lower speedtests on Thinkbroadband than other tests then the logical conclusion is that the Thinkbroadband speedtest is no longer up to the job.

Choose a more reliable speed tester and worry no longer.

[Nopanic]

shut up :)

---------- Post added at 10:26 ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 ----------

BBmax doesnt have long enough to test my 100Mb ..

The VM techs site for testing gives me ..

Last Result:
Download Speed: 85632 kbps (10704 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 9280 kbps (1160 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 12 ms
28 August 2011 10:26:18


Last Result:
Download Speed: 87536 kbps (10942 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 9342 kbps (1167.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 13 ms
28 August 2011 10:26:51

[kwikbreaks]

The BBMax test is way way too short for testing even 50Mbps imo.

I think it's more than just the TBB tester not being up to the job Nopanic got 60Mbps+ out of it so it should be OK for 50Mbps and for me it isn't.

I've given up on TBB already as it doen't give results I can use (ie is my connection running a bit slow or is the site I'm downloading from slow). I only started the thread to see what others got from it.

[TJS]

It's just an appalling speedtest. always has been. always will be.


http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13145260506991639415.png (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/13145260506991639415.html)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/11.png

---------- Post added at 11:11 ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 ----------

p.s. have a read through this

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33678095-thinkbroadband-speed-test-improved.html

---------- Post added at 11:16 ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 ----------

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/08/12.png

[kwikbreaks]

p.s. have a read through this

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33678095-thinkbroadband-speed-test-improved.htmlAhhh - I posted in that - I'd forgotten this had been discussed here before. It was somebody complaining on TBB reminded me of the subject again.

[caph]

The BBMax test is way way too short for testing even 50Mbps imo.

I think it's more than just the TBB tester not being up to the job Nopanic got 60Mbps+ out of it so it should be OK for 50Mbps and for me it isn't.


BBMax is one of the most reliable and has been for a long time. Even though it is short it accurately gets my 50Mbit speed correct time after time and the same goes for other PCs I've tested and across different providers. Go figure.

I think it is entirely TBB not being up to the job. NoPanic got 60Mbit out of it when testing 100Mbit. I got 20 out of it when testing 50. As you can see, it is consistently measuring roughly 50% of the actual speed (and even less for some). It's simply not up to the job anymore.

[TJS]

BBMax is one of the most reliable and has been for a long time. Even though it is short it accurately gets my 50Mbit speed correct time after time and the same goes for other PCs I've tested and across different providers. Go figure.

I think it is entirely TBB not being up to the job. NoPanic got 60Mbit out of it when testing 100Mbit. I got 20 out of it when testing 50. As you can see, it is consistently measuring roughly 50% of the actual speed (and even less for some). It's simply not up to the job anymore.

BBMax is accurate for me to :)

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/results.php?t=1314547715&v=13588630