Hello, On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Octavio Alvarez <alvar...@alvarezp.ods.org> wrote: > > On Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:18:40 -0800, jacob miller <mmzi...@yahoo.com> wrote: > >> Am having a debate on the results of speed tests sites. >> >> Am interested in knowing the thoughts of different individuals in regards to >> this. > > > They are just a measurement, which need to be correctly used and > interpreted (that's the difficult part). > > Reading bad numbers is not necessarily an indication of a link problem. > > Reading "good enough" numbers is only meaningful for the duration of the > test. > > To me, the big problem is that they don't state all the details of the > tests (for example, how exactly to they do the transfer). Geographical > location is good, but sometimes not enough. Do they use http, https, ftp > or their own JS implementation of whatever weird protocol they though of? > How do I know if I'm hitting my firewall, web cache or ALG? >
I agree. But one that is fairly clear in what (and how) it tests (but to be fair isn't really a 'speed test') that I've come across is ICSI Netalyzr. It's pretty useful to give a first impression to a tech of what's going on with a link. Take a look at an example report (from a dodgy connection) I dug up: http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/restore/id=43ca208a-28820-e88f1efc-a129-4c92-8968 More info and examples are at http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/ I also think that sometimes having a 'speed test' or similar hosted on a network you are trying to connect to can be useful to find out if a link is congested, or other problems getting from you to that network. An example of this is The BBC's iPlayer diagnostic at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics (think Hulu, but in the UK). It tests to all their CDNs (Akami, Limelight etc) using different streaming methods and gives the results. Only useful as an overview, but a decent first guide nevertheless . > > I only use them to get a generic overview of the link. > Heck yes! Alex
