I have reason to doubt the accuracy of the speed tester. For a few years I have been on Telewest( now virgin ) broadband. Until recently I was on the 4 MB package and the speed tester was showing around 3.5 Mb averages. With this I was quite content alowing for the reported slow speed of other ISP's. I have now been upgraded (free of charge) to 10 MB but the speed tester only showed an increase up to around 5 MB. I took this matter up with Virgin media and after a phone discussion they accepted that, while the modem that I had should be able to handle the increased speed, they sent me a new moden to try. This was exactly the same so they sent out an engineer. After looking at Broadband choices speed tester the engineer tried 4 other speed testers, 1 that the engineers regularly use and 3 more at random from the internet. All 4 speed testers gave readings above 7.5 MB with the best 2 giving over 9MB ! I therefore conclude that there is a problem with the Broadband Choices speed tester
If the speed tester you were using previously is our downloadable one, and the ones the engineer used are online testers, then i'd say it's the online testers that are inaccurate.
I'd also say there's a problem with canny Virgin Media engineers, who know how speed testers work, tactically using speed testers that will show their service in the best light, wouldn't you?
Our speed tester attempts to max out your connection by sending you a file of a known file size. This is an accurate way of measuring someone's speed.
And unless the engineers used a third party speed tester, I wouldn't take their results seriously as they clearly have an agenda. Also, I'm fairly sure those 3 other speed testers weren't exactly "at random".
As I was the one who chose the random 3rd party speed testers ,I am quite satisfied that the overall results that were achieved were consistantlyfar better that Broadband Choices speed tester
Well im completely stumped, When i download a file, I can reach speeds of arround 450kbs on my 4mg internet, yet the broadband speed testers says that i have 0.37mg internet?
... So two days ago, I phoned virgin media, who had infact been overcharging me by about £15 every month, gave me 20meg internet for less than i was paying before, so today I check my internet speed again, and the average said I had arround 0.5meg internet, yet i can download files at 1.8meg a second...
I'm completely confused as to what is causing such bad results :/
I should have checked forum first, but I've just posted new topic - Speed Tester Hiccup! which mirrors your scenario's.
I've not had any engineers out so all speedtesters I have used were my choice. Although virgin asked me to go to microsoft site to download any trial program, I have used this before to test download speed, so no favourtism there!
I've followed e-mail feedback from broadband choices re open programs, startup programs , Iplayer etc etc etc complied where appropriate but still get exactly same results. Running alternatives immediately give far better results. I can only conclude not all is well with the speed tester and I've uninstalled and ensured I've download latest version (2.1?)
. I'm not being funny or anything but the speed test software is completely, and probably deliberately innacurate. I have observed my download and upload rates everytime I send and recieve files and I am 100% sure of my actual speeds. I installed this software as a convenient way of monitoring during normal PC operations. I am a PC engineer and as far as I can tell the only reason for this program to so badly mis-report speeds is to promote the speed optimizing sofware (ONSPEED) advertised on this site..... Which you have to pay for I might add.
My advise to people thinking of buying "Onspeed" (because of supposed bad rates reported by BroadbandChoices.com's online and downloadable tests) is don't
For those of you who are doubtfull about what I am saying, I am posting my eMail (Below) to send anyone who wants an image that will show my download speeds running way beyond the max 1.9Mb/s that have reported to date. Note that speeds are shown in KB/s not Kb/s in the screen capture of a download I did.
BroadbandChoices.com's online and downloadable tests = Max 1.9 Mbits/s about 1,900 Kbits/s or 190 KBytes/s about 0.19 MBytes/s.
My observations and every other test out there = Max 5.9 Mbits/s, about 5,900 Kbits/s or 590 KBytes/s, about 0.59 MBytes/s.
Speed tester accuracy
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 15:12:38
. I'm not being funny or anything but the speed test software is completely, and probably deliberately innacurate.