| reachme |
05-16-2017 08:59 AM |
There is a problem with these internet speed tests. A couple problems really which is why you are finding variability..
1. You are not measuring speed at all, you are measuring throughput capacity. The (propagation) speed of a signal over fiber is about the same as a signal over copper. Add in very necessary but comparably very slow devices to boost and route the signal along the way and it’s a wash. But you are not so concerned with speed to transfer 1 bit of data, if you want to stream a movie and that is more like a constant stream of semi trucks. Those “semi trucks” are more affected by routing slowdowns so “speed” of signal is irrelevant.
2. The “Internet” is not a single place and nothing has a direct connection. Most likely your work computer goes out through your corporate headquarters which could be in Texas even though you live in Maine and who knows where the speed rating site is. If you want to find out then download a utility called traceroute which can show you all the different routers your signal traverses. That is more significant and variable than what this speed site says.
3. People also confuse latency with throughput capacity for a “slow” link. Latency is especially critical with gaming. When you are on the phone talking you expect the other person to say “ok” every once in a while or you will stop talking. Computers are the same. You do not want that movie site to stop sending and that is often set by negotiated protocol window sizes on each side. If you have small window then any link can seem jittery so you can cover up high latency on a big movie download but not with gaming and this is more about your connection to other people rather than a speedtest site.
4. The measurement changes constantly. The route your traffic takes can change several times every second. The conditions on each of those routes and devices change constantly and other traffic will have higher priority. The traffic you send for the speed test has a completely different priority and route than the gaming you do a second later.
There are lots of other things like max packet sizes, error correction, caching hosts, backbone routing levels etc. Now "speed tests" can be very accurate between themselves but have little to do with anything else you are doing over the internet.
It is not like the old telephone system where you got a dedicated link for the duration of your call. Today it is all broken up into tiny packets that all go their own way. If you want deterministic speed then drag a wire from your computer to every other computer you want to connect to like the old days and you will quickly realize why things went this way.
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