How to verify what you paid for is what you get.

[bobcov]

Hi,
How can I verify that I have a 100 meg line to the Internet and that it is not being selectively shaped in some unknown way?
I've tried various speed tests sites, but who is to say which, if any, are accurate? I also downloaded known files from Microsoft and gotten abysmal times...for example, 316 mb in 7 minutes. The same file from a Seattle location downloads in under a minute. I'm thinking I need a broad sample of different download and upload tests which I can recreate in various geographic locations in order to get a profile of performance.
The vendor swears I have what I paid for, but how can I prove this claim beyond taking their word for it? The line is just too pokey in may instances, but "too pokey" isn't quite precise enough to lodge a complaint.

-Bob

 

[MarkProvanP]

Find the torrent with the biggest number of seeders, and download. Means that you don't have to worry about the download server being capped. Try downloading something like the five gigabytes that make up a complete Debian install, for example.

 

[overdrive31]

does the ISP offer free usenet? most usenet pipes are large enough to support capping out a connection with binary files, must make sure all links between are not bottlenecked tho as well, whether you do it via torrent or usenet try hooking directly to modem not using a router which can hamper performance(they're not all created equal) http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/ if your router is below the 100 mark you should upgrade. another way is get a download manager like flashget, orbit downloader, or free download manager and start multiple concurrent single file downloads until the meter reads near 12.5 megabytes per second. if you keep adding files to download and the meter doesn't want to climb anymore, you have reached the ceiling.

 

[thiggins]

Why doesn't the vendor have a speed test of its own or at least a large file sitting on a server in its data center that you could do a timed download on?

But you raise a good question that illustrates the nature of the Internet. Providing a large pipe is the (relatively) easy part for an ISP. Finding servers / sites with enough bandwidth to fill that pipe is the tough part.

The value of a 100 Mbps connection is its ability to support multiple activities that are bandwidth eaters like streaming, Torrents and downloads. It will be rare (if not impossible) that you will find single servers with that sort of bandwidth to deliver.

 

[bobcov]

Why doesn't the vendor have a speed test of its own or at least a large file sitting on a server in its data center that you could do a timed download on?

But you raise a good question that illustrates the nature of the Internet. Providing a large pipe is the (relatively) easy part for an ISP. Finding servers / sites with enough bandwidth to fill that pipe is the tough part.

The value of a 100 Mbps connection is its ability to support multiple activities that are bandwidth eaters like streaming, Torrents and downloads. It will be rare (if not impossible) that you will find single servers with that sort of bandwidth to deliver.

Hi, Tim
The vendor is using speakeasy which shows near theoretical maximums, however other speedtest sites are more reflective of what I am experiencing in terms of performance.
Having a server with a file on it in their infrastructure still wouldn't prove what goes on once you leave their house. I'd need a server out on the Internet, which is why I'm thinking of getting 5 to 8 sites together and doing various types of tasks on each one and comparing the results against an offsite 100 mb line against results on site.
Here's what I get from Argonne National Labs... They have a gigabit Internet pipe.
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 6.84Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 6.39Mb/s
The slowest link in the end-to-end path is a 45 Mbps T3/DS3 subnet

While it is pretty rare for me to find servers to tax a 100 meg line, I have seen better performance from 20 mbps lines than from this one.
-Bob

 

[thiggins]

Sounds like you are more testing your ISP's routers and backbone connections than the pipe from them to you.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

You're at the extreme end of fast internet connections for the US, assuming you're in the continental US.

This statement illustrates what I'm referring to...
"I also downloaded known files from Microsoft and gotten abysmal times...for example, 316 mb in 7 minutes. The same file from a Seattle location downloads in under a minute"

The infrastructure of the internet in the US is antiquated compared to many other countries in the world. We've slowly band-aided and upgraded our whole infrastructure in bits and pieces, from competing vendors. Several different backbones criss-cross out country. Plus our country is geographically huge. Versus some other countries where 100 meg connections is rather common. Small countries in Asia and Europe, where ISPs are gov't subsidized, and the whole infrastructure is relatively new...often ground up rebuilds after relatively recent wars. With high % of the population in a small group of cities.

Anyways....back to the point I'm getting at...while you may have a 100 meg connection from your NID to your ISP, once you leave your ISPs main gateway..which is their main backbone to the internet...you're at the mercy at the rest of the internet in our country, which your ISP does not control.

And finding servers which can properly sustain the high upload speeds necessary for you to test your 100 meg download speeds...you won't find many. The accurate way...download files from your ISPs own servers..since that's all on their bandwidth from them to you. But once you download files from servers outside of your ISPs network....you're at the mercy of the rest of the internet in the US, and most if it is not up to par to provide 100 meg connections to everyone.