How Does Your Internet Speed Measure Up?

I have the Speedtest app on my ipad. I just ran it, and got a download speed of 233Mbps, which is about where it normally is. I then went to Fast.com, and ran it 3 times. Each time, the result was under 10Mbps. I have a vpn service, which was on during these tests. So at turned it off, and then the Fast.com result was about 150Mbps. I turned the vpn back on, and got the same results under 10Mbps on Fast.com. The results on Speedtest didn’t seem to vary much whether the vpn was on or off.

My internet speed at home tops out at 1.5-2 Mbps.This is OK with me as that is what I am paying for per my agreement with my ISP.I don't download huge files or watch very much video,so I am happy with what I am getting service wise.

What I am concerned about is that the service is always there and that it doesn't drop off.When it does drop off,it is because of storms in the area that will cause power outages.

I was pleased to see your sidebar explaining the difference between MB/Sec and Mb/Sec, which is accurate as far as it went. But to be fair to the ISPs, there is another significant (and less devious) reason for their expressing speeds in the Mb/Sec notation. Historically, serial devices (including modems and USB devices) transfer data one bit at a time; parallel devices, such as hard drives, transfer data one byte (8 bits) at a time. Since the early days of ISPs used modems to communicate over analog phone lines, those speeds were accurately measured in bits per second, later increased to Kbits, and now Mbits per second. To maintain a consistent measuring standard through the multiple generations of data communications, speeds expressed in bits per second are necessary.

Hi Bob,

I think you're being rather unfair when you dismiss the measurement of data transmission speeds in megabits per second (Mb/s) rather than megabytes per second (MB/s) as marketing hype.

Historically, transmission speed has always been in megabits per second, so why change?

As a rule of thumb, divide by 10 to convert Mb/s to megabytes per second.

On a personal note, it annoys me when companies disregard the importance of upper and lower case B and b when advertising their offerings. They also quote their download speed as "100 megabits" when they mean 100 megabits per second.

Would car manufacturers advertise their top speed as "a hundred miles", I wonder? No, thought not!

Keep the articles coming... :)

Chris

I use a local service from a statewide group of computer stores that sub contracts ATT service of 3-4 Mb/sec for $25/month which we've never had a need for anything faster or more expensive. Streaming or a house full of grand kids has never been an issue! YMMV

Regarding the Mb/MB calculation, a MB is 8 Mb and in transmitting, a 9th bit is used for error checking. Thus, a transmitted byte will use 9 bits, I believe.
A straight-forward calculation converting Mb to MB, though, would simply be 8:1.

Just ran the test and basically normal.

Ping 4 DL 425.77 Mbs UL 16.26 Mbs

Adequate

I'm probably an edge case when compared with the others who have posted before me. I use Over-The-Air and streaming TV for television entertainment. I intermittently download large image files from the Internet. I am retired, and my adult son lives with me. Between the two of us, we may have as many as 18 devices connected at any given time, most of which are probably mine. I spend a major portion of my day online or using my desktop PC for entertainment or to teach myself some programming language to keep my mind active and working.

Due to the way I use the internet, I have ATT's fiber 500 Internet service with unlimited data. My average download speed is usually between 300 and 450 mbps and strangely enough my upload speed is usually faster than my download speed. For example, when I ran a speed test using Fast.com while reading this article, it reported 330 mbps download and 430 mbps upload with 10 ms (unloaded) / 133 ms (loaded) latency. 300 MB were downloaded, and 850 MB were uploaded.

I have a Wi-Fi 6 PCIe internal Wi-Fi adapter installed on my desktop PC, even though that standard is not currently offered by ATT here. The adapter is automatically recognized (it is in-built - not so with many Wi-Fi adapters) by the Linux kernel in my LMDE installation, and I want to be ready when Wi-Fi 6 becomes available because it offers better Internet security features than are currently available with older standards (802.11ac et-al). I usually use Ookla.com to run speed tests, although my results from Fast.com are similar. I only use tracert (or tracerout when in my LMDE GNU/Linux environment) when I have trouble connecting to a site I can normally access.

Thank you for writing this item, Bob. Even though Internet speed may not be the most critical thing on most people's minds, it is a very good idea to keep tabs on your ISP because some of them have been known to throttle their user's connection speed well below the rate/bandwidth being paid for without any comprehensible/valid reason, including when the user is paying for unlimited data. Shame on the 'bad guys' for making it necessary for customers to check on their ISPs.

If we connect to a single site why is multi-server testing accurate? My "beef" is that I need reasonable upload speed to backup system backup files stored on my NAS. I tried to use iDrive but the transfer time for 1 backup file turned out to be days and the connection to Dropbox was not sufficiently stable.So everyone says multiple storage locations for backup files: local, maybe cloud, in your computing location important. But cloud does not seem reasonable - 130 GB just won't work.

Paul S., If you use either Windows 10 or 11, sync your files with OneDrive. That will store them offsite, meeting that safety requirement and you can then safely keep your image backups locally in the event something very bad happens such as ransomware, a serious user mistake, a head crash, etc.

My desktop PC has all my important files, so I sync it with OneDrive. It is the only Windows device I sync. I use the same Microsoft account on my laptop(s) so I can get to my desktop-based files on OneDrive by navigating through the laptop's OneDrive folder in File Explorer.

Note: You get 5GB free storage. If you have Microsoft 365, you get 1 TB with your subscription. If you need more than the free 5GB storage, and you don't already have Microsoft 365, you may want to consider that as a possibility. I don't use more than 5GB here and I don't have a Microsoft 365 subscription, so I don't know much about it other than that I have heard that many people who need more than the 5 GB free storage subscribe to Microsoft 365 for the 1TB storage.

I hope this helps,

Ernie

Network speed in/out of your house is one thing. But I'm finding that the device you're using makes a BIG difference, along with the path to the device. Whereas my Win10 desktop (w/SSD) sees just under 100Mbps (Ethernet back to the cable modem), my old Android 6 Samsung phone sees 2Mbps, getting its data through WiFi from a high-speed access point wired back to the modem. (All CAT5e.) I've heard that the truest test of your ISP's speed is with your newest device connected by a short Ethernet cable (CAT5e or CAT6) to your modem. Your measured speed on all other devices then depends on your device and the path from the modem to the device, not your ISP.

Ernest: My requirement is for system backup, not file backup. Even my compressed weekly incremental backups are more than 5 GB. I also do some daily file level backups with iDrive. No matter which cloud service one employs, the upload speed determines how long it will require. I don't need MS 365. I find that Libre Office provides what I require free, including read/write of MS Office formats.

I'm more interested in cost rather than speed. Can someone explain why internet service in the USA costs way more than other parts of the world. I heard Europe is way cheaper than USA. Why aren't they regulated as "legal monopolies" like the gas/electric companies so we don't get raped.

My internet is delivered on cable not fiber. I get 600 mbps download speed and only 9 mbps upload. Less than 1/2 mile from my location the same company delivers 600 mbps upload speed to those that have fiber. My beef is that I am paying the same price as those that have fiber for better upload speeds. Is this fair. Shouldn't my bill be less than those that have fiber than what I am paying? Appreciate your thoughts Bob.