Questions & Answers:
How does
this page calculate my connection speed?
Why
do I get different speed results each time I run the Bandwidth Speed
Test?
I
thought my Internet connection was faster. Why does the Speed Test
come up with a lower figure?
Could
my Internet Service Provider (ISP) be the cause of my slow
down?
I
have a 56K modem. Why isn't my download speed even close to
56K?
How does this page calculate my connection
speed?
Actually, this isn't just one Web page, it's two Web pages, each
with a hidden data file in the header area of the page. When either
of these pages loads, it notes the time just before and just after
the data file loads, then uses this information and the size of the
data file to calculate the rate at which the data arrived at your
computer.
When the first of these two pages was loaded, it did a rough
calculation using a small data file to provide an estimate of how
long it will take the second page, with its much larger data file,
to download. The second page, with its larger data file, allowed the
second page to calculate more accurate figures for the Your Line
Speed: box and Speed Test Thermometer above.
Why do I get different speed results
each time I run The Bandwidth Speed Test?
Like any major highway system, the Internet information highway
has many roadways and interchanges, each with their own capacity and
speed limit, and, like highways for cars, sometimes you get traffic
delays. Just as you have to wait in a your car while other traffic
goes through at a traffic light, data sent to your computer has to
wait while other data passes through routers, the Internet
equivalent of an intersection, on it's way to you.
You are more likely to run into slow Internet traffic during peak
use hours than those times when fewer people are online, such as
after 11 p.m. and before 7 a.m. When this page was being tested, I
found that the results on my 144Kbps DSL line results varied from a
consistent 120 to 135Kbps mid-morning and afternoon, all the way
down to 64Kbps during evening peak-use hours. If you really want to
find out what your best possible Bandwidth Speed Test result
is, try loading this page at 3:00am on a weeknight, when almost
everyone is asleep when Internet use is at it's lowest. (Friday and
Saturday nights are not a good choice.)
I thought my Internet connection was
supposed to be faster. Why does the Speed Test come up with a
lower figure?
No Internet connection ever performs at 100%. When we test loaded
this page direct from our test Web server across a two computer
10Mbps local area network (LAN), our best result was 6.6Mbps
(6667Kbps). There is always some loss, and the faster your
connection is, the greater that loss is going to be.
Next, this page can only measure the time it takes the
applications data--the actual data file--to reach your browser.
Wrapped around that data is some overhead that can range from 2
percent to 25 percent of the total data sent. There's no way for the
program built into this Web page to control or discover exactly how
much overhead was used to send the page's internal data file, but
generally the percentage is small, and this page adjusts its figures
up by 2 percent to compensate. Nevertheless, the actual overhead may
be higher than expected, resulting in a depressed value for the Kbps
figure.
Also remember that your connection to your ISP is just one part
of the system that gets data to your computer. Between your computer
and the server that sent this Web page there are probably a dozen or
more routers, communications links, and other network components
this page had to travel through. Each of these components have a set
capacity and speed at which they can operate, and most of them
handle network traffic for thousands, even millions of computers
every day. The inevitable result is that all Internet traffic
encounters some sort of delay as it transits across The Net, and
that reduces the amount of data that gets funneled into your
connection in the first place.
I'm getting a big slowdown. Could
my Internet Service Provider (ISP) be the cause of my
problem?
Perhaps.
The delay could be at your ISP, or it could be elsewhere. (See
the explanation above,
but if you're consistently getting Bandwidth Speed Test
results that are substantially below expectations, the root problem
is most likely your ISP's fault.
While your dial-up modem, DSL, ISDN or other Internet connection
may be a dedicated line, all of an ISP's connections get combined
into one or more shared connections. In most cases, these shared
connections have less capacity than the combined total of all the
customer connections they serve. Done judiciously, this works better
than you probably think. Since most Internet users spend more time
reading their email and Web pages than they do downloading them,
they're only using a fraction of their connection's actual capacity.
Overbooking allows an ISP to combine several customer connections
into a single link that's smaller (and less expensive) than the
combined total of all the connections they serve, without reducing
the amount of data sent to a customer when they are downloading
data.
The problem is that some ISPs, cable modem companies, and DSL
providers take the overbooking concept too far. They funnel so many
connections into a small combined connection that normal customer
demand overwhelms the capacity of the combined connection. This is a
particular problem during peak use hours, when line speeds can slow
to a crawl.
Unfortunately, there is no remedy for this problem. As
competition in the high-bandwidth Internet connection business heats
up, you'll have more options and your ISP will have more incentive
to maintain more reasonable overbooking ratios. Until that time,
however, your only options are to complain to your ISP or switch to
another Internet provider with a better track record.
I have a 56K modem. Why isn't my download
speed even close to 56K?
There could be several reasons--and most of them aren't
your ISP's fault.
First of all, static electricity caused by radio signals, power
lines, and other sources interfere with most 56K modem signals,
forcing them to fall back to 42-50Kbps.
56K modems also require a clean, straight through telephone
connection to the telephone company's central office switching
center. Phone company line amplifiers that boost a telephone signal
over a long distance, PBX switchboard systems, and other phone
equipment alter the phone signal and force 56K modems to fall back
to speeds of 33.6Kbps and lower.
Finally, the FCC doesn't allow 56K modems to use the full range
of signals that phone company equipment can generate. They're
concerned that it'll cause static interference to other phone lines.
So no 56K modem in the United States ever connects at 56K.
Most 56K modem users seem to connect at speeds of
44-48Kbps.
