Mailing List Archive: NANOG: users

Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity

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ssrigha at gmail

Nov 19, 2009, 11:11 PM

Post #1 of 10 (752 views)
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Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity

Hi,

how does one truly test internet speeds provided by your provider.

Speed test sits give different results that one provided by the provider.

Regards,
Shake

brandon.galbraith at gmail

Nov 19, 2009, 11:15 PM

Post #2 of 10 (713 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

Speedtest sites (speedtest.net, ndt.anl.gov, etc) or your own tests:

http://www.google.com/search?q=nanog+iperf

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 1:11 AM, shake righa <ssrigha [at] gmail> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> how does one truly test internet speeds provided by your provider.
>
> Speed test sits give different results that one provided by the provider.
>
> Regards,
> Shake
>
>

--
Brandon Galbraith
Mobile: 630.400.6992
FNAL: 630.840.2141

andrew at accessplus

Nov 19, 2009, 11:16 PM

Post #3 of 10 (725 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

There was a thread on speed testing a little while back.

http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg01842.html

Regards,
Andrew Cox
AccessPlus HNA

shake righa wrote:
> Hi,
>
> how does one truly test internet speeds provided by your provider.
>
> Speed test sits give different results that one provided by the provider.
>
> Regards,
> Shake
>
>

jwbensley at gmail

Nov 20, 2009, 1:18 AM

Post #4 of 10 (710 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

2009/11/20 Brandon Galbraith <brandon.galbraith [at] gmail>

> Speedtest sites (speedtest.net, ndt.anl.gov, etc) or your own tests:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=nanog+iperf

Speedtest.net now have their mini speedtest which you can download and put
on your servers and then test their speed via your browser.

--
Regards,
James ;)

Samuel Goldwyn<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/samuel_goldwyn.html>
- "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never
wrong."

jeffshultz at wvi

Nov 20, 2009, 7:56 AM

Post #5 of 10 (706 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

shake righa wrote:
> Hi,
>
> how does one truly test internet speeds provided by your provider.
>
> Speed test sits give different results that one provided by the provider.
>
> Regards,
> Shake
>

Nice ISP's will put speed test software on their backbone so you can
test the speed of your circuit to the backbone.

Remember that the speed your provider quotes you is probably the full
throughput of the circuit. Some circuits, such as DSL ones, will read up
to 15% slower due to ATM circuit overhead.

--
Jeff Shultz

ssrigha at gmail

Nov 23, 2009, 11:36 AM

Post #6 of 10 (685 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

The tools such as iperf need some level of expertise to use.
some end users lack this level of expertise.
are there any tools simply for end users to use that can accomplish the same
task?\

Regards,
Shake Righa

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 6:56 PM, Jeff Shultz <jeffshultz [at] wvi> wrote:

> shake righa wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> how does one truly test internet speeds provided by your provider.
>>
>> Speed test sits give different results that one provided by the provider.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Shake
>>
>>
> Nice ISP's will put speed test software on their backbone so you can test
> the speed of your circuit to the backbone.
>
> Remember that the speed your provider quotes you is probably the full
> throughput of the circuit. Some circuits, such as DSL ones, will read up to
> 15% slower due to ATM circuit overhead.
>
> --
> Jeff Shultz
>

tme at americafree

Nov 23, 2009, 2:40 PM

Post #7 of 10 (681 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

On Nov 20, 2009, at 2:11 AM, shake righa wrote:

> Hi,
>
> how does one truly test internet speeds provided by your provider.
>

I am going to go back to your original question and ask, for what
purpose ?

> Speed test sits give different results that one provided by the
> provider.
>

Could well be. Speed tests for one purpose (say, TCP web) may be
largely irrelevant for other purposes (say, UDP video).

If it really matters - i.e., if you have an application or use case or
customer where speed is crucial, then test it using that
application, or find a test that mimics that application.

If you care about interpreting your tests, you might start here

http://shlang.com/writing/tcp-perf.html

Regards
Marshall

> Regards,
> Shake
>
>

xaixili at live

Nov 23, 2009, 9:02 PM

Post #8 of 10 (677 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

As mentioned, there is a limitation to TCP-based speed tests - TCP throughput is very sensitive to packet losses, particularly during slow-start, in addition to requiring end-host tuning (as an exercise, try running speedtest.net on a high bandwidth connection). You could use something called "available bandwidth", which is kind of like the "leftover capacity" on your path - I've been using this tool called pathload2: http://www.measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools#pathload2

_________________________________________________________________
Keep your friends updated�even when you�re not signed in.
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ssrigha at gmail

Nov 23, 2009, 10:44 PM

Post #9 of 10 (669 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

At the moment the market is competitive and clients are getting
various different offers from different competitors.Thus you find them
enquiring about speeds hence need to check on the speeds.

onsite engineers too need to be able to test and provide accurate
results.thus need for a tool that can provide accurate results.

Regards,
Shake Righa

On 11/24/09, Xai Xi <xaixili [at] live> wrote:
>
> As mentioned, there is a limitation to TCP-based speed tests - TCP
> throughput is very sensitive to packet losses, particularly during
> slow-start, in addition to requiring end-host tuning (as an exercise, try
> running speedtest.net on a high bandwidth connection). You could use
> something called "available bandwidth", which is kind of like the "leftover
> capacity" on your path - I've been using this tool called pathload2:
> http://www.measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools#pathload2
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Keep your friends updated�even when you�re not signed in.
> http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/windows/windowslive/see-it-in-action/social-network-basics.aspx?ocid=PID23461::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-xm:SI_SB_5:092010

morrowc.lists at gmail

Nov 23, 2009, 11:14 PM

Post #10 of 10 (682 views)
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Re: Testing Internet Speeds and Capacity [In reply to]

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 1:44 AM, shake righa <ssrigha [at] gmail> wrote:
> At the moment the market is competitive and clients are getting
> various different offers from different competitors.Thus you find them
> enquiring about speeds hence need to check on the speeds.
>
> onsite engineers too need to be able to test and provide accurate
> results.thus need for a tool that can provide accurate results.

see a comment by me in the previously mentioned thread: "swedish isps
do this for their customers, perhaps one/some of them could present at
a *NOG as to how they do what they do?"

-chris

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