Comments on: Speed Matters looking for folks to test speeds for new report http://blandinonbroadband.org/2008/06/30/speed-matters-looking-for-folks-to-test-speeds-for-new-report/ News and information on broadband use, policy, and trends Mon, 21 May 2012 14:36:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Bill Coleman http://blandinonbroadband.org/2008/06/30/speed-matters-looking-for-folks-to-test-speeds-for-new-report/#comment-3654 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:47:59 +0000 http://blandinonbroadband.wordpress.com/?p=762#comment-3654 Hello,
So many factors influence these speed tests. It makes me wonder about their usefulness. One thing that I have learned is that it makes a huge difference in how you connect to the Internet within your own home network. My desktop Dell, several years old, is wired to my wireless router. With Comcast, this computer – on the SpeedMatters test, hit 25 Mbps down and 982 up.

My laptop, connected wirelessly, was significanly slower 5.8 Mbps and a similar 976 up. Distance was not an issue as I am sitting about 3 feet from the router.

With the desktop, Comcast looks fabulous on the download speed, with the laptop only fair. The other issue with the speed test is the small size of the download file. Comcast’s power boost enables higher speeds for a short time, then throttles back. Is powerboost designed for better user experience or for fooling speed tests?!

I am sure that running the test on the same connection at different times of the day with different computers over different types of connections would provide a scattergram of results. So what are we really measuring and should we be making policy decisions based on this information?

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