Broadband Speed Tests - How Accurate Are They?

.,k

they're as accurate as can be - at the exact specific time the test was taken.
Bit like measuring the speed of your car on the motorway, it all depends on all the other traffic at the time which varies from second to second.

only thing I'd add is that if you're connected via Wifi, then the speed also varies depending on other Wifi users in the same RF space (even if they are not using your Internet connection!)

i sometimes run ethernet (10/100) on a Cat5e cable and ive gotten slower speeds through it than through WiFi...

when i check the two of them, the tests are as close together as i can get from the time i turn on the WiFi, connect and unplug the ethernet...

although not today...

The tests will always vary as you are transmitting data through an infrastructure that is dealing with hell of a lot of other data at the same time, and then there are a lot of variables at play including the processing speed of your own computer, and the harddisk and the network transmission and so on.

Hence, it's impossible to get same figures in all tests, and a variance between 0.5GB - 7 - 8GB is quite normal.

TheNinja117 wrote in post #18616381
The tests will always vary as you are transmitting data through an infrastructure that is dealing with hell of a lot of other data at the same time, and then there are a lot of variables at play including the processing speed of your own computer, and the harddisk and the network transmission and so on.

Hence, it's impossible to get same figures in all tests, and a variance between 0.5GB - 7 - 8GB is quite normal.

GB?

I agree pretty much with what everyone else has said. The one thing that will really vary a lot by the way is the ping time. Ping times have as much to do with the reaction speed of the targeted system as they do with yours and the network connection. One way to check the latency of your home network is to open a command line (DOS) box and manually run the ping command pointed at your router. The router will very often be found on the internal address 192.168.0.0, so: ping 192.168.0.0 should show you the raw results for a set of packets. If that is not the address, it will return all failed attempts, you can usually find the address of the router from the setup instructions that came with it, they do vary.

Out of interest I did mine on three different test sites and got the following results:

My two cents.
When you do the test, if you have a half a dozen devices connected to your modem, your speed
is meaningless. The pipe to your modem would be shared with all the other devices. To get a meaningful
result you need to be the only device connected to the Modem/router. You also MAY notice a big difference
if you are connected wireless Vs wired.
https://www.measuremen​tlab.net/p/ndt-ws.html

Hope this helps,

110yd