 EGeezerSummertimePremium
join:2002-08-04
Midwest
kudos:7
 ·Callcentric
| Speed Since a connection is only as fast as its slowest links, the most direct connection from your WAN interface to the ISP is the best link over which to test.
There are several other factors, including but not limited to physical cabling, buffer sizes, file size(s) used, latency in any hop, other devices on the LAN or applications running silently on the testing PC using the connection, and server performance and latency.
At best speed tests are estimates of performance and speeds will vary from one test server to another. The ISP's service level agreement with the customer and their method of measuring the speed will be the final determinant in whether any complaint would be considered favorably by arbitrators.
Although a speed test would be a handy thing, it would also generate lots of erroneous calls from Joe User who runs PC based tests while listening to streaming audio or running (for instance) ForecastFox or other updating application - or has spyware on his system pulling popups, spewing spam or consuming CPU/buffer/disk arm activity that would affect the test results.
In short, it sounds great in theory, but would be messy in practice.
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