Wireless / Mobile > Clearwire > Best way to test network performance

Best way to test network performance

Here are various tests from my Clear modem. Some show under 2Mbps while others are 14Mbps.



This test of from netbook...


This test is from netbook same time as above doing real download, which comes to over 14Mbps...


This test is from modern laptop in original post...


Other speed test sites also only show 1.5Mbps to 2Mbps. If you are getting low results, try a real download test with multi streams per the first post.

Here are tests from same modern laptop this morning...




And this shows 12Mbps on same laptop.


Highest I've seen is 15Mbps with file transfer method even though speedtest.net might only show 2-3Mbps.

Has anyone else tried multistream downloads vs speedtest sites? Would like to know if others are having the same issues with speedtest sites.

reply to xenophon
Have you downloaded one single file at 15Mbps? I think your files are coming down around 5Mbps and I've never heard of adding them together like you are.

My tests are pretty consistent across different sites, and I do have my MTU set to 1400.

reply to xenophon

Not convinced that is the reason as there are some other sites that show high performance, others do not. In the end, the real test is actual downloads and from most any site, I can stress multiple downloads and peg it to 12-15Mbps even though some speedtest sites say only 1.5-3Mbps.

The point I'm making here is if you think you're getting poor performance on Clear via speedtest sites, try multiple downloads per the first post. That is the (a) true way to know.

Someone needs to come up with a speedtest method that uses multiple threads.

reply to xenophon
The speed and ping tests are consistent with my subjective perception of the speed.

When the browser won't load pages, the tests are crap and when the browser is loading pages quickly, the tests are better.

I have a really strong signal 38db / -48.

I do think that your testing approach is more accurate in lots of situations - but my problem is that, despite a really strong and clean signal, the speed bounces all over the place, and the latency, jitter, and packet loss are constantly changing from excellent one moment to in-the-toilet the next moment - while the cinr and rssi are great and rock solid - which makes the service unusable a lot of the time and extremely frustrating.

reply to xenophon
OK. Downloading as you suggest, I'm jumping around between 150KBS and 400KBS total for the three. Oh, there we go... the total of the three is up to 900K -- oops, that lasted about 10 seconds and it's now back to 200'ish.

If I do 5 speedtest.net tests in a row, I typically speeds from 1 to 3MBPS - most of them being less than 2. Occasionally, one test of the 5 gets up in the 4 to almost 5MBPS range - which is really flying around here. It's like stomping the accelerator to get to next red light as fast as possible. - And, my Clear Voice has gone from being excellent to being mostly unusable over the months I've had the service.

After I stopped the downloads:

reply to xenophon
My Speedtest scores have a tendancy to be low too ... anywhere from 1Mbs to 6Mbs.

However, when I bittorrent, it usually climbs to the 7Mbs mark fairly quick and then settles around 10Mbs with peaks up to 14Mbs. "Average" rates around the 8Mbs mark after all is said and done. At the same time I check the throughput values as seen by the modem admin screen with values close to what my bittorrent application is reporting. So ... this is well within the advertised "3Mbs to 6Mbs with bursts of up to 10Mbs". So, I'm happy.

I will comment though that lately my Speedtests have been crawling up. For example, this morning I peaked at 11Mbs. with consistent scores around 10Mbs.

"Speedtest" does not seem to be an accurate measurement. A multi file download is really the best.

I will add one other thing that I have noticed.

When I first got my modem and I went to the Admin view ... I noticed a list of like 20 towers it seemed to see. There were towers listed that had MUCH higher CINR and RSSI values. Did not think anything of it though ...

I was getting CINR of 12 (+-) and RSSI of -76(+-). At the time I was okay, because I was getting peak rates of 6Mbs to 7Mbs ... a far cry from the 1.5Mbs my DSL was giving me.

I then noticed the lovely "Reset" button.

My life changed!

It now only saw the 2 towers that I was aware of that were in my area and my CINR/RSSI change to 28/-65.

My throughput near doubled too with now getting peaks of 11Mbs to 14Mbs.

Today I noticed my modem could see the 2 towers as usual. One had a CINR of 28, the other of 22. For some reason it was locked on the "22" one. Again, I did the reset. That put it back on the "28" one. I did do some Speedtest.net tests and my rates did increase some.

Anyway ... my point. Try reseting your modem ... it may get it to settle on a "better" tower.

I have a Series M.

It seems to depend on market for those getting over 10Mbps. Older markets had less backhaul per site (100Mbps backhaul on many sites.

It's possible in your case one site has better backhaul (or less load) than another. But that's interesting you were able to change sites. Will have to check that out.

reply to xenophon
Has anyone used ShaperProbe to test speed with?

»www.cc.gatech.edu/~partha/diffpr···obe.html

reply to xenophon