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Swad
join:2002-12-04
Springfield, MO

Swad

Member

AT&T Speed Test Website

I'm curious if anyone can tell me what this sham website is measuring:

»www.att.com/speedtest/

I never had heard of this until I called into AT&T tech support the other night. I have been having fairly severe speed issues during prime time since Wednesday, March 16th and finally last night someone at AT&T sent me here. I typically always use (and still will):

»www.speedtest.net/

Speedtest.net has always reliably measured how well things are doing. When I'm experiencing issues, it shows the issues very readily. I typically always use a couple different sites from there to accurately show the issue, and they always do show the problems. Currently I've been having major speed issues where my download is around ~1Mbps and lower and pings in the 300ms+ range (sometimes hitting over 1000ms+ late in the evenings) during prime times *only*. AT&T's speed test is showing speeds at near 6Mbps, and I've even seen it over that (On a 6mbit DSL package? not possible, never has happened). Yet I watch the traffic graph that my firewall measures (m0n0wall - »m0n0wall.ch), it never shows it approaching that speed during the test. It does accurately back the Speedtest.net speeds every time, though.

Here's what makes this really bad--if you put your official DSL email account information into the email box there, it records the measurement with the test for AT& techs to look at with notes for your account as it tags the results to your account notes. They can sit there and say "I show tests are all fine" yet everything and I mean *everything* else indicates problems, whether Speedtest.net, Netflix movies not able to stream, pings in games being off the charts--it's all horrible. The AT&T techs use what comes off their scam of a speed test page, though, to say it's OK.

Can anyone speak further to how this AT&T speed test site can so egregious be off in it's measurements, and then be used as an official measure of how things are being perceived for issues or not? I'd really love to have others who are having prime time speed issues use this thing and see if it shows fast speeds (ie: 5-6Mbps) when it's really not even close to that when testing anywhere else, or perceived in real-world usage.

Porthos
@sbcglobal.net

Porthos

Anon

Not sure what you are asking here. In my case the AT&T test, even the old one, has always shown my connection speeds to be lower than what speedtest or any of the other sited ever shows. By doing large file downloads from large pipe sites I have found the AT&T numbers to be closer to reality than any other test site.

For instance, I can test at AT&T and get a 2.45 mb speed while speedtest shows 2.56 mb. But when I do the file download at
ftp.fcc.gov/pub/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Software/terrain.zip

I get a steady 303 KB per second. That translates to roughly 2.424 mb. That seems to show for me at least that AT&T is more accurate.
Swad
join:2002-12-04
Springfield, MO

1 edit

Swad

Member

It's the exact opposite for me. Everything is horridly slow for me, yet AT&T's speed test shows everything fine (5Mbps+). Speedtest.com shows it sub 1Mbps, and actual real world downloads reflect the Speedtest.net measurements. So does everything else I do reflect the horribly slow speed. I can't figure out how AT&T's speedtest shows everything as "fine" when it's not remotely close.

Maybe there's just some anomaly between me and AT&T's website, but it doesn't reflect problems I'm having with my connection at all.

EDIT: Example, I just tried to download that linked file there. My speed was about 68kBps. That translates to about a .55Mbps speed on a speed test site. Speedtest.com more or less clocked me in at .55 (and 500ms+ ping--OUCH!). AT&T's speed test? 4.43Mbps. As you can see, it doesn't reflect my slow speed at all, but it's what AT&T tech's are using to gauge how things are.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to Swad

MVM

to Swad
said by Swad:

Can anyone speak further to how this AT&T speed test site can so egregious be off in it's measurements, and then be used as an official measure of how things are being perceived for issues or not? I'd really love to have others who are having prime time speed issues use this thing and see if it shows fast speeds (ie: 5-6Mbps) when it's really not even close to that when testing anywhere else, or perceived in real-world usage.

I honestly don't know what to say, but it is clearly off. I get an unrealistic download speed, and impossible upload speed, considering that I currently have a torrent underway which is using 80% of my upload bandwidth.

AT&T speedtest shows:

2.48 mb/s down and 29.89 mb/s up.

Speedtest.net seems more realistic for a loaded connection:

1.83 mb/s down and 0.05 mb/s up.
maiku84
join:2007-04-04
Victoria, TX

maiku84 to Swad

Member

to Swad
Oddly, it both showed the same speeds I usually get when running a speedtest.net test, and it seemed accurate enough--I'm using a bandwidth monitor just to see how much I use JUST on my PC (I can't really measure netflix since I never stream that from my PC--I use my PS3 instead) and it showed my connection pegging at about 5Mbits per second, same speed it was saying on the speed test...

Frankly a faulty speedtest program is the least of my concerns with AT&T right now. Not to drive it off topic, but why institute bandwidth caps unless you're going to provide your 'premium' service nationwide?
Swad
join:2002-12-04
Springfield, MO

Swad

Member

I want to emphasize that the disparity isn't when speeds are running "normal" (ie: getting 5Mbps+ on a 6Mbit "elite" package). When things are running normally, the AT&T and Speedtest.net sites mostly match up. It's during prime time when my speeds / pings are tanking horribly (like right now--.5Mbps download / 300ms+ pings and rising measured by several Speedtest.net locations) that it's a crock for AT&T techs to use the measurement of their speedtest to determine how things are going (It's showing... over 6Mbps a second right now? Impossible).

I'm annoyed by the newly added caps greatly, but they're the least of my concerns right now if I can't even use my Internet as the evening progresses further and further into the evening, and an AT&T tech thinks it's fine because their test is horribly inaccurate with it's measurement for me. They're suffering from an over-saturation problem that they need deal with that affects prime-time usage only.

TwighlightLA
Premium Member
join:2010-07-03

1 edit

TwighlightLA to Swad

Premium Member

to Swad
I'm in Los Angeles. Based upon the readings from the test I would speculate it measures the speed between your computer and the AT&T test server located in Antarctica.

If the AT&T test server was located in Los Angeles the speed test results for me would be much higher. It showed me at 1.6 down. But using immediately then testing on the Speedtest.net server in Los Angeles my speed was 2.8 down and that is consistent with several other servers located in the LA area. My max rating service is 3 MB down.

Porthos
@swbell.net

Porthos to Swad

Anon

to Swad
I don't know what to say. I'm in Springfield, south of Battlefield, between National and Campbell. My DSL connection comes out of the central office on south Fremont. I have not seen any of the problems you see. Of course I'm on the Pro 3mb/512kb so maybe I wouldn't since my connection is slower.

Hope you get a resolution to the problem.

Vbob
@rylinkservices.net

Vbob to Swad

Anon

to Swad
It's apparently a way for AT&T to "prove" you're getting speed close to what you are paying for, even though it's not anywhere near correct.

For example, I just had AT&T U-verse install 18M down & 1.5M up service.
On my desktop and the installation technician's laptop, multiple tests from speedtest.net and speakeasy.net/speedtest indicate an average of:
8.5M down & 1.3M up
Real life downloads indicate an average of:
3-5M down
My iPhone on U-verse Wi-Fi indicates and average of:
5M down, 1.2M up
The technician's iPhone indicates about:
4M down, 1M up

So we confirmed it was nowhere near the right speed. So when he called into get it fixed, they gave him the magical AT&T speedtest site, which indicated everything was close to spec, with these mythical figures:
16.8M down, 1.5M up
--completely false and laughable.

So I decided to do a test at work with the magical test site. About 20 of us share a 3M down/3M up service in a media-intensive setting. This service has consistently maxed out at the stated throttled speed of 3/3. NEVER has it performed above 3/3. So I did the magical AT&T test during the day, everyone here, just about everyone working on the web. Results:
3.33M down, 3.77M up.
Repeated tests still average in this range. Of course, running the other speedtest.net & speakeasy tests indicate a much lower speed.

This pretty much tells me that the AT&T test is simply a tool to justify delivering a slower speed than what is actually being delivered to a customer.

Very sad.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by Vbob :

It's apparently a way for AT&T to "prove" you're getting speed close to what you are paying for, even though it's not anywhere near correct.

I just checked that site. Download was a bit off (registered an unlikely 2.6 mb/s. Upload was a bit off, as well (registered and equally unlikely 20 mb/s).

By contrast, Speedtest.net was more accurate (2.25 mb/s down, and 0.41 mb/s up).

This pretty much tells me that the AT&T test is simply a tool to justify delivering a slower speed than what is actually being delivered to a customer.

Very sad.

TOS states that they sell, "synch". If your modem holds synch at the tier speed (I see 3008/512 on a Pro circuit), then they are delivering on the promise. Or so they claim (throughput speeds which don't match the promise apparently don't count).

However, any speedtest is only as accurate as a quiescent connection allows. When I run speed tests during BitTorrent activity, that has an adverse impact on normal speed tests (but seemingly not AT&T speed test). So, yes, it is definitely a flawed test.

VBob
@rylinkservices.net

VBob

Anon

If they are measuring using a different system than the rest of the humans on the planet (such as weighing 8 oz. to provide a cup of buckshot, rather than filling an 8 oz. cup), then that explains a lot.

It would explain why the other AT&T internet (DSL) also had a horribly pitiful real-world performance, although the stated speeds of DSL would have been perfectly acceptable for my purposes. So after doing lots of comparisons, apparently I upgraded from a fraudulently measured AT&T DSL system to another fraudulently measured AT&T U-verse system.

Yes, I got some more speed, but unfortunately, dollar for dollar, I got LESS speed than the other cable-based internet options, PLUS I paid a hefty installation price vs free installation for cable. I'm not a very happy camper at this moment. What can we do?

What I Did
@sbcglobal.net

What I Did

Anon

Bite the bullet and change providers. Or not.
ir0nmdn
join:2002-11-25
Worcester, MA

ir0nmdn to Swad

Member

to Swad
I just ran a test on att, speakeasy.net, dslreports and speedtest. Of the three the ATT results for dwn are the fastest and ONLY the ATT site upload test works, the others hang or say "connecting"... I called ATT to ask them for assistance since I was having issues uploading to well-known sites at a rate of 5ksec or less. WELL the att speed test is within the parameters, so it must be "pc-related" per the Ntwrk Eng(whom is not customer facing?), what a JOKE!! I asked the person to pass me to someone else, the supervisor basically repeats the same although I mention my SAME laptop at other locations with even MORE apps running(they said I had to close apps and my a/v..blah blah..) uploads at faster rates. YES, those other locations may have a better/faster link but the point is 5k per sec on an upload speed for a DSL Xtreme 6.0 service is not even close to my parameters as the customer. A ticket was opened and a reply avail within 48 hours, sure.. In the end if they do not fix the issue I'll suggest to my parents they chg providers or try U-verse(lemme read up on that srvc now..)