Comcast XFINITY → [Speed] Measuring the correct Speed

Greetings,

I am a fairly knowledgeable person when it comes to networking and computers. I have had high speed Internet for some time starting with DSL back in the day, FIOS and now Comcast. I am supposed to be provisioned for 22/2 but the speeds I get vary widely from site to site.

What I mean is that, for example, if I use the Java tools on DSLReports I get a much different number than if I use the Flash based tools. I understand part of the reason for that but when I go to other sites I get wide variations across sites. I have seen anything from 60Mbps to 5Mbps incoming and 1-10Mbps outgoing.

I know that distance, ping, server load and several other things can impact performance. What I would like to know is if there is a good site at which I can measure my performance accurately.

The only reason I am concerned is that since I moved from FIOS to Comcast I have noticed some slowdown in the response of my web browser and occasionally email. I would like to figure out if this is just a figment of my imagination or if I am not getting the performance I am paying for.

Any thoughts or suggested sites?

Thanks
TC

Java and flash each have their own overhead and are rarely consistantly accurate.
all tests should be run multiple times to get an average snapshot
Run »www.measurementlab.net/m ··· ls#tool5 shaperprobe and post the results.

some other fairly reliable locally hosted tests are
»integra.net/speedtest/
»www.softlayer.com/speedt ··· xternal/
since you are in Bothell FIOS is likely available to you, so you do have a decent choice

Here's the results

DiffProbe beta release. October 2009. Build 1002.
Shaper Detection Module.

Connected to server 74.63.50.40.

Estimating capacity:
Upstream: 9158 Kbps.
Downstream: 60836 Kbps.

The measurement will take upto 2.5 minutes. Please wait.

Checking for traffic shapers:

Upstream: Burst size: 9873-10015 KB;
Shaping rate: 5226 Kbps.

Downstream: Burst size: 10637-12283 KB;
Shaping rate: 39704 Kbps.

From that result, I'd say you CAN get/see 40/5 (well above your tier) results from any given source can vary greatly. Iwould say ComCast is providing what you pay for speed wise, pings and throughput beyond their network are subject to current conditions, distance, and "whatever".

Yeah, from those results it looks OK but I guess that's part of the issue. I'll just have to keep an eye on it for a while and see how things settle out.

Thanks for the pointers.

IMO, Shaper Probe is a good tool but also try using 4 or 5 real life large file downloads from known to be fast and close by servers via a download manager app while observing the transfer rate. This has given the most accurate and consistent results for me over the years.