BB speedtests

[mutantpoodle]

having noticed my old laptop seeming to get slower...might just be me getting older and more impatient
and having done the usual cookies/cache etc cleanups

I decided to run a speedtest
so GOOGLE BB speedtest produces the usual 3 million+ answers

from the top....

M lab....gave 27.7--33.2--36.5--37.9----over 4 days of tests (MBs)
Ookla speedtest.net 92.01
Which speedtest 73.62
Uswitch 90.48

my inclination is to believe the 'which' test simply because they are in theory reliable / independent (??)

but the tests were all done at same times so what am I missing re the huge differences??

fyi..I am with virgin media and on their 50 mb rate/tarif/thingy
they have been super reliable over 20 years
but are hopeless at replying in english if any queries

any opinions please?

[Midsmartin]

Are you worried about your laptop being slow, or about your internet connection being slow? Different things entirely.

Your quoted connection speeds are likely all just fine for normal pc use. If the computer is slow, then I'd ask you whether it has a solid state drive (SSD) or a mechanical hard drive, as an SSD is often the best upgrade to any older computer. Also, how much memory (RAM) does it have, and what processor(CPU)?

[mc2fool]

M lab....gave 27.7--33.2--36.5--37.9----over 4 days of tests (MBs)
Ookla speedtest.net 92.01
Which speedtest 73.62
Uswitch 90.48

my inclination is to believe the 'which' test simply because they are in theory reliable / independent (??)

Well I've just run 8 different speed tests, including the four above, and all of them were within the range 36.43-37.53 ... except for Which which I ran several times and the best result it gave was 30.9.

[stewamax]

Note that the excellent Ookla has (at least) two incarnations: one for use with a browser and one that is a Windows app that can be downloaded from the Microsoft store. The latter is better if you have FTTP and >100Mb/s.

[DrFfybes]

BT suggested I use fast.com - apparenly it is the netflix ospeedchecker.

One thing to beware of is that if you have an older router, or laptop, then the wifi might be the limiting factor. At my neice's the other day her full fibre was running 120Mbps to her phone, but I got 150 on my notepad. Where possible I test with MrsF's laptop as it can plug into the router on a cable.

IME anything over 20Mbps is perfectly adequate for pretty much anything - the thing that slows browsing these days is Ping time and how quickly your machine can process the videos in the adverts they put everywhere. Even at 10mbps you can download a (SD) film faster than you can watch it.

Lastly, is your Virgin a virgin owned cable connection, or an openreach one that they lease?

Paul

[UncleEbenezer]

One thing to beware of is that if you have an older router, or laptop, then the wifi might be the limiting factor.
Paul

Always use a direct wired connection when testing your speeds. wifi introduces an additional noise factor, which can dominate the results.

It's perfectly reasonable that results may differ across different speed-testing services, and from one test time to another. An internet connection is a journey of several hops, any of which can be a limiting factor. That doesn't make one service better or more reliable than another, it just reflects your route to a provider on the particular occasion you test. And that route may itself vary: it might hypothetically (most unlikely in practice - like those monkeys typing Shakespeare) sometime route via Angola, Belarus, Chile, ... all the way to Zimbabwe before hitting a test server in Milton Keynes ...

[mc2fool]

fyi..I am with virgin media and on their 50 mb rate/tarif/thingy

BTW, that would seem unlikely if you're getting 90Mbps. Can you find out what speed your router is actually synced at? It'll be there somewhere in your router's info. If you don't know how to find it then say which router you have (Virgin default?) and I'm sure someone with the same will be able to tell you how to do so.

It's perfectly reasonable that results may differ across different speed-testing services, and from one test time to another.

Yes, but if one testing service consistently reports significantly lower speeds than the rest, and does so for more than one user, as the Which one seems to, then you have to wonder about its utility.

Try it yourself and compare with others so we can get more data points. https://broadbandtest.which.co.uk/

[UncleEbenezer]

Try it yourself and compare with others so we can get more data points. https://broadbandtest.which.co.uk/

Since you ask ...

Just tried that one, got 71M download, 18M upload.

comparisons speedtest got me 74M download, broadbandspeedchecker got me 66M. Upload speeds were similar for all, though the fastest (speedtest) just nudged above 18.5 so I should round it up to 19.

Those three results are closer than I think I've ever seen in a similar comparison in the past. And the numbers are higher!

[swill453]

Try it yourself and compare with others so we can get more data points. https://broadbandtest.which.co.uk/

Which got me 104 Mbps download and 9.5 Mbps upload. broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk was 105 download and 10 upload, so pretty close to each other.

This is on the standard Virgin cable M100 service.

Scott.

[mc2fool]

Try it yourself and compare with others so we can get more data points. https://broadbandtest.which.co.uk/

Since you ask ...

Just tried that one, got 71M download, 18M upload.

comparisons speedtest got me 74M download, broadbandspeedchecker got me 66M. Upload speeds were similar for all, though the fastest (speedtest) just nudged above 18.5 so I should round it up to 19.

Those three results are closer than I think I've ever seen in a similar comparison in the past. And the numbers are higher!

How strange ... or maybe not? I wonder which is more common: your experience of speed tests reporting wildly different figures, or mine of them (aside from Which) reporting very similar ones?

E.g. I just ran the two you mention, speedtest and broadbandspeedchecker, and added uswitch for good measure and got 37.53/9.37, 37.43/9.32 and 37.4/9.3 respectively.

And those are the sort of figures I've always had whenever I've run any speed test (aside from the Which ones): 37 +/- 0.5 download and 9ish upload. It's always been very consistent.

Which got me 104 Mbps download and 9.5 Mbps upload. broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk was 105 download and 10 upload, so pretty close to each other.

How curious. I wonder why mutantpoodle and I get notably worse figures from Which whereas others don't. Probably something to do with the routing to the server but still, all of the other speed tests are very similar and consistent, for me at least....

[DrFfybes]

How curious. I wonder why mutantpoodle and I get notably worse figures from Which whereas others don't. Probably something to do with the routing to the server but still, all of the other speed tests are very similar and consistent, for me at least....

All give the same for me except Which, which doesn't seem to do anything at all using Win10 and Firefox.

Paul

[gryffron]

I am with virgin media and on their 50 mb rate/tarif/thingy
they have been super reliable over 20 years
but are hopeless at replying in english if any queries

any opinions please?

All the answers you are getting are MORE than you're paying for. So what's the problem exactly?

Is this laptop ethernet wired? Running BB speedtests over Wifi is notoriously unreliable. You're more likely to be measuring the speed of your Wifi than the speed of your broadband.

VirginMedia's phone call centre is now amazingly good. I've been with Diamond/NThell/VirginMedia for 20 years now, and they used to be terrible, really terrible. But last time I rang them (7.15pm) I got through in seconds, sent an engineer the following day (8.30am) all fixed by 9am.

Gryff

[AF62]

so GOOGLE BB speedtest produces the usual 3 million+ answers

If you Google “speed test” then at the top of the page before any search results is Google’s own speed test app.

BT suggested I use fast.com - apparenly it is the netflix ospeedchecker.

Rather surprising BT don’t suggest using their own checker - https://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

[Midsmartin]

I still reckon the actual problem is the laptop being slow, but we await the OP's return!

[mutantpoodle]

WOW
If only I understood all this I would be proud!

It is a virgin cable connection
it is a wired ethernet link to router
laptop is about 8 years old and router is older (Virgin told me I would have to pay for a new one as current wasnt faulty)
I havent called Virgin for a few years other than to 'discuss' my renewal package at contract expiry...at which time they have been brilliant...and in the UK

I just did another using the 'top choice' after Googling 'speedtest'....so a Google test?...got 42 MB download
also did FAST.com...got 95

I know laptop is old and at some stage I must replace......but why are the results so different...surely that cannot be due to the laptop itself

[Midsmartin]

Forget the speedtests for a minute. All of the results you've had will work just fine for any normal use. Even your worst numbers will not feel slow on a decent pc. What are the specs of your laptop? If it is 8 years old, then I think your solution lies either with a new laptop, or by upgrading it with a solid state drive and maybe some RAM. Whatever your slowness problem is,I doubt it has anything at all to do with your broadband speed.

A smallish 240gb SSD costs only £20, if that's enough capacity, and I'd be willing to bet 50p that it will mostly fix your slowness.

When you run a test, it measures how long it takes to download data from somewhere. The data goes on a journey through lots of hops, different routers along the way. Spikes in activity anywhere along the route, including your laptop and the remote test website might effect the number you see.

[swill453]

A sluggish laptop and widely variable test results would indicate to me that the laptop is full of crud. A fresh install of Windows from scratch and, yes, replacing the hard disk with an SSD will work wonders.

As others have said, don't focus on the broadband speed.

Scott.

[Dod101]

Forget the speedtests for a minute. All of the results you've had will work just fine for any normal use. Even your worst numbers will not feel slow on a decent pc. What are the specs of your laptop? If it is 8 years old, then I think your solution lies either with a new laptop, or by upgrading it with a solid state drive and maybe some RAM. Whatever your slowness problem is,I doubt it has anything at all to do with your broadband speed.

A smallish 240gb SSD costs only £20, if that's enough capacity, and I'd be willing to bet 50p that it will mostly fix your slowness.

When you run a test, it measures how long it takes to download data from somewhere. The data goes on a journey through lots of hops, different routers along the way. Spikes in activity anywhere along the route, including your laptop and the remote test website might effect the number you see.

I can attest to that. My BB numbers are around 37/8, but I have a new desktop i5, 8mb RAM (I think!) and a big SSD running Windows 11. Practically instant results for any website. Never had it so good, as Harold Macmillan said all these years ago!

Dod

[Midsmartin]

You only need a broadband speed of about 5mb/sec to watch HD video on YouTube, or on demand TV. Plus a bit more as a buffer for luck. Twice that if two people in the house want to watch HD video at the same time.

A "broadband speed test" in no way tests the speed of your computer, and is not intended to. It only tests the volume of data that can be transferred from the internet into your house per second. Forgive me if this is insultingly basic, but it can be confusing to the non techies, and that's ok! Only at the very extremes where the computer is too slow/busy to run the test properly will that effect the number you see.

[mutantpoodle]

You only need a broadband speed of about 5mb/sec to watch HD video on YouTube, or on demand TV. Plus a bit more as a buffer for luck. Twice that if two people in the house want to watch HD video at the same time.

A "broadband speed test" in no way tests the speed of your computer, and is not intended to. It only tests the volume of data that can be transferred from the internet into your house per second. Forgive me if this is insultingly basic, but it can be confusing to the non techies, and that's ok! Only at the very extremes where the computer is too slow/busy to run the test properly will that effect the number you see.

Believe me..its NOT insultingly basic to me!

I dont do YOUTUBE or TV or watch videos
I read a few newspapers/fiscal websites/Facebook(messenger for family contact)...not much else other than family letters and fiscal issues

the speed appears to come and go without help re time of day etc
thats why I thought the speedtests would tell me of problems, but they so very varied its of no use

it looks like I am needing a new system
I have no ideas where hard drives go or SSDs etc...once its wired up (with help) its stays as is!

thanks everyone for all the ideas, I remain flattered at the knowledge you all consider that I have