A Tale of Three Speed Tests
I am putting my Covad T1 through it’s paces right now. I decided that the best way to experience the difference is to live it, so I have taken my Mac and plonked it behind a Linksys router connected to the Covad T1 I got as part of the Covad Blogger Relations program.
I wanted to do testing like Ken Camp had done, so I was using the Visualware MyVoIPSpeed testing tool, but I got a rather disturbing result on one part of my test (note all tests reflected here were run at around 5:30pm PDT):
Notice that the downstream is far less than the upstream. To sanity check that, I also ran tests using speedtest.net and Speakeasy’s Speed Test tool:
I will admit to not knowing exactly how these speed tests are done, though I am sure precise location on the network will play a role in how these numbers will turn out. It’s worth using as many testing tools as you can in order to determine what your speed might be.
I suppose the real test will be when I start using it to make VoIP calls and do things like SightSpeed. That should start happening in the next couple of days.
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Comment by Jonathan Greene
I think these tests are like weighing yourself on a scale. As long as you use the same one, the reference point will remain the same. I’ve found you can also run the tests a few times in a row and get very different numbers…
Comment by Matt
Be sure the select the server location nearest you for the VisualWare test. I have found that it makes quite a difference. You can select the server from the map on the left hand side of the page.