Broadband Speed Checker - UK Business Labs

**Emma** · #1 (**permalink**) 21-08-2008, 06:04 PM

A free utility to test your broadband speed:

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

You can also rate your ISP once you're done.

leemason · #2 (**permalink**) 22-08-2008, 01:25 PM

My Speed test is terrible. I am supposed to be on about 5Mb with Virgin Media but it actually comes out as:

Download: 814Kb
Upload: 363Kb

Rubbish!

projectxy · #3 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 04:45 PM

To be perfectly frank these web based speedtests are not that accurate. A better test would be to download a file from Virgins ftp site and look at the download speed.

I am on virgins 20mb bb and I get (outside of the throttling time

) speeds up to 1.2mb/s. Which seems fine.

It would be worth also considering if your router is configured correctly if you use one and if the contention ratio in your area is high.

All the best

**trevorwood** · #4 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 04:59 PM

I use ThinkBroadband's speed checker. You can save yor results and watch what happens over time. I've recently had a terrible slowdown (result of an outage somewhere) and thinkbroadband's speed checker spotted it

projectxy · #5 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 05:03 PM

Ah yes thinkbroadband, which if im not mistaken is the former ADSLguide site. A good speedtest compared to the others and also a good site.

**Daniel :: EZPZ Hosting** · #6 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 05:17 PM

Supposedly an 8meg line

projectxy · #7 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 05:22 PM

Agreed it does look bad.

Have you tried the thinkbroadband test here

**CSNM-Carl** · #8 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 05:27 PM

**Daniel :: EZPZ Hosting** · #9 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 07:45 PM

That´s bad! Where do you live Carl?

projectxy · #10 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 08:15 PM

If those are accurate speeds I would contact your ISP and have a polite word!

**Caroline** · #11 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 08:15 PM

Hi

just ran a speed test on my broadband, and although my provider wasn't listed, says virgin media but its actually tesco's

here is my results

thinkbroadbands results are:

Date 05/09/08 09:03:44
Speed Down 965.09 Kbps ( 0.9 Mbps )
Speed Up 243.03 Kbps ( 0.2 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest2.adslguide.org.uk

projectxy · #12 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 08:17 PM

Caroline,

Download speeds good... upload not too bad, would expect I slightly higher.

Who is your ISP?

projectxy · #13 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 08:23 PM

Caroline,

Download speeds good... upload not too bad, I would expect slightly higher.

Who is your ISP?

To give you an idea of the inconsistancy of these tests, I performed 2 one afte the other which were with Speedtest.net and Thinkbroadband.

Date 04/09/08 20:21:30
Speed Down 12871.72 Kbps ( 12.6 Mbps )
Speed Up 700.02 Kbps ( 0.7 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.adslguide.org.uk

As you can see... wildly different....!!!!

**uglydoll** · #14 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 09:02 PM

This is my BT Broadband 8 meg:

projectxy · #15 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 09:05 PM

Based on the replies I have seen today I seriously do not trust the results given by SpeedTest.net.

Uglydoll could you possible run the Thinkbroadband speed test? I bet the results will be different!

**uglydoll** · #16 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 09:09 PM

It isn't that different, which is why I didn't bother posting them, as it's not as pretty as the speedtest.net display

Thinkbroadband results were:

Date: 04/09/08 20:59:35
Speed Down: 3449.83 Kbps ( 3.4 Mbps )
Speed Up: 374.40 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )

projectxy · #17 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 09:14 PM

Intriguingly yours were consistant.. i apologise

I agree the display isnt that pretty lol

**Dave H** · #18 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 10:42 PM

Mmm.. not my best scores.. although my net connection is being used by some of my other computers on the network...

Date 04/09/08 22:42:14
Speed Down 15185.28 Kbps ( 14.8 Mbps )
Speed Up 1824.19 Kbps ( 1.8 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.adslguide.org.uk

**uglydoll** · #19 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 10:48 PM

What is your official connection speed Dave? Your results look phenomenal.

**Dave H** · #20 (**permalink**) 04-09-2008, 11:04 PM

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 2,186 / 18,403
That is my official sync on my router. I switched my connection to Annex M from Annex A when upgrading to Be Pro, and enabled fastpath (turned off interleaving), so theoretically I should have a better ping for online games.

When I was on the standard Be package, my sync was around 20mbit with a 1.3mbit upstream, but I was happy to trade some of my downstream to have a faster upstream.

**Caroline** · #21 (**permalink**) 05-09-2008, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by projectxy

Caroline,

Download speeds good... upload not too bad, would expect I slightly higher.

Who is your ISP?

Hi Projectxy

My isp is tesco's who get it through ntl i should have a 1mb download speed limit (i think), and it is run through a standard phone line (asdl)

Caroline

projectxy · #22 (**permalink**) 05-09-2008, 10:38 AM

Caroline,

Tesco.. eh quite surprising, but seeing as its an NTL provided connection I can see the corrolation.

leemason · #23 (**permalink**) 05-09-2008, 03:54 PM

All of this raises an interesting point which I know has been discussed in various forums before but should an ISP advertise something as up to 8Mb/sec (or similar) when no one has any chance of getting that speed? Should they be forced to advertise the average speed rather than some theoretical maximum?

**Mark** · #24 (**permalink**) 05-09-2008, 04:39 PM

Average speed, absolutely.