Big variance in internet speeds across testing sites and actual download

devor110

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Mar 11, 2016
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I often time have trouble watching twitch.tv streams at 1080p, at times it buffers even at 720. Twitch offers a download speed tester utility to check if the problem is on the user's end. That site is testmy.net, and according to it my dl speed varies from 600kBps to 2 Mbps (that is a lower case b!), whereas my advertised DL should be 10MBps, which i almost reach on speedtest.net, which one should i believe? How can i fix this issue?
 
Solution
Sad to say but some ISP prioritize speed test websites so you think you are getting what you paid for. When you actually don't on all parts of the internet.

Really it depends on the path your data is taking to get to and from you and what the ISP allows. They may actually be throttling Twitch and other streaming services.

Only way I can think of to test is to try a VPN client and see if your bandwidth increases to Twitch. You could also try switching DNS providers. A lot of people default to their ISP but you can hit up google and others directly. Though that would be more about how you find things on the internet then your connection to them.

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Sad to say but some ISP prioritize speed test websites so you think you are getting what you paid for. When you actually don't on all parts of the internet.

Really it depends on the path your data is taking to get to and from you and what the ISP allows. They may actually be throttling Twitch and other streaming services.

Only way I can think of to test is to try a VPN client and see if your bandwidth increases to Twitch. You could also try switching DNS providers. A lot of people default to their ISP but you can hit up google and others directly. Though that would be more about how you find things on the internet then your connection to them.
 
Solution

devor110

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Mar 11, 2016
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downloaded tunnelbear and now i'm suddenly at 7Mbps, which is still a lot worse than my supposed 10MBps, but it's better thanks