[SOLVED] Different Internet Speeds

[Complexic_1]

I checked a bunch of different internet speed test sites and I get different things. I have xfinity. When I check their speed test I get like 250~ mbs and that's fine and as it should be. But when I check other sites I get between 30-50mbs. I searched online and people say that is because you're checking the connection between these two sources. I understand that but if that is the case, how am I supposed to know if I'm getting the speeds that I pay for.? How can I test my speed "generally"? (if that even is a thing)

 

[rgd1101]

you don't. like you said it depend on where the sources are from. what other sites did you test?
the other one I use is fast.com by netflx


xfinity can only up to that speed from their server to your pc, they can't control if you are downloading from the other side of the world

 

[Bob.B]

I checked a bunch of different internet speed test sites and I get different things. I have xfinity. When I check their speed test I get like 250~ mbs and that's fine and as it should be. But when I check other sites I get between 30-50mbs. I searched online and people say that is because you're checking the connection between these two sources. I understand that but if that is the case, how am I supposed to know if I'm getting the speeds that I pay for.? How can I test my speed "generally"? (if that even is a thing)

Try this.

Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Use Speedtest on all your devices with our free desktop and mobile apps.

www.speedtest.net

You can select the test site... normally the closer the site the better the speed.

 

[Complexic_1]

you don't. like you said it depend on where the sources are from. what other sites did you test?
the other one I use is fast.com by netflx


xfinity can only up to that speed from their server to your pc, they can't control if you are downloading from the other side of the world

I see, still a bit confused though. Are my connections to other sources dependent on my connection to xfinity, since they are the sources of my internet/my connection to the rest of the internet? Meaning if my connection to xfinity was ... let's say 100mbs~ (dropping from the 250~ I mentioned before) would that mean that I should see a drop in the other sites I visit? (so going from 30-50 to 25-45 or something)

If they are not dependent then I'm confused about why people would pay more to increase their speed to xfinity when that does basically nothing in terms of increasing your speed to other servers?

 

[bill001g]

If you get say 50mbps from some location anywhere in the world and you dropped your internet from 250 to 100 you would still get 50mbps.

This is kinda why people who have gigabit and even faster connections might be wasting their money. It all depends on where you are getting your data from. You need some server that you can actually take advantage of the higher speed. That said things like steam can get extremely high data rates anywhere in the world. They use a multistream download so the distance is less of a issue.


What is more important to someone that plays games is the latency..ie the ping time. This is mostly a distance things but it greatly depends on how your ISP connects to other isp. The speed of your connection will not affect the ping times and it will not reduce the latency to game servers.

 

[Complexic_1]

If you get say 50mbps from some location anywhere in the world and you dropped your internet from 250 to 100 you would still get 50mbps.

This is kinda why people who have gigabit and even faster connections might be wasting their money. It all depends on where you are getting your data from. You need some server that you can actually take advantage of the higher speed. That said things like steam can get extremely high data rates anywhere in the world. They use a multistream download so the distance is less of a issue.


What is more important to someone that plays games is the latency..ie the ping time. This is mostly a distance things but it greatly depends on how your ISP connects to other isp. The speed of your connection will not affect the ping times and it will not reduce the latency to game servers.

I see, I think I understand. Thanks for the information. I've got alot of thinking I need to do.

 

[emitfudd]

I trust Speedtest.net more than any other test sites. With Xfinity or any other company specific speed test they are probably only allowing access to a few servers or you may not get a choice at all. Speedtest lets you choose the location of the server and you will notice huge discrepancies in the results even with servers in the same general location. I usually pick the server that is the same as my provider and pick the closest one in my state.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

What you pay for is a connection to your ISP, and a fair share of their internal bandwidth. Your speed test results show that you are getting that.

After that, it’s pretty much the Wild West. You aren’t guaranteed a good connection speed to any particular service or website, and factors way outside of your ISPs control impact those way more than those that can control.

In general, most ISPs do the best job they can of getting you good connection speeds. It’s all handled by automated routing software that usually does a very good job.

Normally any poor speeds are because the site you are connecting to is overloaded, or because your ISP has bad peering arrangements with other networks. It can be difficult to figure out which is the cause sometimes.

Peering arrangements are very complex and in won’t go into them here but in general most ISPs usually do ok. The US cable companies like Verizon and Comcast might not.

 

[gggplaya]

the other one I use is fast.com by netflx

Will probably be just as fast because Comcast is now hosting netflix servers within their own xfinity network, so alleviate congestion from the xfinity network to the main internet.

For the OP, in the below graphic, you will see how the internet works. Comcast is so big now, they have created their own tier2 network. So they're not a tier 2 and 3 provider. For all home users, you typically connect your house to a tier3 neighborhood provider. That then connects with fiber to a regional tier 2 provider. Which would be comcast. Anything within the tier 2 network will be very fast. Comcast then pays for fiber bandwidth to connect to a tier1 provider which connects the comcast network to the main internet. This tier 1 connection is where you may see a bottleneck during times of high internet traffic and the main reason why comcast made a deal with netflix to host their own servers within the comcast tier 2 network.

To connect globally, the tier 1 networks have literally undersea cables that span the ocean floor to connect continents together with internet.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

Comcast aren’t the only ISP with Netflix boxes in their datacenters. Most ISPs around the world started to install those in 2012. Comcast were one of the very last major ISPs to install them.