[aggieben]

1. When will someone build a tool like this and then open up the measurements data? A speed-measuring tool would be infinitely more useful if we could investigate the results beyond just our one device for one test. A question I really want to be able to answer: which ISP offers the fastest service in my area? fast.com and speedtest.net could easily answer this question if they made the data available.

2. I think tests like this that rely on a built-out network and well-placed CDNs and such are probably junk. A more useful test would be against a handful of download targets that aren't optimized, and then average the results. This is particularly true for Netflix. Case in point: fast.com says I download at 78Mbps, but speedtest.net has me down around 57. I'm only paying for 30.

[fizzbatter]

Re:#1, I'd like to see some type of software we can install in our stacks, to publicly publish speed data in a standardized format for real data. Can you imagine `test.youtube.com`, `test.netflix.com` and `test.vimeo.com`? Hell, imagine how nice it would be for gamers? Having trouble with your ping? `test.csgo.com` (or whatever CounterStrikes domain is.. a popular FPS), and etc.

I'm firmly untrusting of Comcast's results on speedtest.. If Comcast is intentionally throttling, it's in their interest to not throttle Speedtest. However if we can monitor real data.. that actually seems useful.

I understand that would likely require additional resources from video/etc providers, and is likely an unrealistic request from video/etc providers.. but i definitely don't need more test sites for Comcast to manipulate.

Disclaimer: I don't know the subject domain, so apologies if i'm insanely off base.

[djrogers]

>I think tests like this that rely on a built-out network and well-placed CDNs and such are probably junk.

Depends on the goal - here Netflix wants to see how fast you can stream from their "built-out network and well placed CDNs" so testing those is completely relevant. For their purposes, testing a bunch of unoptimized and unrelated services would be "junk".

[niftich]

> here Netflix wants to see how fast you can stream from their [CDNs]

Absolutely right; but also in this case, Netflix' and the average downloader's needs align, given that the bulk (by share of bytes) of legal speed-sensitive downstream traffic is video.

[m1r3k]

Dslreports speedtest publishes the results publicly: http://speedtest.dslreports.com/

[aggieben]

They appear to only publish it by ISP. Part of my problem is not knowing comprehensively what ISPs serve my area, so I need to look it up by zip code or city.

[netinstructions]

Google / YouTube has a 'Video Quality Report' which will measure your speeds and will also show local ISPs speeds as well.

https://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/

[parennoob]

I don't see numerical speeds there, just a graph of how much SD and HD video is used across various ISPs in my neighborhood. Are you getting actual numbers like "100Mbps" from that report?

[blakeyrat]

"Reports from your location are not available yet." Uh, I didn't tell you my location, Google... what the heck?

[dpcx]

They can guesstimate by geolocating your IP.

[blakeyrat]

The problem is I'm at work right now, and I wanted to get results for where I live not where I work. (Which might still be unavailable, given, but at least let me type it in!)

[forcer]

We display our data publicly on the map. http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/broadband_speed_in_my...

Granted we do not have many results in the US (maybe ballpark 200k+ results in last 6 months), still you should be able to find some results in your area.

[dmix]

200k is a pretty good sample size is it not? Even with multiple providers.

Most election/political polls use far less data and very big decisions get made because of them.

[hueving]

Sample size is only a tiny part of the relevance of a sample. You can take a thousand gallons of water to test water quality, but if all of it is from the same faucet the sample isn't representative.

[dmix]

I don't see how that applies here though. How much variation is there among broadband users that matters?

[swasheck]

RE #2: fast.com has me at 1/3 of what speedtest.net has me for download.