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Why do we have to use testmy.net for internet speeds?

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Sergei316
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Why do we have to use testmy.net for internet speeds?

Just wondering why Techs / Hughesnet require we use Testmy.net for internet speed tests?

16 REPLIES 16
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

I know one of the reasons is because you can control the file size. They also get a lot of information from those tests that they don't get from others.   I'm sure someone will have better info than me, though. 

 

Sergei316 wrote:

Just wondering why Techs / Hughesnet require we use Testmy.net for internet speed tests?


 

Is that an accurate measurement of you daily internet usage?  Downloading a certain size file constantly is not something I do everyday and all day.

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

It's a more accurate measurement of your download speed, not your internet usage. 

 

Sergei316 wrote:

Is that an accurate measurement of you daily internet usage?  Downloading a certain size file constantly is not something I do everyday and all day.


 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sergei316 wrote:

Is that an accurate measurement of you daily internet usage?  Downloading a certain size file constantly is not something I do everyday and all day.


No, and it's not meant to be.  The purpose of a speed test is to get an accurate measurment of your internet speed.  Nothing more.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sergei316 

 

From what I understand it's also supposed to be the most accurate due to the way it handles the higher latency inherent to satellite internet.  That latency can cause problems with others, with their results often being skewed somewhat.  That doesn't mean that testmy doesn't have its own occasional hiccup, but only that it's better than the others.  

 

The main reason, however, and as maratsade mentioned, is for the ability to choose a consistent test size.

@GabeU 

"From what I understand it's also supposed to be the most accurate due to the way it handles the higher latency inherent to satellite internet.  That latency can cause problems with others, with their results often being skewed somewhat.  That doesn't mean that testmy doesn't have its own occasional hiccup, but only that it's better than the others.  

 

The main reason, however, and as maratsade mentioned, is for the ability to choose a consistent test size."

 

That is kinda of deceiving is it not?  Since it seems about 99% of the web is not designed to handle the higher latecny and we surf, stream, download from 99% of the internet, these tests from testmy.net are not an accurate represantation of the average daily internet usage for most people.

 

I have tried 5 different tests from diffrent sites and have achieved many different results.  Tesymy.net was always the best.  

 

I avaeraged almost 14.2mbps over 60 minutes with testmy.net, however, when i downloaded a 100mb file from thinkbroadband.com my download speeds averaged 5.2mbps.

So from what you are implying is that we need to surf, stream and download from sites that are only optimized for higher latency.  Correct?

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sergei316 wrote:

That is kinda of deceiving is it not?  Since it seems about 99% of the web is not designed to handle the higher latecny and we surf, stream, download from 99% of the internet, these tests from testmy.net are not an accurate represantation of the average daily internet usage for most people. 

No, it's not deceiving, because again, a speed test is designed to test your internet speed, nothing more.  A speed test is not intended to be an accurate representation of the average daily internet usage for most people.  The only thing that is an accurate representation of average daily internet usage is average daily internet usage.  

 

 


@Sergei316 wrote:

@GabeU 

I avaeraged almost 14.2mbps over 60 minutes with testmy.net, however, when i downloaded a 100mb file from thinkbroadband.com my download speeds averaged 5.2mbps.

So from what you are implying is that we need to surf, stream and download from sites that are only optimized for higher latency.  Correct?


No, that's not what I'm implying.  You're confusing and conflating two different things.  A speed test gives an accurate representation of your service speed at the time the test is taken.  Activities are not speed tests.  When you download a file it's downloading from a server designed to download that file, not run a speed test, and your download has to deal with anything and everything along that route to that server and back to you, including other people downloading files from that server.  Speed test results and the speed of activities often don't match.  They are not the same thing.  A speed test gives an accurate representation of service speed.  But again, that doesn't mean that it translates to the same speed when performing activities.

 

A speed test is like a car on a closed track, testing to top speed.  Activities are like a car on a road doing every day travelling and activities.  That car can go as fast when doing those activities, but those activities are not being performed on a closed track designed for testing speed, so that's not likely going to happen.  And the effect latency can have on a speed test results is very different than the effect it has on activities.

Excellent explanation.  I understand now.  So basically the latency issue is the cause of almost all the speed/surfing problems with the Hughesnet service.  Since most websites are not designed or optimized for high latency connections, problems become more apperent.  

 

So I assume when Starlink becomes available, the latency issue with satellite internet will be greatly decreased.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sergei316 wrote:

Excellent explanation.  I understand now.  So basically the latency issue is the cause of almost all the speed/surfing problems with the Hughesnet service.  Since most websites are not designed or optimized for high latency connections, problems become more apperent.  


No, that's not the case at all.  Nor it is that what my explanation for the difference between speed tests and other internet activities inferred.  

 


@Sergei316 wrote:

So I assume when Starlink becomes available, the latency issue with satellite internet will be greatly decreased.


The things that are negatively affected by the high latency of geostationary satellite internet will tend to work better with Starlink.  Namely real time online gaming and other real time activities, like Skype and similar interactive programs, as well as online calls.

That is not the case at all?  Really?  Its not my computer, my wifi, my cat6e cable, If I ping CNN.com I get time=653ms with Hughesnet.  With my DSL connection if I ping the same website I get time=53ms.  So latency does not effect everyday web browsing?  I am not buying that sir.  I can stream all day long at 480p with DSL but with hughesnet it buffers, stops, loses connection.  Is that Netflix or Amazon's issue?  I hardly doubt it.  And you can check my account, I do not go over my data caps at all. So what are the majority of the Hughesnet service issues then?  Lets see some stats over the last 5 years.

 

The biggest complaint I have with this Hughesnet service is the inconsistencesies with the service.  One minute it is fine the next nothing or severely degraded service.  This happens ALL THE TIME, even before the excuse of the Covid19 pandemic and throttling bandwith began.   Contacting support and doing the same thing over and over again, Turn off modem, turn off wifi, clear browser cache, etc, etc, is very annoying and a waste of time.  Customers want the service to work consistently.  It does not.

 

This why all internet service should be Title II.

 

If I had a business account would the service be more consistent and would I get priority on my bandwidth?

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sergei316 wrote:

That is not the case at all?  Really?  Its not my computer, my wifi, my cat6e cable, If I ping CNN.com I get time=653ms with Hughesnet.  With my DSL connection if I ping the same website I get time=53ms.  So latency does not effect everyday web browsing?  I am not buying that sir.  


You can buy or not buy whatever you like.  Do you understand what latency is?  It's a delay of onset.  When you enter a website address and click enter your keyboard, it takes about 20-40ms to start receiving the result with ground based service.  With HughesNet it's ~600ms, or slightly over a half a second.  That's what latency is.  A little over a half second delay of onset.   

 

Your streaming issues right now aren't being caused by ~600ms of latency, but rather a system that is under extreme stress due to a fourfold or more increase in traffic.  HughesNet only has so much bandwidth, and it's normally enough for the majority of it's subscribers, but that "normal" is gone because of the incredible increase in online activity and the congestion it's causing.  As well, on 3/20 a prioritization policy was put in place that favors work and schooling related activities during periods of high system load, which is pretty much around the clock at this point.  This means that your streaming is taking a back seat.  

 

As well, some beams and gateways are more heavily loaded than others, which results in congestion.  And just like what's going on now, congestion causes problems with streaming, and can have done so before the current increase in system load ever started.  Servers often don't react well to congestion.  

 

Instead of all of this, you could have simply asked what could be causing problems with your streaming.  If ~600ms of latency was the cause, EVERYONE on HughesNet would be having the same problems, and that's absolutely not the case, including now.

 

Good day to you.  

 

Edit:  To answer your question, business service can be better.  Whether it would be for you can't be known without actually getting it.


@GabeU wrote:


You can buy or not buy whatever you like.  Do you understand what latency is?  It's a delay of onset.  When you enter a website address and click enter your keyboard, it takes about 20-40ms to start receiving the result with ground based service.  With HughesNet it's ~600ms, or slightly over a half a second.  That's what latency is.  A little over a half second delay of onset.   

 


Does that initial delay only happen at the onset?  Or does it continue through the entire path to the destination?

 

Here is a tracert to netflix about 10 minutes ago:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>cd\

C:\>
C:\>
C:\>
C:\>tracert netflix.com

Tracing route to netflix.com [2620:108:700f::23a1:5f46]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2001:5b0:4bd2:d228:280:aeff:fe66:54c6
2 609 ms 614 ms 629 ms 2001:5b0:4b00:1226::1
3 558 ms 636 ms 629 ms 2001:5b0:4b00:fffa::104
4 627 ms 579 ms 590 ms 2001:5b0:100:1::29
5 578 ms 602 ms 604 ms vlan200.car1.LasVegas1.Level3.net [2001:1900:210
0::324d]
6 618 ms 634 ms 579 ms lo-0-v6.ear2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [2001:1900::
3:19c]
7 624 ms 637 ms 623 ms 2001:1900:2100::3982
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 587 ms 659 ms 599 ms 2620:107:4000:ff::4a
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 612 ms 594 ms 608 ms 2620:107:4000:3::12
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 653 ms 639 ms 613 ms 2620:107:4000:3::1a
16 634 ms 696 ms 659 ms 2620:107:4000:3::29
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 654 ms 619 ms 669 ms 2620:107:4000:4204:8000:0:6441:30f1
23 647 ms 639 ms 612 ms 2620:108:700f::23a1:5f46

Trace complete.

C:\>

 

What I am asking is does the 6XXms delay happen at each hop or is the onset delay just one time when I select my website destination?

 


@GabeU wrote:

Your streaming issues right now aren't being caused by ~600ms of latency, but rather a system that is under extreme stress due to a fourfold or more increase in traffic.  HughesNet only has so much bandwidth, and it's normally enough for the majority of it's subscribers, but that "normal" is gone because of the incredible increase in online activity and the congestion it's causing.  As well, on 3/20 a prioritization policy was put in place that favors work and schooling related activities during periods of high system load, which is pretty much around the clock at this point.  This means that your streaming is taking a back seat.  

 

As well, some beams and gateways are more heavily loaded than others, which results in congestion.  And just like what's going on now, congestion causes problems with streaming, and can have done so before the current increase in system load ever started.  Servers often don't react well to congestion.  

 

Instead of all of this, you could have simply asked what could be causing problems with your streaming.  If ~600ms of latency was the cause, EVERYONE on HughesNet would be having the same problems, and that's absolutely not the case, including now.

 

Good day to you.  

 

Edit:  To answer your question, business service can be better.  Whether it would be for you can't be known without actually getting it.


I am not complaing about the streaming during this time.  I use my DSL line to stream.  My issue was BEFORE the pandemic bandwith throttling began.  I have had this service for just over 2 years and the streaming of Netflix and Prime is horrendous.  Not just on rainy days, not in summer with leaves on trees, always.  From 8am to 10pm is horrible.  I know, I know it is because of congestion on the network and to many people are online.  That to me, in 2020, is a poor excuse.  During the pandemic Xfinity and ATT have upped their game to provide consistant bandwith to their customers.  Granted they have land lines and a not terrestrial service but they have done their best.  I understand that Hughesnet cant just launch a satellite into space in a few weeks to help with congestion. Maybe inreasing the amount of ground stations over the last few years would help? 

 

Pull my chat logs with customer service over the last few days.  See why I am fuming.  One rep says $30 discount for 3 months, get disconnected by Hughesnet, second rep says $10 discount for 3 months, cancel my service, cant you have to call, sit on the phone for 45 minutes.  All this chatting, testing, calling, and rebooting takes time and energy. 

 

Some of us do not have choice but to use satellite internet, I just wish the experience was somewhat comparable to my DSL line, and it is not. 

 

Thanks for your time.

The 600ms delay is because the satellite radio signal is going 90-95,000 miles to report each hop to you.

To understand this and what your minimum delay per pinged packet is please look at the calculator on my site.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Sergei316 wrote: 

Does that initial delay only happen at the onset?  Or does it continue through the entire path to the destination? 


It's a delay OF onset, but it affects everything along the route, which is why all of the hops show the high latency.  

"Latency is a time interval between the stimulation and response, or, from a more general point of view, a time delay between the cause and the effect of some physical change in the system being observed."

 


@Sergei316 wrote:

I am not complaing about the streaming during this time.  I use my DSL line to stream.  My issue was BEFORE the pandemic bandwith throttling began.  I have had this service for just over 2 years and the streaming of Netflix and Prime is horrendous.  Not just on rainy days, not in summer with leaves on trees, always.  From 8am to 10pm is horrible.  I know, I know it is because of congestion on the network and to many people are online.  That to me, in 2020, is a poor excuse.   


It's unfortunate that's it's not until now, when troubleshooting the streaming issue would pretty much be a waste of time due to overall streaming issues for just about everyone, that you posted here about the problem.

 


@Sergei316 wrote: 

I know, I know it is because of congestion on the network and to many people are online.  That to me, in 2020, is a poor excuse.  During the pandemic Xfinity and ATT have upped their game to provide consistant bandwith to their customers.  Granted they have land lines and a not terrestrial service but they have done their best.  I understand that Hughesnet cant just launch a satellite into space in a few weeks to help with congestion. Maybe inreasing the amount of ground stations over the last few years would help? 

The satellite's throughput is finite, so increasing the number of ground stations would only help in situations where a gateway is a bottleneck.  When congestion is higher than the overall system, the majority of the time it's due to beam load, which can't be rectified, save for a new satellite serving some of the customers in that beam footprint.  

 


@Sergei316 wrote:
Pull my chat logs with customer service over the last few days.  See why I am fuming.  One rep says $30 discount for 3 months, get disconnected by Hughesnet, second rep says $10 discount for 3 months, cancel my service, cant you have to call, sit on the phone for 45 minutes.  All this chatting, testing, calling, and rebooting takes time and energy. 

I don't have that ability, as I'm not a HughesNet employee.  Most of the people you converse with here are fellow subscribers.  Actual HughesNet employees have a "Moderator" badge next to their name.

From what I can tell, HughesNet uses a consistent speed test really as a way to validate that your equipment/connecton is working well.  They have the speed test traffic whitelisted/prioritized so that you can get the max throughput for them to validate.  That's a pretty reasonable and quick way to do a sanity check on your connection when you have a concern over the speeds you are getting.  For that to be an effective measure, there needs to be some control, so choosing a specific test with specific settings makes sense and so does prioritizing that traffic.  It's worth pointing out, and I don't know why this is, that they seem to have many (most?) speed tests prioritized, not just the testmy.net speed test.

 

Generally, speed tests are actually a pretty good proxy for your overall internet speed and online experience, because when you are browsing a webpage or streaming a video, you are still basically downloading data similar to a speedtest.  With HughesNet though, because they have that speed test traffic prioritized for their troubleshooting, it's not a good indication of what your average experience will be, especially when their network is congested.  

 

Yes, satelite has some differences because of the high latency, and you'll notice that more on webpages that are downloading lots of little files from lots of different servers as most webpages do, as opposed to big file downloads or streaming, but it's typically not going to be nearly the primary factor unless you have some issues causing crazy high latency (which often means you are also seeing dropped packets and have a problem with your connection/equipment).  So you should always expect some difference, between the speedtest and your normal experience, but it should still be pretty reasonable.

 

HughesNet can't really add capacity without launching more satelites and that's not nearly as trivial as adding capacity to land based networks where you can add more physical servers into a data center.  Since their congestion is very high right now, and they are prioritizing certain traffic over others, speedtests are really only useful for that validation and not at all useful determing your overall internet speed.

 

 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Sergei316 

 

Just to allay any confusion and prevent the latency cause problem idea from coming back to the top, please note the part of Michael57's statement below that is in bold.  This is not what's going on with your system, as your traceroute demonstrated normal geo satellite internet latency (~650ms)  What's being referred to here is when latency gets very high, as in much higher than what you're seeing, which most definitely can throw things out of wack and cause all kinds of problems.  If this were the case, your traceroute would show either considerable spikes or inordinately high latency across the board.  

 

"Yes, satelite has some differences because of the high latency, and you'll notice that more on webpages that are downloading lots of little files from lots of different servers as most webpages do, as opposed to big file downloads or streaming, but it's typically not going to be nearly the primary factor unless you have some issues causing crazy high latency (which often means you are also seeing dropped packets and have a problem with your connection/equipment).  So you should always expect some difference, between the speedtest and your normal experience, but it should still be pretty reasonable."

 

@Michael57 

 

Thank you.  You and Mark are better at explaining some things than I, with this being one of them.