Broadband speed checker

[Houthakker]

I have just upgraded our broadband to full fibre, and while the enginer was here I did a speed test. I have always used broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk and this gave a reading of 13.9 mb (wireless at the far end of the house) The engineer said they always use fast.com and this gave a reading of 26mb at the same place/time. Does anyone know which of these is likely to be closest to right, and why there is such a spread between them? Or if indeed neither of them are reliable and there is a better one to try? Thanks

 

[vickster]

I always use Speedtest. No idea if it’s any more reliable than any other though!

 

[13 rider]

As an X openreach engineer I used Ookla as my choice of speed test . Testing WiFi speed has lots of variables to get a speed into the house property you need to physically connect to the router .
I take it my full fibre you don't mean a fibre optic cable has been installed into the property rather the broadband is fibre to the green box and through the old telephone network to your house . If it's true fibre those speeds are terrible

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Firstly - any speed checker is dependant on the slowest link in the chain
Therefore you should only believe a speed test based on a hard wired connection - not anything via wireless

If you get different result from wired and wireless then this shows a problem with the wireless not the broadband


Second point - I alwasy used to use Broadbandspeedchecker.com - but for the last year or so I have been avoiding it as it seemed to start giving different result to everything else

Based on that I would try a selection of checkers and do several from each one to get anything accurate
I know it is a bit pedantic and time consuming - but taking a single reading can show a problem that is not the real problem - or disguise a problem that really is there
Also - a series of checks will show whether your speed problem is there all the time or comes and goes - which is important for knowing whether or not it has been fixed

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

I’ve just tried:-
broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk
speedtest.net and
fast.com

All three gave results within a couple of Mb of each other at ~998Mb/s down and ~1004Mb/s up.

 

[Houthakker]

As an X openreach engineer I used Ookla as my choice of speed test . Testing WiFi speed has lots of variables to get a speed into the house property you need to physically connect to the router .
I take it my full fibre you don't mean a fibre optic cable has been installed into the property rather the broadband is fibre to the green box and through the old telephone network to your house . If it's true fibre those speeds are terrible

Hi, yes thats full fibre to the house. I've not had chance yet to plug direct into the router to test the full speed, but this reading is at the far end of the house where we have struggled to get much signal at all, and its passed through 2 of the Sky boosters.

I think Speedstest that Vickester mentioned os the Ookla product. Just tried that and it gave me 24 mb against broadbandspeedchecker at 16mb and Fast at 35mb.

 

[Alex321]

Hi, yes thats full fibre to the house. I've not had chance yet to plug direct into the router to test the full speed, but this reading is at the far end of the house where we have struggled to get much signal at all, and its passed through 2 of the Sky boosters.

I think Speedstest that Vickester mentioned os the Ookla product. Just tried that and it gave me 24 mb against broadbandspeedchecker at 16mb and Fast at 35mb.

None of those are even close to what your broadband speed is likely to be. With full fibre to the house, you will be getting (depending on the package you are paying for) anything from 75Mb up to500Mb.

Even with fibre to the cabinet (which is a few hundred yards away), I am getting around 68Mb in my current house.

The speed those testers are showing is the speed after it has used the Wifi between your computer and your router.

You will probably get the best speed at that end of your house by using either full wired ethernet cables from the router, or by using powerline adapters such as these https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4661847

 

[Svendo]

Is there a ‘settling in’ period for the fibre-to-the-house router where it speeds up and down to find the best stable speed? There was with my fibre to the box service.

 

[ColinJ]

Is there a ‘settling in’ period for the fibre-to-the-house router where it speeds up and down to find the best stable speed? There was with my fibre to the box service.

I would expect it to 'just work' since the fibre should be reliably good, as opposed to a length of iffy wire from the 'box' to the house?

 

[marzjennings]

Hi, yes thats full fibre to the house. I've not had chance yet to plug direct into the router to test the full speed, but this reading is at the far end of the house where we have struggled to get much signal at all, and its passed through 2 of the Sky boosters.

I think Speedstest that Vickester mentioned os the Ookla product. Just tried that and it gave me 24 mb against broadbandspeedchecker at 16mb and Fast at 35mb.

Then something is wrong, on full fiber to the house I get over 900mb/s up and down while on a wired connection and over 300mb/s when on the wifi.

 

[Grant Fondo]

I have just upgraded our broadband to full fibre

Who is it? they normally give a minimum speed

I've not had chance yet to plug direct into the router to test the full speed

I checked mine a few days after getting Sky Ultrafast. it was just over their 'minimum' speed 56mbps, told them not happy as have a green cabinet the other side of my garden fence. By some miracle of broadband wizardry it was up at 130mbps within the hour, funny that?

 

[DCBassman]

I have FTTC and use thinkbroadband to check. My main pc is straight to the router on gigabit ethernet, so that is my check machine. Around 70mb/s. Which is what I am expecting, 20mb/s up.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

I've not had chance yet to plug direct into the router to test the full speed, but this reading is at the far end of the house where we have struggled to get much signal at all, and its passed through 2 of the Sky boosters.

I've just tried a desktop and a laptop sitting on the same desk. Both connecting to the router via wifi.
Desktop 150mb/s - which is what I'm paying for, so can't complain.
Laptop 13mb/s - somewhat diminished but perfectly good for what I'm using it for.

Unless someone tells me different, I'll assume the laptop has a mediocre wifi antennae. My point is, if you depend on the wifi signal, you're only measuring the speed of the link to your device via the weakest component in that link.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

If you are connecting over wifi then it also depends on how close you are and what your wifi adapter is capable of

If you have a device that only uses 2.4 gHz then it can connect over longer distances than 5 GHz but it is more subject to interference from other people close by
for example we have a neighbour who has something that uses a channel number that it shouldn't be using. And it also uses a 'hidden' SSID that wanders around channels but most often uses ones it shouldn;t be using. This will generate some raido interference - not much in our case as it is a distance away - but if it was next door it could slow things down.
If you use 5GHz (not the same as 5G on a mobile phone connection!!) then it is much faster but shorter range so also less likely to see interference.

SO check you adapter - a cheap usb adapter could speed an oldish laptop up quite a bit!

 

[richardfm]

If you have a compatible router, for example a newish Virgin router, you can use this tool to check the speed at the router https://samknows.com/realspeed/