Should my Internet Service be Faster?
In our recent post, “Am I getting what I’m paying for?”, we discussed ways to discover if you receive the broadband service that you pay for each month and is advertised by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In this article, we will take the conversation one step further and explore the question many consumers ask themselves, but don’t know how to answer: “Should my Internet service be faster?” Read on as we discuss some of the reasonable gaps between the service level promised by ISPs and the service you experience, how to perform the most accurate speed tests, how to eliminate barriers between you and your maximum speeds and other techniques that can help you evaluate if your current broadband speeds could be – and should be – faster.Verify your Speedtest.net Server
When testing your speed, Speedtest.net initially recommends a testing location based on what it thinks is the shortest physical distance between you and one of the servers. However, because the Internet does not operate in direct geographic paths, this recommendation may not be ideal. To get your most accurate result try to find the server that provides the fastest and most consistent results. Pay attention to the latency, or ping time, as a low number is an indicator of a short network distance. More details regarding how to best use Speedtest.net can be found in the help section.

Accounting for Overhead
Aside from network congestion and your personal CPU load, there is also a natural amount of overhead that may account for slower than expected speeds with your broadband service. When data is being transferred across a network, some of it is information required for routing the message and describing the content. This extra data is referred to as overhead and acts like an envelope,
the message container, which makes for a larger total amount of data that must be transmitted. Therefore, the final bandwidth throughput may be decreased slightly to take all of this into account, assuming your ISP is not in the practice of accounting for it. Accordingly, in these circumstances you can expect only approximately 80-90% of your subscribed speed when testing using most web-based speed tests. Remember, when comparing speeds be sure to compare results using the same unit (kbps vs. Mbps, etc).
Is Your Wireless Network Secure?

If you are using a wireless (WiFi) router in your home, make sure that it is secured with a password. If not, it is possible that someone else could be connected and utilizing your bandwidth, causing your connection to appear that much slower. You may also want to check your signal strength and try testing your speed while directly connected to your broadband modem, bypassing the wireless network completely, just to rule out possible interference or degradation in speed due to issues unique to your WiFi. Stay tuned for more detailed troubleshooting steps regarding this topic in an upcoming article, Improve Your Internet Speed.
Background Programs or Other Devices Using Bandwidth
Similar to an insecure wireless network, other programs or devices could be using bandwidth on your local network, impacting your result at Speedtest.net and naturally, degrading your online experience. To optimize your result, verify that no other applications are running on your computer that could be sending and receiving data, even many email programs consume bandwidth when sending or receiving email. Also check other computer(s) connected on your network, as well as other Internet connected devices such as DVRs and Gaming Consoles.
“Up To” and Networks
Examine the details of your broadband subscription terms closely, many packages advertise speeds “up to”, which is usually not a guaranteed minimum rate. Typically, this is because the connection you subscribe to is also shared with other users in your area, or at least routes through shared network hubs in the region where you live. You can verify if this applies to you by testing your speed often and at various times of the day.
If you find your connection is fastest at a specific time of day – say, for example, late at night – consider doing more bandwidth intensive tasks during those “off hours,” such as queuing up large file downloads to start as you’re going to bed.
Slightly slower than expected speeds aren’t always due to network issues. Remember to factor in your CPU load, which could be a cause for intermittent slowness. CPU load should never be at or higher than 80% for optimal Internet speed performance.
If you’re taking 10-20% overhead into account and still find your speeds to be significantly lower than the service you’re subscribing to, our upcoming article, Improve Your Internet Speed, will provide a detailed list of troubleshooting steps and suggestions.
Source: http://blog.ookla.com/2010/10/12/should-my-internet-service-be-faster/
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