speed tests accurate ?

My internet connection was painfully slow through Linksys router.
Bypassed and went through cable modem and Roadruner tech support
reported no dropped data and a 1.6MB/s throughput. So router became
suspect. I flashed the latest firmware update to it, cleaned out some
popups and speed now is tolerable, BUT....
Checked throughput using cnet's online utility and 2wire.com, and
they show 400KB/s. Linksys's tech support said those online tests are
not very accurate and considered my problem fixed since speed seemed
reasonable after updating router firmware and getting rid of popups.
Question though is: Is something still wrong with router or
computer causing a tested 400KB/s throughput which is 1/4 the
throughput when connected directly through the cable modem ? Shouldn't
it be showing something closer to 1.6MB ?
I know the ISP is the bottleneck when getting out to the internet
and not the router. But if the Linksys router (802.11B) is funky and
causing the slow throughput, would it be worth it for me to try the new
Netgear 802.11G router I just bought (and was going to take back if
flashing the Linksys fixed the problem)? Or could I expect it also to
just show 400 KB/s even though its a "G" capable of 54 MB/s, e.g. are
the internet speed tests off by that much and I'm really getting close
to 1.6MB/s through the LInksys ?
Any opinions or wildass guesses would be helpful. Thanks.
Bob

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>
> My internet connection was painfully slow through Linksys router.
> Bypassed and went through cable modem and Roadruner tech support
> reported no dropped data and a 1.6MB/s throughput. So router became
> suspect. I flashed the latest firmware update to it, cleaned out
some
> popups and speed now is tolerable, BUT....
> Checked throughput using cnet's online utility and 2wire.com, and
> they show 400KB/s. Linksys's tech support said those online tests
are
> not very accurate and considered my problem fixed since speed seemed
> reasonable after updating router firmware and getting rid of popups.
> Question though is: Is something still wrong with router or
> computer causing a tested 400KB/s throughput which is 1/4 the
> throughput when connected directly through the cable modem ?
Shouldn't
> it be showing something closer to 1.6MB ?
> I know the ISP is the bottleneck when getting out to the internet
> and not the router. But if the Linksys router (802.11B) is funky
and
> causing the slow throughput, would it be worth it for me to try the
new
> Netgear 802.11G router I just bought (and was going to take back if
> flashing the Linksys fixed the problem)? Or could I expect it also
to
> just show 400 KB/s even though its a "G" capable of 54 MB/s, e.g.
are
> the internet speed tests off by that much and I'm really getting
close
> to 1.6MB/s through the LInksys ?
> Any opinions or wildass guesses would be helpful. Thanks.
> Bob
>
Have you ran the same 2wire test with and without the router?
This would give you a better picture of what the router is doing.

On 9 Dec 2004 20:29:39 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

(...)
>reported no dropped data and a 1.6MB/s throughput. So router became
>suspect. I flashed the latest firmware update to it, cleaned out some
>popups and speed now is tolerable, BUT....
>Checked throughput using cnet's online utility and 2wire.com, and
>they show 400KB/s.
(...)
>Is something still wrong with router or
>computer causing a tested 400KB/s throughput which is 1/4 the
>throughput when connected directly through the cable modem ? Shouldn't
>it be showing something closer to 1.6MB ?

I'll assume that the 1.6MB/s is really 1.6Mbits/sec.
However, it's not clear if your 400KB/s is really 400KBits/sec or
400KBytes/sec. If it's bits, then you have some kind of major speed
problem. If it's Bytes, then that equals 3.2Mbits/sec which is what
you should normally be getting from a cable modem connection.

Most of the online speed tests vary in performance depending upon how
many intermediate systems are between the test site and your cable
modem. The best test is usually the one supplied by your cable modem
vendor on their locally connected web pile. Who's your cable ISP?


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On 9 Dec 2004 20:29:39 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
> (...)
> >reported no dropped data and a 1.6MB/s throughput. So router became
> >suspect. I flashed the latest firmware update to it, cleaned out
some
> >popups and speed now is tolerable, BUT....
> >Checked throughput using cnet's online utility and 2wire.com, and
> >they show 400KB/s.
> (...)
> >Is something still wrong with router or
> >computer causing a tested 400KB/s throughput which is 1/4 the
> >throughput when connected directly through the cable modem ?
Shouldn't
> >it be showing something closer to 1.6MB ?
>
> I'll assume that the 1.6MB/s is really 1.6Mbits/sec.
> However, it's not clear if your 400KB/s is really 400KBits/sec or
> 400KBytes/sec. If it's bits, then you have some kind of major speed
> problem. If it's Bytes, then that equals 3.2Mbits/sec which is what
> you should normally be getting from a cable modem connection.
>
> Most of the online speed tests vary in performance depending upon how
> many intermediate systems are between the test site and your cable
> modem. The best test is usually the one supplied by your cable modem
> vendor on their locally connected web pile. Who's your cable ISP?
>
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

Thanks for responding. I think it megabytes and kilobytes, so yes,
it looked like the router was slowing things down. I ran test again on
different machine through CNET and it shows 1.4MB/s, so I think it is
the other machine (adware, spyware, etc.). On the different machine,
internet speed is fine, so I think flashing/updating the firmware on
the router did the trick and I'm just dealing with an older computer I
need to cleanup. Thanks for the help. Seems like I'm okay again...
(BTW, ISP is Road Runner).
Bob