5 ms·

Tried on several devices - it consistently under-reads. I'm on 500Mbps broadband. Ookla and fast.com show 350Mbps via WiFi. Cloudflare only 274Mbps. Similar r

by edent 3y ago

Tried on several devices - it consistently under-reads. I'm on 500Mbps broadband. Ookla and fast.com show 350Mbps via WiFi. Cloudflare only 274Mbps. Similar results on Ethernet. Over 400Mbps on a proper speed test. Can't hit 300 on this. I assume their downstream is capped?

yakubin 3y ago
Ookla traffic is known to be prioritised by ISPs. Maybe ISPs just haven’t caught up with Cloudflare yet and what you’re seeing now is more realistic speeds.
xnorswap 3y ago
There's an alternative explanation is that it's possible your ISP hasn't learned to prioritise this speed test traffic unlike other speed tests, and that this is more reflective of general real-world performance?
johneth 3y ago
I've read that often ISPs make exceptions for Ookla and fast.com speed tests by removing any sort of throttling to produce the best possible test results. I expect it isn't as easy for ISPs to treat Cloudflare like this, as it just looks like normal internet traffic.
- maccard 3y ago
  Got a source for ISPs doing that for fast.com? Fast.com is netflix, so the same argument applies there - if you get 300mbps on fast.com you should get it on netflix too
  - xnorswap 3y ago
    Indeed, that's part of what motivated netflix to make fast.com.
    - albert_e 3y ago
      is it possible for ISP to distinguish Netflix video streams from connections to Fast.com ? (and throttle them differently) PS: my latest ISP router doesn't let me change DNS to my local pi-hole. haven't explored all options yet - just got new one 2 days ago -- but currently my DNS queries are going to whatever is the default set by my ISP.
      - denton-scratch 3y ago
        I've never used a pi-hole; but assuming it works as a DHCP server and a DNS resolver, then you should only need to disable DHCP in your router. I've never seen a router than wouldn't let you disable the DHCP server.
      - amalcon 3y ago
        It's theoretically possible, but practically difficult. They can tell whether you loaded something from fast.com or netflix.com prior to the data stream, or they can give full speed initially and throttle after a minute or two (longer than people's patience for a speed test, but far shorter than a movie). It's difficult because Netflix can respond to any such technique by taking steps to make it less obvious, so you just end up with one of these cat-and-mouse games.
      - xp84 3y ago
        What's the motivation to rent an ISP router? That's a lot more control than many people would prefer to give to an entity that is likely anywhere from "greedy and dumb," to greedy and outright hostile. Having DOCSIS, I buy a modem, and own my router. I am aware that for more exotic technologies like fiber, a rented/ISP-owned 'modem' or network terminal of some sort may be compulsory, but a router is a bridge too far (no pun intended) for me.
        albert_e 3y ago
        (Not in the US.) Well, here the major ISPs are bundling the FTTH Fibre modem and th WiFi router into a single device. I wanted to experiment with Mesh router for better wifi coverage but the prices of mesh routers here are high, brands unproven, and returns policy iffy. So I went with the mesh router option offered by ISP for ~1 USD a month. (I do have a spare wifi router to add if I really feel like. Our location has occassional power outages and the backup power doesn't flip on instantly enough - causing router restarts if we don't add a small battery powered backup to each individual router. So the setup gets bulky and messy.)
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    This is why Netflix runs fast.com, so that if an ISP wants to cheat on speed tests, people are still going to get those cheated speeds even when they stream real Netflix videos. Really clever.
    - notRobot 3y ago
      And the other way around, if they throttle Netflix then that'll show up in the speed tests.
  - wilkystyle 3y ago
    This was my understanding, too. Anecdotally, I've always seemed to get slower results on fast.com compared to Ookla/speedtest.net/my ISP's speedtest website (the latter of which all seemed to show similar results, leading me to believe that fast.com was exempt from this sort of prioritization).
- adithyassekhar 3y ago
  I think fast.com hits netflix's cache server. Pretty much all isps have one provided to them by netflix.
op00to 3y ago
I'm able to hit 800 down and 400 up on the Cloudflare app. On fast.com i get 980/980, similar with ookla. I wonder if it could be that various handoffs with cloudflare's network are more busy, but we don't really notice because we're not doing speed tests on it. :)
dboreham 3y ago
Odd to see several posts like this, nobody considering that the other tests they've run might be "over-reading".
- edent 3y ago
  I know that when I download a large file, it usually hits the advertised speed. So I'm confident that I can saturate my broadband with normal use. Cloudflare doesn't even get close.
- JimmaDaRustla 3y ago
  How would they "over-read" and be so accurate?

by edent 3y ago

yakubin 3y ago

Ookla traffic is known to be prioritised by ISPs. Maybe ISPs just haven’t caught up with Cloudflare yet and what you’re seeing now is more realistic speeds.

xnorswap 3y ago

There's an alternative explanation is that it's possible your ISP hasn't learned to prioritise this speed test traffic unlike other speed tests, and that this is more reflective of general real-world performance?

johneth 3y ago

I've read that often ISPs make exceptions for Ookla and fast.com speed tests by removing any sort of throttling to produce the best possible test results. I expect it isn't as easy for ISPs to treat Cloudflare like this, as it just looks like normal internet traffic.

maccard 3y ago
Got a source for ISPs doing that for fast.com? Fast.com is netflix, so the same argument applies there - if you get 300mbps on fast.com you should get it on netflix too
- xnorswap 3y ago
  Indeed, that's part of what motivated netflix to make fast.com.
  - albert_e 3y ago
    is it possible for ISP to distinguish Netflix video streams from connections to Fast.com ? (and throttle them differently) PS: my latest ISP router doesn't let me change DNS to my local pi-hole. haven't explored all options yet - just got new one 2 days ago -- but currently my DNS queries are going to whatever is the default set by my ISP.
    - denton-scratch 3y ago
      I've never used a pi-hole; but assuming it works as a DHCP server and a DNS resolver, then you should only need to disable DHCP in your router. I've never seen a router than wouldn't let you disable the DHCP server.
    - amalcon 3y ago
      It's theoretically possible, but practically difficult. They can tell whether you loaded something from fast.com or netflix.com prior to the data stream, or they can give full speed initially and throttle after a minute or two (longer than people's patience for a speed test, but far shorter than a movie). It's difficult because Netflix can respond to any such technique by taking steps to make it less obvious, so you just end up with one of these cat-and-mouse games.
    - xp84 3y ago
      What's the motivation to rent an ISP router? That's a lot more control than many people would prefer to give to an entity that is likely anywhere from "greedy and dumb," to greedy and outright hostile. Having DOCSIS, I buy a modem, and own my router. I am aware that for more exotic technologies like fiber, a rented/ISP-owned 'modem' or network terminal of some sort may be compulsory, but a router is a bridge too far (no pun intended) for me.
      - albert_e 3y ago
        (Not in the US.) Well, here the major ISPs are bundling the FTTH Fibre modem and th WiFi router into a single device. I wanted to experiment with Mesh router for better wifi coverage but the prices of mesh routers here are high, brands unproven, and returns policy iffy. So I went with the mesh router option offered by ISP for ~1 USD a month. (I do have a spare wifi router to add if I really feel like. Our location has occassional power outages and the backup power doesn't flip on instantly enough - causing router restarts if we don't add a small battery powered backup to each individual router. So the setup gets bulky and messy.)
- LoganDark 3y ago
  This is why Netflix runs fast.com, so that if an ISP wants to cheat on speed tests, people are still going to get those cheated speeds even when they stream real Netflix videos. Really clever.
  - notRobot 3y ago
    And the other way around, if they throttle Netflix then that'll show up in the speed tests.
- wilkystyle 3y ago
  This was my understanding, too. Anecdotally, I've always seemed to get slower results on fast.com compared to Ookla/speedtest.net/my ISP's speedtest website (the latter of which all seemed to show similar results, leading me to believe that fast.com was exempt from this sort of prioritization).
adithyassekhar 3y ago
I think fast.com hits netflix's cache server. Pretty much all isps have one provided to them by netflix.

op00to 3y ago

I'm able to hit 800 down and 400 up on the Cloudflare app. On fast.com i get 980/980, similar with ookla. I wonder if it could be that various handoffs with cloudflare's network are more busy, but we don't really notice because we're not doing speed tests on it. :)

dboreham 3y ago

Odd to see several posts like this, nobody considering that the other tests they've run might be "over-reading".

edent 3y ago
I know that when I download a large file, it usually hits the advertised speed. So I'm confident that I can saturate my broadband with normal use. Cloudflare doesn't even get close.
JimmaDaRustla 3y ago
How would they "over-read" and be so accurate?