Activity Monitor vs DSL Speed Tests
Well recently I have been having problems with my DSL internet speeds
. After trying out many speed tests and comparing the results against the activity monitor rough average, the numbers are very different.
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Act. Mon. ~50 ~45
Speed Test ~475 ~350
As you can see my download rate on act. mon. is almost 10 times slower than what it says on the speed tests (speedtest.net). Am I correct that they are measuring the same thing? If so, what would cause the difference in speed. Which one would be the speed that I am really using when I download something like a video game patch? If they are not measuring the same thing, what is the difference?
Thanks you!
Also I just remembered that whenever I try to download a movie or trailer from the internet, the speed it says it is downloading is usually at around 35-50 kbps (though getting as low as 2 or 3 at times...)
And again, thanks.
. After trying out many speed tests and comparing the results against the activity monitor rough average, the numbers are very different.|||||||||||||||||Download ||| Upload
Act. Mon. ~50 ~45
Speed Test ~475 ~350
As you can see my download rate on act. mon. is almost 10 times slower than what it says on the speed tests (speedtest.net). Am I correct that they are measuring the same thing? If so, what would cause the difference in speed. Which one would be the speed that I am really using when I download something like a video game patch? If they are not measuring the same thing, what is the difference?
Thanks you!
Also I just remembered that whenever I try to download a movie or trailer from the internet, the speed it says it is downloading is usually at around 35-50 kbps (though getting as low as 2 or 3 at times...)
And again, thanks.
Comments
If someone could tell me how to take a picture of my window (and link it to the web) I would take one of the act. mon. as well.
If someone could tell me how to take a picture of my window (and link it to the web) I would take one of the act. mon. as well.
To take a screenshot of your Mac Screen, use Cmd+Shift+3 or Cmd+Shift+4. You then have a file on the desktop, open it up in Preview, crop if needed, save/export as JPG. Then you have to upload to photobucket.com flickr or google/picasaweb and link it in here
BTW here are my speedtest.net results
If someone could tell me how to take a picture of my window (and link it to the web) I would take one of the act. mon. as well.
That is a fracking really cool site. Thanks... Oh, I solved your problem
Well recently I have been having problems with my DSL internet speeds
|||||||||||||||||Download ||| Upload
Act. Mon. ~50 ~45
Speed Test ~475 ~350
As you can see my download rate on act. mon. is almost 10 times slower than what it says on the speed tests (speedtest.net). Am I correct that they are measuring the same thing? If so, what would cause the difference in speed. Which one would be the speed that I am really using when I download something like a video game patch? If they are not measuring the same thing, what is the difference?
Thanks you!
Also I just remembered that whenever I try to download a movie or trailer from the internet, the speed it says it is downloading is usually at around 35-50 kbps (though getting as low as 2 or 3 at times...)
And again, thanks.
You are right about the 10x difference. Actually, it should be a 8x difference. Speed Test is measuring kiloBITS per second, whereas Activity Monitor shows kiloBYTES per second. So 475kbit/sec is ~59kbyte/sec and 350kbit/sec is ~44kbyte/sec
Technically, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KiloBit
"Kilobit (abbreviated to kb with a lower case b) is not to be confused with the term kilobyte (abbreviated to kB with an upper case b)".
This more or less is correct for my DSL which is 512kilobit/sec down 128kilobit/sec up. Not bad for the Australia-->US link (see the distance 8)) My Australia to London link is a bit less though.
Also I just remembered that whenever I try to download a movie or trailer from the internet, the speed it says it is downloading is usually at around 35-50 kbps (though getting as low as 2 or 3 at times...)...
Depending on the website, it means you are getting between 280kilobit/sec and 400kilobit/sec which is okay if your DSL is rated for 512kilobit/sec down. So, 8bits = 1byte, 8kilobits = 1kilobyte.
It seems to be a modem problem then...as I'm supposed to be getting 1 mb/s. It does clear up a major problem I have been experiencing though.
You were a great help, though I should have realized the bit/byte difference as I feel like I had come across that before.
Shadow
P.S. Have you never seen that website before?
SHAZAM!!
My university just upgraded the ethernet to gigabit, so we aren't bound by 10Mb/s anymore!
Okay, I know it's dial-up, so nothing really impressive... But why was I getting 117kbps upload speeds?... I got it on multiple tests...
A bit off topic, but seeing how it has been corrected (in a sense, I guess)
SHAZAM!!
My university just upgraded the ethernet to gigabit, so we aren't bound by 10Mb/s anymore!
Okay, I know it's dial-up, so nothing really impressive... But why was I getting 117kbps upload speeds?... I got it on multiple tests...
The upload probably is showing because of some sort of compression happening on the upload that is giving you that result......
Thank you sunilraman,
It seems to be a modem problem then...as I'm supposed to be getting 1 mb/s. It does clear up a major problem I have been experiencing though.
You were a great help, though I should have realized the bit/byte difference as I feel like I had come across that before.
Shadow
P.S. Have you never seen that website before?
Nah, I haven't seen it before, I just usually hit dslreports.com and use the Java measurement applet... 8) This website is hella sexy though. Excellence Flash design and stuff.
It could be a modem problem. The other challenge with DSL is your distance from the "exchange". Call up your service provider and say, (nicely
Take it from there, they may look into the issue and things could improve, it could be your modem, or it could simply be that is the best speed that they can give you because of your physical phone line distance from the nearest "exchange". There is a lot of fine print in ISPs that say "promised maximum speeds under *ideal* conditions". In otherwords, your mileage may vary.
If indeed due to technical reasons 512mbit/sec DSL is the most you can get, then you need to be switched down, ideally without any fees being charged (depends on the ISP) to the official 512mbit/sec plan, so that you're not paying for something (this extra speed you're supposed to have) that you can't get/use.
Good luck...
...My university just upgraded the ethernet to gigabit, so we aren't bound by 10Mb/s anymore!
Actually "regular" ethernet (the one just below gigabit) is 10-100Mbit/sec (100BaseT). Unless you were on a really old network (10BaseT(???)) then your internal network has been running at up to 100Mbit/sec. However, now it is really good that your internal network finally is up to 1000Mbit/sec. 8)
I think we are about 9000 feet away from the base or w/e that thing is called, yet I still can't believe that making up 500 kb/s difference. I'll get my modem checked out (only had it since we first got internet with the Bondi Blue iMac
BTW I'm doing all this to play one game...I can't believe how determined I am to play that damn game!
1000 mb/s...I feel like I'm behind a few decades
Thanks again man.
I think we are about 9000 feet away from the base or w/e that thing is called, yet I still can't believe that making up 500 kb/s difference. I'll get my modem checked out (only had it since we first got internet with the Bondi Blue iMac
BTW I'm doing all this to play one game...I can't believe how determined I am to play that damn game!
1000 mb/s...I feel like I'm behind a few decades
Heh. No worries. Maybe your speed now is enough to play the game? Also it has to do with your "ping time" as shown in speedtest.net. About 200ms is kinda okay for online multiplayer, as is 512kbit/sec down, 128kbit/sec up. But yeah, your DSL modem sounds a bit ancient.
Anyways thanks for the help, yet I feel still a few decades behind when I start hearing 12 mbit/s