Troubleshoot Tuesday: Impartial Speed Tests
Speed is always an important factor of VPN Routing. So much so, that the Sabai Technology website refers to running speed tests literally hundreds of times on this website. Speed tests are available from tons of sources, but, sometimes these tests can lead to inaccurate or misleading results. Sabai Technology recommends two services over any others. One very popular website for speed tests is speedtest.net. This is a flexible service that works world-wide. The downside is lots of ads and scripts running in the background that make the site a bit slow and the dashboard crowded.
For speed tests to a United States server, BroadBand.gov has the best test out there. Completely impartial and extremely accurate, this service is supported by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The downside is, it requires an address for the city in which you are connecting. However, in-house testing has shown that all it really checks is the zip code. So, a quick Google search for a relevant zip code and a sample address usually do the trick. Try using 100 Main Street, then the city and state your server is located in. Here are zip codes for some of the common connection cities in the United States:
- New York, NY: 10027
- Atlanta, GA: 30308
- Miami, FL: 33131
- Denver, CO: 80205
- Chicago, IL: 60611
- San Francisco, CA: 94109
- Los Angeles, CA: 90012
- San Jose, CA: 95113
When troubleshooting speed issues, doing speed tests within several different scenarios is encouraged. This helps to diagnose what might be the source of the problem. Some common configuration setups to try on your computer:
- Wired Connection, No VPN
- Provides “baseline” speeds for comparison
- Wired Connection, VPN Running Directly on Computer
- Shows how much your ISP or the encryption are effected by VPN
- Wireless Connection, VPN Running Directly on Computer
- Shows how much wireless effects speed
- Wired Connection, VPN Running on VPN Router
- Shows how much the router effects speed
- Wireless Connection, VPN Running on VPN Router
- Shows the compounded effect of the router and wireless have on speed
- Wireless Connection, VPN Running on VPN Router, Multiple Devices Running
- Shows how multiple devices effect speed
3 Responses to Troubleshoot Tuesday: Impartial Speed Tests
Leave a Reply
This is what I get when I go to broadband.gov and put in Miami
“Expired License The license for this Speed test has expired. Please contact the webmaster of this site to let them know.”
Thanks for catching that Larry! Too many people must have tried that address because I got the same thing. I did, however, have luck with the address: 335 South Biscayne Boulevard, Miami FL 33131, which I got looking up real estate in Miami. As long as it is a valid address in the city of your server, it should work just fine. Let us know if you have any luck!
Pingback: Troubleshoot Tuesday: Could a single device be your VPN network speed killer? | Sabai Technology Blog