Bad or Corrupt Bandwidth Results
Want to learn something new about bandwidth tests?
As with any computer or medical test results, your bandwidth measurement test can be faulty or corrupted beyond the usual bandwidth meter anomalies such as signal interference and downloading MP3s during a bandwidth speed test. Part of bandwidth management is choosing an effective, relatively fail-safe bandwidth meter test.
With high speed cable Internet bulk transfers of data, it's easy for malicious code and viruses to blend in and interfere with the files transferred from the server in a bandwidth meter test. The throughput file sent as a test may itself become infected.
Your router firewall and your computer anti-virus system should catch and remove viruses. Once you've cleaned house, run your bandwidth test again.
Network Bandwidth Test
If you have an Internet cable network of computers, say in your house, you can get a bandwidth meter test to assess the network bandwidth performance.
Normally, network bandwidth speed test applications are scaled for business networking. But on your LAN, you can use the commonly available bandwidth test applications netperf and ttcp. Plus, if you run a small business out of your home, you might want to deploy a network monitoring solution to improve your bandwidth management. Your bandwidth speed can affect your business performance, especially if you have a business Web site you maintain on your home network.
More Bandwidth
For cable modems, the average bandwidth you're paying for is 500 Kpbs up to 1.5 Kpbs, which is fine if you're not transferring huge graphics and HTML files via your cable modem Internet connection, or if you're not using a voiceover network. But cable operates at a much higher bandwidth.
A bandwidth meter speed test will determine how much bandwidth you actually are using, so test your bandwidth and see if you can handle the amount go visitors to your site. If your bandwidth is than the 1.5 Kpbs average, you are in the bandwidth test winner's circle. If not, and you want to do heavy-duty file transferring, you need to get more bandwidth. Bear in mind that the bandwidth test results may be affected by other factors and don't necessarily always mean low bandwidth. If you're in need of bandwidth, though, like memory, you can try to get more, depending on your Internet usage.
Consider an asymmetric cable modem setup, which can give you higher bandwidth.
Macintosh Bandwidth Test
Macintosh users have an Ethernet connection for their high-speed cable Internet service. They might be asking themselves, are there special bandwidth tests for Ethernet connections?
Yes, there are. MacTechnicalServices.com has a bandwidth speed test that works the same as a bandwidth test involving a bandwidth meter on a PC server.
Also, for Macintosh Ethernet cable Internet connections, broadband management is relatively easy, especially if Mac users have an Ethernet/USB cable router such as the Motorola Ethernet Broadband Router BR700 that supports data rates up to 100 Mbps and connects everyone in your home with a broadband network. You can test this with your broadband meter once you install the router.
Wireless Bandwidth Speed Tests
More about bandwidth tests:
Bear in mind when testing the bandwidth of your wireless cable Internet connection that your wireless LAN could slow the throughput from the bandwidth meter, distorting the bandwidth test results.
Also, the same disturbances affect wireless bandwidth speed tests as regular cable Internet connection speed test results:
• File downloads
• Application usage
• Heavy traffic through your connection
• Many wireless and regular cable Internet users in your neighborhood putting a drain on bandwidth
Wireless bandwidth management takes into account whether all the nodes or adapters in a wireless network are working together. If they're not, the wireless bandwidth speed test results will show a drop in bandwidth. Also, bear in mind that TCP tweaks are iffy because TCP performance is spotty in a wireless network.
Bandwidth Meter Tests
About bandwidth tests: To test your bandwidth, you can opt for one of the many bandwidth meter tests online such as the one from CNET.com. A bandwidth test works similar to a cable modem speed test, measuring the throughput of your connection by sending a file (usually 50K, 150K, 500K, or 1.5MB) from the bandwidth meter server through your cable modem to your computer (called the client) and calculating the speed in Kpbs. Knowing your bandwidth is a vital step in bandwidth management so that you can coax maximum connection speed out of your cable Internet connection.
Like cable modem speed tests, run bandwidth meter tests regularly to track your bandwidth. You'll be aware of any bandwidth drops, problems, slow data transmission and so forth.
Shared Connections, Shared Bandwidth
All of an ISP or cable Internet provider's connections are combined into one or more shared connections that use bandwidth. You're not only sharing bandwidth with your roommate, you're sharing it with everyone in your college who uses your cable Internet provider, and that's just a start. This is the ISP bundled approach to bandwidth management. These shared connections will most certainly affect the download speed of the sample data file from the bandwidth meter on the client server.
Also, if you're just checking e-mail for your class and your roommate is downloading the entire illustrated multimedia Gray's Anatomy, that affects any bandwidth speed test you decide to run while you're Telnetting to an e-mail server. Technically, you shouldn't be running a bandwidth test while you're using other Internet applications, since that can affect the bandwidth meter test results.
Low Bandwidth Problems
You're about to complain to bandwidth management. Your maximum bandwidth feels like a step above dial-up, and in your last two or three bandwidth tests tests you've been falling short of the 3.0 Mbps you crowed over to your bandwidth speed test buddies. However, the bandwidth meter on the remote server may not be giving you the full JPEG picture. Several factors can affect bandwidth test results:
• Being outside the US, say in Mexico or China
• Being inside the US but geographically distant from the bandwidth meter server
• Downloading images, spreadsheets, Java applets, Flash movies and MP3s or even virus updates while running the bandwidth speed test
• Executing any test of your system/Internet performance that uses bandwidth
• Quality of line speed, affected sometimes by signals from household appliances and even your cable TV signal, limiting your throughput
Always double-check these other factors, and your bandwidth just might boom once you eliminate tech problems. Once you've corrected the errors, run the bandwidth meter test again and record the results.
Bandwidth Test Tweaking
You may in theory have 100 percent of the bandwidth your cable connection can deliver, in which case the rest of us are sorely tempted to piggyback, or to invest in those spam-advertised cable descrambler kits. However, most of the time you probably feel like Scotty on the Enterprise yelling,
You can take a cue from Scotty, who always managed to coax a bit more speed out of the warp engines. As with regular cable modem speed tweaks, you can get your hands dirty with the Windows registry or delegate your bandwidth management by using a program that will edit the registry for you. Changing your TCP/IP settings with a program such as TCP Optimizer works well.
You can tweak QoS in Windows XP Pro, specifying how much bandwidth is reserved for Qos (default is 20 percent) and then ask the bandwidth meter, “How soon can you have it, Scotty,” by performing another bandwidth speed test. Again in theory Windows should give you 100 percent best effort bandwidth, but your bandwidth tests may show 80 percent best effort traffic because usually there is a running application that tells the OS, “High priority/real-time data coming, better restrict all other traffic.”
Other bandwidth speed test tweaks are available, but your bandwidth meter will show you that the basics are the best.
Always remember to reboot for changes to take effect.
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