Testing Broadband Speeds

[LastOne]

Does anyone know if it's possible to do a wired test of download speeds using an android device? My ISP is using that tired excuse that they don't accept any tests I've done using wifi as all the speeds they quote refer to using a cat5 cable and a laptop. I'm not even complaining that the speed is low, rather that it varies way too much. I can't be assed to dig out the laptop from the loft every time I want to test the speed and I suspect that when we've all stopped using laptops, because they're so last century, ISPs will never again accept any complaint about download speeds because it was done on an android device.

[Jon1796]

I’ve found that they measure it to the router anything after that they don’t want to know if it’s WiFi.
If I firer up the old computer upstairs connected via ether I get about 50mbs yet on iPads and phones it varies between 30-40mbs depending on time of day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MrF]

Problem is wifi can be easily affected - neighbours wifi on the same channel, someone's ancient microwave, dodgy DECT phones / security cameras / baby monitors (usually from china and with fake certs), some luddite ultra greenie with a wifi jammer as their "wellness guru" told them their chakra was being harmed by em sensitivity - all of that is on 2.4Ghz

what isp?

[jaqubek]

what isp?

Internet Service Provider

[schplazingo]

If your phone supports USB on-the-go (OTG), also sometimes listed as USB-to-go, then you can get a USB OTG adaptor that will allow you to plug a USB Ethernet adaptor directly into your phone. This works most of the time but there can be compatibility issues. Performance isn't great either so if you've got a particularly fast broadband connection you may find that the Ethernet adaptor -> USB OTG adaptor -> phone connection just isn't fast enough.

[Big Dave]

Internet Service Provider

I think he's asking who the ISP is, rather than what ISP stands for.

[northpole]

all ISP's only support the speed up to the router mate, it is the way it is, because they don't control how many devices are connected to it and how many are simultaneously requesting data... also the software wthin the wireless routers aren't the best things, if you want the same speed all over your wireless network you'll need to get more hardware aka wireless access points that actually react as hubs, with a dedicated address on your router, meaning that certain devices will only connect on one IP adress and they'll share that same speed as what the wireless access point has...

long story short don't bother just make sure you have a laptop at the ready to test the speed... if you don't want it in your view, put it in a bag in a easy to get to place with a cat5 cable... or have the cat5 cable connected into the router for easy access at a later date (basically for when you want to test your speed)

[Sindy]

all ISP's only support the speed up to the router mate, it is the way it is, because they don't control how many devices are connected to it and how many are simultaneously requesting data... also the software wthin the wireless routers aren't the best things, if you want the same speed all over your wireless network you'll need to get more hardware aka wireless access points that actually react as hubs, with a dedicated address on your router, meaning that certain devices will only connect on one IP adress and they'll share that same speed as what the wireless access point has...

So much incorrect in that I don't know where to start...

Software within the router isn't the limiting factor - true some are better than others but on the whole for most home users with less than 20 devices it can easily support all those.

More APs does not equal better if you don't know what you're doing - they all need to be on different non-overlapping channels, and even then if you have one device that only supports 802.1b then depending on the AP ALL other devices on that AP will be forced to use 802.1b too. They also do not act as hubs either.

The next bit about a single address is also rhubarb, any internal LAN IP address stays the same on a device for the duration of the DHCP lease. You can use APs in two modes, wired backhaul and wireless backhaul, and in most cases it's still the router providing the DHCP lease - unless you're hot on IP address management and assign a pool to each AP.

Lastly, unless you have set bandwidth quotas or limits then any device with is capable of full speed wireless transfer for the protocol in use. Data in can't exceed data out, so if you have 4 devices all requesting a 2.5Mbps stream and you only have a 5Mbps WAN connection, then something has to give.

To the OP - log in to the management console on the router and more often than not there's a section showing the current reported upstream and downstream data rate, plus useful stuff like noise margin and SNR. It's worth digging the laptop out to do a speedtest via the LAN port to rule out channel interference over the wifi - seen it far too many times!

[northpole]

So much incorrect in that I don't know where to start...

Software within the router isn't the limiting factor - true some are better than others but on the whole for most home users with less than 20 devices it can easily support all those.

More APs does not equal better if you don't know what you're doing - they all need to be on different non-overlapping channels, and even then if you have one device that only supports 802.1b then depending on the AP ALL other devices on that AP will be forced to use 802.1b too. They also do not act as hubs either.

The next bit about a single address is also rhubarb, any internal LAN IP address stays the same on a device for the duration of the DHCP lease. You can use APs in two modes, wired backhaul and wireless backhaul, and in most cases it's still the router providing the DHCP lease - unless you're hot on IP address management and assign a pool to each AP.

Lastly, unless you have set bandwidth quotas or limits then any device with is capable of full speed wireless transfer for the protocol in use. Data in can't exceed data out, so if you have 4 devices all requesting a 2.5Mbps stream and you only have a 5Mbps WAN connection, then something has to give.

To the OP - log in to the management console on the router and more often than not there's a section showing the current reported upstream and downstream data rate, plus useful stuff like noise margin and SNR. It's worth digging the laptop out to do a speedtest via the LAN port to rule out channel interference over the wifi - seen it far too many times!

I just gave it a quick run down mate... as you could see I clearly said don't bother... and 20 devices on simple router is asking for slow performance.... unless you buy your own high end business router that is geared up with better and faster hardware... and even than you'll find that internet speeds slow down when you reach a certain number of devices. Especially if the router does more than just route (and all the ISP provided routers do more than just route, and no I'm not going to make it a technical reply)

About your lease for the IP-address I found that all the routers I have been sent here in the UK by the ISP's I used ( and that has been most of them) have the same ****** limiting slowdown on the hardware after a while they need a proper reboot. With at least 1 minute of downtime after that it all of a sudden reaches the normal speeds on the internal wireless lan.

While at the places I used to manage the networks for or designed and implemented never had to restart their routers as the only thing they ever had to do was route.
Except for those stupid wireless networks and repeaters that need configuration and are a serious security problem if you don't configure a DMZ.

Ps the only mistake I typed was 5.2GHz as it is 5Ghz. That all said I see you do know what you are talking about I just didn't want to make it to hard to understand for others...

My conclusion was, don't bother and keep a laptop in arms reach and use a cable if you want to do a speed test.

[LastOne]

If your phone supports USB on-the-go (OTG), also sometimes listed as USB-to-go, then you can get a USB OTG adaptor that will allow you to plug a USB Ethernet adaptor directly into your phone. This works most of the time but there can be compatibility issues. Performance isn't great either so if you've got a particularly fast broadband connection you may find that the Ethernet adaptor -> USB OTG adaptor -> phone connection just isn't fast enough.

All the adapters I found on Amazon for that say they're not compatible with Android.