Giving the Broadband Census
May 10th, 2009 by Doc Searls
Drew Clark's Broadband Census is a worthy effort: find out what Internet connection speeds people actually get, vs. what's promised.
You provide some details about where you're connecting, and what you're supposed to be getting from your carrier. Then you take a speed test. I just did that here in my Boston apartment. Verizon FiOS promises 20Mb both upstream and down. Here are my results:
TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.5.4
click START to begin** Starting test 1 of 1 **
Connected to: ndt.anl.gov -- Using IPv4 address
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . 19.20Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . 19.02Mb/s
The slowest link in the end-to-end path is a 45 Mbps T3/DS3 subnet
Close enough. Those are also the speeds I get when I check through http://speedtest.vonage.net, which I find more reliable, in more places, than any other speedtest I've tried. (Be curious to know how they do that.)
What I'd like the census to also do, if possible, is look for restrictions by carriers. Port blockages and usage caps, for example. Can't test for those, but I'd still like to find out.
It's also interesting to me that a census is usually characterized as something the government takes. In this twist, citizens give the census.
Anyway, I'm curious to see what other readers get, and if you're interested in getting involved. Says at that last link,
BroadbandCensus.com is committed to providing the public with a detailed and accurate collection of information about broadband Internet availability, competition, speeds and prices. BroadbandCensus.com invites you to participate in this effort.
Drew is looking for technical, research and outreach committee members. I would think we have a few candidates here.
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Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal
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Frustratingly Americentric
On May 11th, 2009 smpratz says:
Too bad. It would be a nice resource for the rest of the world.
Thanks for your comment on the Broadband Census
On May 10th, 2009 Drew Clark (not verified) says:
Doc,
Thanks for your comment. Over at BroadbandCensus.com, we've lately been actively involved in strengthening our editorial operation, and promoting our Broadband Breakfast Club. But the Broadband Census and speed test remain of great interest to us, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences with it.
By the way, I think the correct URL for the Vonage speed test is http://speedtest.vonage.com (not .net). Vonage appears to be using Ookla, a proprietary speed test which forms the core of the speedtest.net system. Other sites, like DSL Reports, offer a variety of speed tests.
BroadbandCensus.com is one of a number of sites that use the open source NDT, or Network Diagnostic Tool, designed by Internet2. Virginia Tech's eCorridors Program, began using the test before we did. The Measurement Lab of the Open Technology Initiative by the New America Foundation, and which support from Google, began using the speed test in January 2009, one year after we did.
Colin, I'm not sure what is accounting for your results. Can you e-mail them to data@broadbandcensus.com?
If anyone wants to help us to kick our speed test effort into high gear, please e-mail me: drew@broadbandcensus.com
Pretty cool
On May 10th, 2009 Colin Dean (not verified) says:
The test doesn't seem to work for me. I'll admit that I have a bit of a "non-traditional" network setup which is the result of me never finishing bridging my modem, but all of the other speed tests I've tried seem to function correctly.
=======================
TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.5.4
click START to begin
** Starting test 1 of 1 **
Connected to: ndt.anl.gov -- Using IPv4 address
Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
checking for firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Protocol error!
Simple firewall test FAILED!
running 10s outbound test (client-to-server [C2S]) . . . . . Protocol error!
C2S throughput test FAILED!
running 10s inbound test (server-to-client [S2C]) . . . . . . Protocol error!
S2C throughput test FAILED!
Protocol error!
click START to re-test
=======================
I tried again a few more times, but the results were similar. When I tried to "report a problem", the applet crashed the browser (Fx 3.0.10/IcedTea from the Ubuntu Intrepid amd64 repos).
Unfortunately, the Vonage speedtest applet no longer works: "invalid license".
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