Comment by j_m_b | Hacker News Reader

Comment by j_m_b | Hacker News Reader

As a comcast customer, I've noticed that if I am having a problem with streaming video that if I go to speedtest.net, the video streams fine after the initial ping test from speedtest.net. It will be fine for a few moments (seconds to minutes), but will slow down or stutter again eventually. A fresh visit to speedtest.net again corrects the problem. I have a hunch that a visit to speedtest.net will disable traffic shaping for a set period of time in order to convince people that their connection is fine.

It is interesting that in the article about Verizon's shaping of traffic to AWS that the tech support had the author go to speedtest.net and test his traffic in order to tell him "see no problems!". I've had similar responses from AT&T when I was a DSL subscriber.

I understand that traffic shaping should only affect particular sites and that,in theory,there would be no need for a temporary disabling of traffic shaping for a speedtest. My theory is that due to the high volume of packets needed in order to have a good result on speedtest.net, the analyses of packets at the router for traffic shaping is enough of a slowdown to affect the results.

Anyone else ever notice this? Any alternative explanations as to why going to speedtest.net would suddenly make paused streaming video run again? I notice this mainly when watching live streaming youtube events or sometimes when I am watching netflix during peak hours.

I would love to hear alternative hypothesis as to what is going so that they could be tested!

Netflix is unwatchable during prime time where I live.

However, I have also noted that on two separate occasions when I began examining the Frontier FIOS site, I received a personal knock on my door from my local Comcast representative. Wondering if there was a connection to my search for another provider and the person at my door, I asked her if she was talking to everyone in the neighborhood or just me. It was just me--they sent a person out to personally ask me about my Comcast service.

All they have to do is fix the evening streaming.

And maybe stop monitoring your personal searches, right?

Yeah, that's creepy as fuck.

In my area, Comcast runs its own Speedtest.net server to hide the fact that the closest peering point that leads back to the same state is a few thousand miles away and is insanely oversubscribed.

If Speedtest had more integrity, ISP-owned servers would be deprioritized.

Not just that, Ookla /actively partners/ with the ISPs. Comcast's site is actually at speedtest.comcast.net.

There's a financial dis-incentive for them to do so.

Of course this is not all that dishonest. It is just a matter of what you want to measure. For last-mile speed measurement (which is what I personally use speedtest.net most for) using ISP provided local servers makes a lot of sense because it also removes most external factors from the measurement.

And really there is no "central point of Internet" which to measure speed to/from.

When the last mile was usually the limiting factor, last mile speed was the most important thing to measure. Now that major ISPs like Comcast are either throttling streaming video or routing streaming video through highly suboptimal connections, we need more speed tests that indicate real-world performance.

That said, I think my mention of integrity in my previous comment was excessive.

How many servers on the Internet sit on the same switch on the same data center from your ISP's cable modem head end, though?

I can't find it now, but I have read an article about a guy who wrote a script to ping speedtest once/minute. It made a clear, measurable difference in his download rate from other sites as long as he kept the script running.

Yep! Another commenter mentioned writing a script to do this. I would very much appreciate it if you could try to find the search terms to locate that article and post the article as a reply. I would appreciate it very much!

Yes, this happens to me as well. Netflix downloads at around 500kbps. Try using a VPN service. When I do, the throughput jumps to 8-10mbps.

How about a script that'll randomly request Speedtest page while you stream ?

Try some alternative performance-testing sites, and see if there's a difference with those; if there might be different QoS rules in play for specific web sites.

The speedof.me site is one I've occasionally used, and that also avoids the need for Adobe Flash.

I would love to see some further investigation into this. My initial thought is that if it's shown likely, someone needs to make a little utility that just loads speedtest.net every minute or so in the background.

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