Easy Way To See If Your ISP Is Throttling You (1 Viewer)

[bigshot]

A lot of people complain that they have very fast internet connections, but their Netflix stream always stutters and grinds to a halt. Netflix just introduced a way to test the speed of your connection to Netflix's servers. It's super easy. Just compare the number you get to your usual download rate and see if you are being throttled.

https://fast.com

 

[Sam Posten]

58 megapickles!

 

[DaveF]

Cool. I tried when it was first announced, but the site was down. It's working now.

30 Mega Borg per Sector for me, on my iPad.

 

[Cranston37+]

65, which is exactly what I was promised... surprisingly

 

[Clinton McClure]

5.8 Mini bikes per sasquatch is right at where mine should be.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Can you fellas please help me out understanding this?

I am really dumb about this stuff and would love to have even a rudimentary idea of what it means. What's a good/bad rate?

And what does "throttling" mean?

When I run this on my home laptop I score an 18. When I run it on my work desktop, I get a 95. That seems like a big disparity, yet you guys are reporting numbers all over the chart, too.

 

[Everett S.]

I get 73 on my Samsung tv and 130 on pc paying for 150. The higher your number the better. You should check at different times of day.Edit - We should note our
provider, mind is Comcast

 

[Cranston37+]

I am really dumb about this stuff and would love to have even a rudimentary idea of what it means. What's a good/bad rate?

And what does "throttling" mean?

When I run this on my home laptop I score an 18. When I run it on my work desktop, I get a 95. That seems like a big disparity, yet you guys are reporting numbers all over the chart, too.

What's good or bad really depends on what you use the Internet for. If you are playing PS4 games online a number like 100+ might be needed. If you only use it to check Facebook than 1-5 might be enough. Mine is consistently 65 and with that I can stream HD video without any kind of interruption.

ISP's offer different tiers based on what you need. That's why you see such different numbers in this thread - we might all be paying for different levels of service based on our needs. For instance my ISP offers tiers of 30, 65, and 100. It sounds like your work is paying for more than you are at home - that's the only reason you see a difference. It can also depend on the modem/router you have - you can pay for a higher tier but your equipment has to be able to handle it to get it.

Throttling is when your ISP purposely limits what you are getting at certain times of the day or for certain services in order to clear up congestion on their network. If somebody is getting 100 and your ISP needs to free up some bandwidth, it might knock you down to 50 for awhile. OR it might do that for particular services - it might give you 100 generally, but if you try to access Netflix it could cut your rate in half. The problem with that is if you are paying for 100 then that's what you should get.

That's what this tool is - Netflix is giving us a way to see what bandwidth our ISP is actually giving us when we access their service vs. what we actually have coming into the house. In my case I'm paying for 65, I'm getting 65 into the house, and I'm still getting 65 when I access Netflix, so all is right with the world.

 

[dpippel]

I'd suggest that everyone try the test during primetime viewing hours to see if it changes. Throttling is adaptive.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Patrick: Many thanks for that perfect explanation!

 

[[email protected]]

This is interesting. I bought a 4K tv a couple months ago thinking I could stream Vudu with my 15 megs, since Vudu requires a minimum of 11 for that. All I got was buffering so I ran Vudu's speed test...It jumps right up to 13-14, then drops to 6 and recommends HDX.
Now I run this^^^^ test and show 7 megs? Am Ii being throttled, or do you just have to pay for twice what's required? Which I would do in a second if it was available....

 

[DaveF]

Anything else in your home using the Internet? Are you trying at prime time when everyone else in your neighborhood is trying to stream Netflix? Did you previously have immediate and excellent HD service?

Is your ISP known for providing good Netflix service (or, does Netflix pay the 'toll' for good service)?
https://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/country/us/

You should get what you pay for. But, depending on your ISP and your area and other factors, perhaps you're not always getting the peak bandwidth you subscribe to.

 

[atfree]

Have Uverse 45 Mbps plan. Ran the test in the link, got 34 Mbps. Ran Speedtest, got 41.25 Mbps. Both using Nexus 7 tablet

 

[[email protected]]

Anything else in your home using the Internet? Are you trying at prime time when everyone else in your neighborhood is trying to stream Netflix? Did you previously have immediate and excellent HD service?

Is your ISP known for providing good Netflix service (or, does Netflix pay the 'toll' for good service)?
https://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/country/us/

You should get what you pay for. But, depending on your ISP and your area and other factors, perhaps you're not always getting the peak bandwidth you subscribe to.

Nothing else using internet. We are in the country on 6 acres, no neighbors. It doesn't matter what time of day. Yes, we have been streaming most of our tv for years, HDX on Vudu looks very good. Our ISP is not on that list......http://risebroadband.com/ I'm sure if I call them I'll get the (All looks good on our end) Thank's for the reply

 

[DaveF]

If you're getting HD and 4K from another service, I'd bet it's an issue between Netflix and your ISP.

 

[[email protected]]

If you're getting HD and 4K from another service, I'd bet it's an issue between Netflix and your ISP.

To be clear, I haven't tried 4K from anybody else except Vudu. I will give Netflix and Amazon prime a try and see what happens but if the test listed above is correct it's doubtful it will work, assuming Netflix and Amazon require about the same bandwidth. Thanks

 

[Clinton McClure]

6Mbps is the fastest I can get where I live. It's plenty fast enough for SD Netflix and iTunes but HD streaming is right out.

 

[Cranston37+]

I tried it on Saturday night to see what I was getting during peak hours. Was getting 65 but Sat got 48. Acceptable.

 

[TonyD]

Is this test any different than running speed test.net ?

 

[TonyD]

Also isn't the speed limited to ones device?

My iPhone gets over 300mbps
MacAir much slower.
iPad 2 significantly lower.

All using speed test.
With this topics test I get anywhere from 150-200 on my iPhone 6s+