Why are you performing a Speedtest

I’m sure everyone has performed a speed test of some kind of another. One of the goals of performing a speed test is to determine how long something takes traversing a network. Sounds simpler than it actually is.

I see many people start with the best of intentions only to make a bunch of changes and conclude the test was a success or failure.

One of the fundamental points I teach is to be consistent and document your methodology.

For example;

• What is the goal of the testing?

• What tool or software did you use?

• Where are your test points?

• What protocol did you use?

• Was the disk involved?

• Version of test tools, software and test points

• What time of day and day of week were your tests?

• Where they automated or scripted?

• What is the conclusion?

If there are many more points that you thought of along the way, jot them down. Some examples of what you might to test is; WiFi performance, server performance or in this case equipment performance.

I was asked to determine if a client needed to buy new equipment or can they get by with what they currently have after their internet was upgraded. In this video I walk you through the methodology and findings.

If I had not performed these tests and used the existing router, we would never have known the source of the performance bottle neck.