Internet Speed and Reckon Internet Speed Test

I have also noticed a mark difference in by speeds and it is currently performing below average. Is this test a two way thing? How much weighting is given to our system versus Reckons??

After having seen so many people report this issue, I decided to do a test myself and see what the results are.  Being run at 10:30 pm may not be representative of what is happening during the day, but my test using www.speedtest.net show similar result  to what they normally tend to be.  This is what my results are:
1.  Speedtest - download 12.67 Mbps  Upload 0.95 Mbps - interesting to note that over time, the upload speed has got faster by some 10-20%
2.  Reckon Test - Download 5.37 Mbps  Upload speed 0.82kbps which should instead be reporting it as 0.82Mbps as Gary Pope has stated..
What I find interesting is that the Reckon test shows a download speed of around half of what my actual line speed is, as reported by Speedtest, whereas the upload speed is not all that different. 
Gary has written extensively on this subject and his explanations as to the reason for variances are well documented.

Without going back and reading Gary's articles, I would be confident that one of the things he has pointed out, is that the result will be influenced by where you are in relation to the telephone exchange to which you are connected.  In my case, I am relatively close - probably 1.5 kms by road, but potentially more if one was to follow the actual cable.  A friend of mine is some 4 kms from another exchange and this is regarded as being on the extemities of a good connection.  His download speed is only around one fifth to one quarter of what I get, which goes to show just how dramatic the variance can be because of distance.  When he was first connected, his speed was pathetic, to say the least.  We contacted the service provider who gave us certain information about the line and what should be expected.  The next step was to find out what was really wrong with the line.  It was found that there was a water problem with the outside connection, which when fixed, made a significant difference.
As Gary pointed out, when one sees an upload speed which is better than a download speed, when typically, in my experience, the download is some 12 times faster that the upload, the user has a very serious issue to contend with.
In another instance, another user connected to the same exchange as the one to which my friend was connect, but who was only some 2 kms away, had very serious troubles with very slow speeds and frequent drop outs.  A call to Telstra, who came and checked the line, found that the line connections were badly corroded and the pit outside the building had water in it.  What a difference there was when that was corrected.
Obviously modems can also influence the result, as I understand things.

MM.  If your non Reckon results are continuing to be as poor as you reported, and you are within a reasonable distance to the exchange, it could be very worthwhile contacting your service provider who can run tests for you and give you some very important information about your line, location and perhaps even your modem. My personal experience in both of the above cases shows that to be very beneficial i.e. getting in touch with your service provider.  I also find that www.speedtest.net seems to give more consistent and plausible results than some other testing sites.

There is only one other thing that I can say to you.  If you go through the above steps and still have now joy, it might just be necessary to face the "wounded bull" rather than struggle with and curse the "slow snail or tortise".

An hour later, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to see the comparison between the results from speedtest.net and ozspeedtest.com.  The results are quite interesting:
1.  Speedtest.net  Download 12.76 Mbps (it downloads a large file)
2.  Ozspeedtest.com  Download - line speed 12.63 Mbps (almost identical) but it also reports a download speed of 1.58 MB/s (1579 KB/s)
3  Speedteest.net  Upload 0.9 Mbps
4  Ozspeedtest.com  kbps 718.7;  KB/s 89.94;  Mbps 0.72

The indication from the results of using two different tests sites are not all that different.
John L G

I would also hasten to add that I don't always have such good download and upload speeds.  To use an example.  One morning within the past week, around 5:00 a.m. the internet was basically non existent for all devices - phones, ipads etc.  There could have been a problem at the exchange, or with bigpond.  To avoid continued frustration for an unknown amount of time, I decided to kill the modem completely by pulling out the power cable for at least 10 seconds.  When the modem eventually finished re-starting, after a couple of minutes, operations were back to normal.  Now what caused this glitch is unknown, but it highlights the fact that there can be any number of possible short term problems for which a reason is not readily discernable.  I have found that in such cases, killing the power to the modem for a short period of time, by pulling out the power cable, reinserting it to re-start the modem can work wonders.  By the way I am on ADSL2.

It is also interesting to note that my download speed in particular is some 10% or so quicker than it was a couple of months ago.

For you MM, it shouldn't require your IT person to come on site to re-start your modem.  You should be able to easily do that by yourself, I would think.  Gary may have other ideas though because he is far more an expert in these areas than I am.

The other thing that we have to contend with is the slowness of some sites.  To me it seems somewhat extraordinary that some of the slowest sites that I visit are Telstra and Bigpond.

John L G

I don't have a slow fibre connection but the Reckon Accounts Hosted thinks I have a lot slower than I do!