The speed test battle, part two

A few years ago I benchmarked a list of the biggest and most popular broadband speedtesting websites on the internet (see part one). Surprise, surprise testmy.net came out on top. This was done such a long time ago that I figured I would update the benchmark and see if testmy.net is still the most accurate on the block. My findings are below.

Computer and Connection Information

Internet Connection: Cox Communications 9Mbps/1Mbps (down/up) (functioning perfectly at 100%+ or very near 100%+)
Local Network: Connected through Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller, routing through a LinkSys WRT54GS router connected to a LinkSys BEFCMU10 cable modem.
Time Taken: Between 9PM and 10:30PM on Friday April 7th 2006 (semi high traffic hours in this location)
System specs: 2.8GHz Pentium D (dual core 64 bit) with 1GB DDR2 800 (shut up... I have another gig on the way from newegg right now, lol)

Time to test!

Multiple tests were performed for each website to ensure fair testing. Out of all testing sites in the sample only testmy.net was able to consistently display accurate results. I encourage you to run the same benchmark as I ran today, I'm sure you will get the same results as I did.

Testmy.net - tests from testmy.net reveal the true connection speed. Our superior servers that are free of congestion are an ideal platform for the type of testing that is performed. A close look at the results will show an average of 9Mbps down and 1Mbps up, the exact speed of this connection. Since this connection is functioning at nearly 100% this score is very precise to the real maximum throughput of the line. 3 download and 3 upload tests were taken in a row... all with near the same results.

speakeasy - besides testmy.net this was the highest performing speedtest, upload test was right on. But the download test was consistently off by 2Mbps. Server location had nothing to do with the results, the server was chosen out of Texas because this is where testmy.net's server is located... if testmy.net can serve the test without a problem from that distance then anyone should be able to. . . . . maybe not :-p

2wire - This website used to display what I considered somewhat accurate results, I don't know what happened. Three re-tests and nothing even near an accurate result. 2wire doesn't off an upload speedtest.

bandwidthplace - In three tests the score ranged from 2.7Mbps to 4Mbps... way off. No upload speed test available at this website.e.

dslreports - Next I find myself at DSLR. I normally praise DSLR but lately their tests have been less accurate than normal. Maybe overloaded servers??? The upload results however were right on the money. Averaged around 5.7Mbps down and 1Mbps up... download is inaccurate :(

McAfee - Wow, very bad results with this on, 1.5Mbps on every test. No upload test available.

PCpitstop - pcpitstop is another test that I used to have respect for, but this tests results have also gone south. Inaccurate on any line over 4Mbps. But their upload test works okay... but for the upload test to work you must be in IE and you must download an active-X plug-in. Such security risks all for a little speedtest, they could have done better.