Be careful with speedtest !!!

G

GRES

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For the happy owners of the fast link
1 speed test @10M eat 10MB of your bandwitdh!
 
I expected it to eat 1MB of data. Like in science, if values too small or large, get something normal sized and multiply/divide. :)
 
What I'd like to know is why my speedtest results don't correlate with my actual download speeds? For instance, I'm getting 3.5-4.0mb/s dload speeds on speedtest, but when I actually download something from a site (like a 5mb pdf file) the download takes about 30-40seconds instead of 1-2seconds?
 
Stavats said:
What I'd like to know is why my speedtest results don't correlate with my actual download speeds?
Click to expand...
Speedtest servers are hosted locally. Have you tested on a server in the same location as the pdf?
 
Stavats said:
What I'd like to know is why my speedtest results don't correlate with my actual download speeds? For instance, I'm getting 3.5-4.0mb/s dload speeds on speedtest, but when I actually download something from a site (like a 5mb pdf file) the download takes about 30-40seconds instead of 1-2seconds?
Click to expand...

Its Megabits per second and not megabytes for second.
 
The idea of not using your bandwidth when accessing the suppliers site is established. Vodacom supposedly does not use your bandwidth when on their site.

I say supposedly 'cos its rather difficult to prove they are not!

That said, the idea of browsing the Cell C site without using Cell C bandwidth definitely ought to be stuck in Cell C's suggestion box.
 
Cost Conscious said:
The idea of not using your bandwidth when accessing the suppliers site is established. Vodacom supposedly does not use your bandwidth when on their site.
Click to expand...
It was only Vodacom's downloads that are* zero-rated, browsing their site and using their own private speed test server are billed.
Even using their vodacom4me site to check one's balance or purchase a data bundle were charged, which was a real pain as you couldn't buy a new data bundle if you had no airtime or at least without incurring out-of-bundle charges. At least their USSD system worked well.

*Currently they are experiencing a problem and even downloads are billed.
Cost Conscious said:
That said, the idea of browsing the Cell C site without using Cell C bandwidth definitely ought to be stuck in Cell C's suggestion box.
Click to expand...
I thought it was established that Cell-C's site was zero-rated? :confused:
I read on this forum that users with no airtime can still browse there.
 
@ginggs:

you may well be right! I would probably have to hunt hard & long to find the original source whereby I picked up the info that browsing Vodacom's site was zero-rated on their own network. In my mind, it was clear this was browsing not downloading. But maybe I'm having a senior moment.

As for Cell C; I wasn't aware they were zero-rated on their own network. Thanks.
 
paul5186 said:
Its Megabits per second and not megabytes for second.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I googled it and it makes sense now. 1MB/s (megabyte per second) = 8Mb/s (megabit per second). So if I get 4Mb/s on speedtest I can expect to download a file from a local site at 0.5MB/s. Didn't know that.
 
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