Speed Test

Ever run a speed test on your internet connection? Can't remember if I told this story already -- quick check of history sez no -- but in April I upgraded my Comcast high-speed internet and went from 12Mbps to 32Mbps. It was a huge improvement.

At the time they told me more network improvements were coming and I should get 50Mbps by June.

I kinda forgot about this, what with my trip to Amsterdam later in April and then my dad dying as soon as I got back, and then spending 4 months in intense work settling his estate.

Anyway, I've been noticing jitteryness on streaming video, with files not playing straight through but jerking back and forth instead and occasionally hanging up altogether. Tonight I decided to look into this.

First thing I thought of was that maybe I didn't have enough free memory to process all of the incoming video.

I launched Activity Monitor to see how much memory I was using, and consistently near the top if the usage was a dumb program called Logmein (Log Me In) I tried out a couple years ago. It's for allowing you to access your computer from anywhere, over the internet. It was dumb, so I thought I had deleted it. Rather surprised it was still running!

Tried to Force Quit it from the Activity Monitor. It came back within 2 seconds every time.

Googled "removing Logmein from Mac" and found others had had the same problem. There was a procedure posted for finding and removing all of the hidden system files, but the program had to be NOT running to accomplish this.

Removed all the files I could, then forced a quit again and quickly dragged the remaining files to the trash. Rebooted as instructed.

Success!

Now Log Me In is gone, my memory utilization is about 1/4 of capacity instead of half, and videos seem to run smoother.

And now when I run a speed test (at speedtest.net or speedtest.comcast.net) I get 57.75Mbps download and 11.48Mbps upload, with a 25ms ping. Not bad!

Video seems a little smoother ... stay tuned for further testing.

You're fortunate in living on one of the few places in this country where you can actually get high-speed internet.
I have AT&T DSL. I pay $50/month for a 6Mb connection and am fortunate when I get 4Mb. Sometimes the speed drops so low that the web site I use for speed test won't even load. Earlier today, it dropped down well below 100Kb. I've seen it drop below 10Kb. The service techs that come out tell me that the only problem is that the service is over sold and they do not have the hardware to provide the service they sell in this area. I guess I should be happy as long as AT&T is making a huge profit.
No. Comcast is not available. Where I live there is no cable TV service. But even the quality of Comcast internet caries. A friend of mine who has it says that the sped varies nearly as bad as the DSL I have.

I don't even know how to do a speed test.

Just go here and click on the start button.

Or here.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Or here.

I don't use that test site because it requires Adobe Flash, which I hate and don't install.

OK. Upload seems pretty stable at about 5Mbps, regardless of which server I pick or how often I try it. Download seems to vary wildly from just under 10 to about 20, with large variations not only by server but also over time. The initial server was one in Canada somewhere, and that first showed 9.76, and just a few seconds later (literally) gave a second attempt 17.something. This is Optimum Online (Cablevision).

A lot of online access services these days, including Comcast, are shared access. What this means is that the more people online at once, the slower it goes. You are rarely guaranteed a minimum speed, and the speeds they tout are usually theoretical maximums.

We live in a neighborhood where Comcast is testing their new data usage caps that have been suspended the last two years.
This means in addition to the arm and leg I'm already paying for internet they want to charge me I think it was 20 dollars for every 50MB over or some shit. Anyway it would have added up to be a 150 dollar internet bill because I got five people on this thing and we download everything from my son's games to movies to Pandora.
So I started Puppy Love doggy daycare and got commercial internet with no data usage caps. Same price I was paying with no caps. But some people are gonna be fucked soon. They are gonna roll this thing out everywhere because what are you gonna do, go without? Not nowadays.