As we mentioned in the latest OPLIN CIRCUIT, line speed tests don’t work the way you want them to work. If you notice slow connectivity on your line, and you’re like most good techs, you try to find the reason for the slowdown. You hunt for bad switches or network cards and when you’re confident your equipment is working properly, you call us, armed with speed test evidence. Save yourself some time, skip the speed test, and just call the OPLIN Support Center. We’re here to help you!
The FCC launched a speed test tool that consumers can use to test service or report to the FCC where broadband isn’t available. But just because it’s from the federal government doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Yes, it will tell you if your line is slower than broadband specs say it should be, but it won’t tell you where the slowdowns are or what’s causing them, and those ares the missing links.
- Cable ISPs: new broadband test makes our service look slow
- FCC Relying on Faulty ISP Performance Data from comScore
The key is to find out what’s causing the slowdown of your network. Here are some starting points:
- WinMTR (for Windows) and MTR ( for Linux) is free and it combines the functionality of the `traceroute` and `ping` programs in a single network diagnostic tool. It is small and easy to use and also offers to copy the results to the clipboard in text or HTML format. No installation required. With this tool, you can see exactly which hops are slowing down your network.
- Wireshark is also free and open source (runs runs on various Unix-like operating systems including Linux, Mac, and Windows) and it monitors actual traffic (as opposed to WinMTR, which tests the path the traffic takes). In other words, Wireshark let’s you know which PC is transferring the largest and the most packets. This could be an indicator of a chatty network card or a misbehaving PC. Wireshark does have a learning curve, so here is a tutorial.
As always, if you have any connectivity speed issues, please contact OPLIN Support at 1-888-966-7546 or support@oplin.org.
Cool fact:
Think you’re getting what you pay for? Five Myths About High Speed Internet
