Internet Speed/Quality Testing

Overview

TempWorks operates a network testing appliance for use in diagnosing network performance concerns related to our hosted solutions.
These are dedicated physical testing appliances located at our network edge to provide an accurate representation of the network performance and quality across the internet between your location and our data center.

There are two available, for most concerns the "Primary Data Center" should be used as this provides testing along the same path your data uses to reach our hosting systems.
http://speedtest.tempworks.com (Primary Data Center)
http://speedtesteagan.tempworks.com (DR / Corporate Data Center)

The first time you use the speedtest site you will be asked to install a "browser compatibility service" which allows for testing to be completed through your web browser. A link is provided on the speedtest pages or The BCS is available here.

Don't be alarmed by "slower" speeds than anticipated as this test is designed primarily to check network quality as opposed to raw speed. (going fast is not effective if things are damaged on the way). Typically, the speed tests will max out between 8 and 14 Mbps for most of our clients due to the limitation of round-trip time of communication between our locations, this is expected.


A few things to look for upon receiving your results.
  • "Achieved download speed" should be close to "TCP Max Route Speed" within about 20%. If it is not you may have something preventing communication at best possible speed.
  • "Achieved download and upload speed" should be at least 1Mbps, >5Mbps is much more preferable and will provide a noticeable difference in large searches, and especially document attachment and download.
  • "Effective Bandwidth" should roughly resemble the advertised speeds your internet provider give you. (what the connection is capable of in raw speed)
  • "Consistency of Service" should be high, if it is lower than 50% this could indicate potential quality issues
  • Max Delay should be less than 150ms within the continental U.S. larger numbers indicate quality issues that delay communications.
  • the Line Quality Assessment section provides more technical detail about quality issues
    • "re transmit timeouts" should not be above 0, it indicates sustained quality issues that are detrimentally affecting communications.
    • "bytes lost" indicates quality issues in your upload to our data center
    • "bytes ReTX" indicates quality issues in your download from our data center
  • Some loss is to be expected over the internet, but red flags are consistent loss or re transmission, frequent re transmit timeouts , or lower than expected "achieved speed"

A "test result" number is included on the results which can be communicated with TempWorks Support for additional assistance or questions regarding results. 

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