Fing speedtests vs Speedtest.net

GadgetVirtuoso

I've had Fing since the crowded-funded campaign and in all that time Fing has never tested my speeds anywhere close to my actual or real-world ISP speeds.

Until a month ago I had Gigabit fiber from AT&T and Fing has only ever reported a few hundred mbps and now that I'm back on Frontier 500/500 the speeds are even lower. In fact the upstream speed on Fing is a mere 20-40mbps meanwhile SpeedTest.net typically shows above 550Mbps.

VioletChepil

Hi @GadgetVirtuoso this is because we're using the MLAB method of measurement for speed tests. 
You can learn more about why these results differ here:
https://www.measurementlab.net/faq/#why-are-my-m-lab-results-different-from-other-speed-tests
This has been an ongoing topic at Fing! 

Gidster

When you talk about "real-world ISP speeds," MLAB is probably more accurate than Ookla (who run Speedtest.net), as the test is with a distant server - more like those you are getting Web services from. Ookla, on the other hand, tends to run a test between your device and a server within your ISP's infrastructure (AKA edge-based server) - so much closer in network terms. 

kltaylor

Gidster said:

When you talk about "real-world ISP speeds," MLAB is probably more accurate than Ookla (who run Speedtest.net), as the test is with a distant server - more like those you are getting Web services from. Ookla, on the other hand, tends to run a test between your device and a server within your ISP's infrastructure (AKA edge-based server) - so much closer in network terms. 

To add to that, Ookla is also owned by the wonderful people of Comcast, so there may be some skewing one way or another happening on that.  One of the speed testing sites that I've relied a lot on is https://www.testmy.net.  Their engine is designed using HTML 5, and it sends random data through the line to test for consistency when sending and receiving information.  Also, you can schedule it to run for a set number of times so that you can obtain a good average as well as information on when you have high and low points of speed.