The MB's used by a speed test test (at wireless N)

TL;DR

Almost all measurements deviate so much from expectations that it is not possible to indicate what the best speed test is if you use WiFi-N.

The median of the number of MiBs required per Mbps is 1.5.

 

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method of measurement
  3. Speed tests to test
  4. The measurements
  5. Conclusions
 

Introduction

For this test we want to know how much data a speed test uses. It is obvious that this depends on the speed test used and the advertised download speed. For this test, the WiFi router (an ICIDU NI-707539) is configured to support only the 802.11n standard. The maximum achievable speed is now 72 Mbps.

 

Method of measurement

The amount of data used by a speed test is measured with the live option of vnstat.

Initially the webpage with the speed tests to test is opened in the Edge browser. Then the data monitoring is started with vnstat -l and the to be tested speed test is opened in a new tab. After three times testing the internet speed, vnstat is stopped with control-C.

The measured download speeds and the median are noted. These are all in mega bits per seconds. The data used as measured by vnstat is in mebibytes (MiB) (or kibibytes (KiB)).

 

Speed tests to test

Because this is a relative simple test, the unique speed tests as collected at ZOMDir will be tested.

 

The measurements

The following has been measured. Note that all speeds are measured in Mbps.

  1. Astound Measurements: 15.00, 14.00, 15.00. Median: 15.00 - Sum down 121.02 MiB, sum up 1.95 MiB
  2. Bandwidth Place Measurements: 16.66, 16.39, 18.56. Median: 16.66 - Sum down 55.98 MiB, sum up 147.04 MiB
  3. Bredbandskollen Measurements: 17.99, 20.56, 18.77. Median: 18.77 - Sum down 73.33 MiB, sum up 113.27 MiB
  4. Broadband Speed Checker Measurements: 86.36, 85.51, 85.41. Median: 85.51 - Sum down 392.19 MiB, sum up 143.59 MiB
  5. Cloudflare Measurements: 83.6, 84.0, 78.1. Median: 83.6 - Sum down 515.68 MiB, sum up 143.35 MiB
  6. Comparitech Measurements: 91.70, 89.50, 89.85. Median: 89.85 - Sum down 528.59 MiB, sum up 201.53 MiB
  7. DSLReports Measurements: 11.18, 13.44, 12.43. Median: 12.43 - Sum down 66.43 MiB, sum up 156.87 MiB
  8. Fast Measurements: 39, 37, 38. Median: 38 - Sum down 141.68 MiB, sum up 138.23 MiB
  9. Fireprobe Measurements: 19.78, 20.89, 20.81. Median: 20.81 - Sum down 120.58 MiB, sum up 163.28 MiB
  10. Google Fiber Measurements: 21.6, 19.8, 21.8. Median: 21.6 - Sum down 57.16 MiB, sum up 96.54 MiB
  11. Internet Speed at a Glance Measurements: 20..50, 50.100, 20..50. Median: 20..50 - Sum down 103.95 KiB, sum up 26.05 KiB
  12. LibreSpeed Measurements: 17.1, 17.1, 17.9. Median: 17.1 - Sum down 71.42 MiB, sum up 110.60 MiB
  13. Measurement Lab Measurements: 61.79, 66.42, 65.23. Median: 65.23 - Sum down 236.99 MiB, sum up 110.32 MiB
  14. Meter.net Measurements: 23.54, 24.52, 20.76. Median: 23.54 - Sum down 65.03 MiB, sum up 83.77 MiB
  15. N Perf Measurements: 60.23, 61.01, 61.42. Median: 61.01 - Sum down 340.03 MiB, sum up 193.61 MiB
  16. Ookla Speedtest Measurements: 80.74, 81.56, 81.53. Median: 81.53 - Sum down 444.60 MiB, sum up 171.59 MiB
  17. Open Speed Test Measurements: 76.34, 73.41, 83.87. Median: 76.34 - Sum down 424.47 MiB, sum up 145.48 MiB
  18. SamKnows Measurements: 50.1, 58.3, 59.2. Median: 58.3 - Sum down 248.97 MiB, sum up 180.40 MiB
  19. SpeedCheck Measurements: 17, 16.67, 17.12. Median: 17 - Sum down 151.33 MiB, sum up 120.49 MiB
  20. SpeedOf.me Measurements: 17.08, 14.85, 15.94. Median: 15.94 - Sum down 105.49 MiB, sum up 49.03 MiB
  21. SpeedOf.me API Sample Page Measurements: 13.08, 14.27, 14.53. Median: 14.27 - Sum down 50.52 MiB, sum up 24.22 MiB
  22. SpeedSmart Measurements: 77.66, 83.69, 83.79. Median: 83.69 - Sum down 345.62 MiB, sum up 132.62 MiB
  23. Speedtest4.PHP Measurements: -, -, -. Median: - - Sum down 10.24 MiB, sum up 266.28 KiB
  24. TestMy.net Measurements: 65, 70.9, 63.3. Median: 65 - Sum down 84.55 MiB, sum up 2.04 MiB
  25. Toast Measurements: 1.8, 1.6, 1.5. Median: 1.6 - Sum down 69.29 MiB, sum up 1.23 MiB
  26. Which Broadband Checker Measurements: 32, 29, 28. Median: 29 - Sum down 97.41 MiB, sum up 116.51 MiB
  27. Xfinity xFi Speed Test Measurements: 14.5, 13.7, 11.6. Median: 13.7 - Sum down 72.20 MiB, sum up 1.69 MiB
 

Conclusions

During the ultimate home network test 2022-2 we tested the internet speed with WiFi-N with the same router. Then and now the results vary widely and some measurements are even above the theoretical maximum. This makes it impractical to indicate which speed test is best.

M-Lab is relative close to the theoretical maximum.

Broadband Speed Checker, Cloudflare, Comparitech, Ookla Speedtest, Open Speed Test and SpeedSmart have measured values above the theoretical maximum.

The median of the number of MiBs required per Mbps is 1.5.