TotuSoft has graciously provided Home Network Enabled with licenses for their
LAN Speed Test Server and
LAN Speed Test v2.0 and I'm happy to announce we will be using it as our official speed testing software going forward. LAN Speed Test v2.0 is said to be more accurate than v1.0 and should give good and consistent baselines for most testing. I won't be revisiting old articles where v1.0 was used, but all articles going forward will use v2.0 and Server where appropriate.
LAN Speed Test works by building a file in memory, and then transferring it over the wire via SMB file sharing, but without the effects of Windows file caching. Once complete it then does the calculations for you and outputs the numbers in whatever denomination you prefer. You can also vary packet size and number of packets to get it exactly the way you like.
My Speed testing protocols
For an accurate picture of LAN speed, these tests are done in several locations around the house on my
Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH. 40MHz wide channel support is disabled and WPA2-PSK (AES) encryption is used. Here are my typical tests:
LAN Speed Test
Using a 64-bit Windows 7 quadcore box as the LAN Speed Test server, a test with LAN Speed Test v2.0 is run with a packet size of 1MB and a total of 100 packets. In situations, such as testing a
Synology NAS or the
Vortexbox, where there is no Windows client, LAN Speed Test v2.0 is simply run from the quadcore Windows 7 box against the SMB share. Results are posted in Mbps exactly as they appear in LAN Speed Test. Antivirus is disabled for the tests. Bear in mind that other sites have found LAN Speed Test to read anywhere from a little low to significantly lower when compared to tests like IxChariot so the numbers should be seen as references and not absolute fact as to fastest speeds. That said, every product I test uses the consistent protocol, so the numbers should be good as reference points against each other.
Wired to Wireless WAN percentage
Wireless may be able to push good speeds, but what does it look like for typical internet browsing? With the Wired to Wireless WAN percentage test, a baseline is laid down against the
Speakeasy Speed Test Chicago, IL location using the devices wired connection. This connection speed is then recorded, wired disconnected, and the same test run with wireless. The percentage of the wired max attained by wireless is then recorded. The tests are run at about the same time in the evening and the second result out of 2 is what is recorded. It goes without saying to note that there are many variables involved when introducing the WAN in to the equation. Wired and wireless tests are run on the same evening, within short times of each other, to help mitigate some of those variables. Antivirus is also disabled for these tests.
Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI)
To paint a better picture of what is going on with wireless, RSSI is also recorded using
Metageek's inSSIDer. RSSI is simply the measurement of power present in a received radio signal. By itself this would mean nothing, but when presented with the other two tests, can paint a broader picture of the wireless capabilities of a particular tested device. Again, with a grain of salt, environmental interference can cause variances in this test and that needs to be noted.