network speeds

[vinceASPECT]

Hello forum,

sorry to be so silly but i wonder if you could tell me exactly WHAT it
is you are measuring when you use say FAST DOT COM web page
while connected to WI FI internet?

1) is "fast" showing you the speed that data is arriving at your Laptop
from the Router box?....NOT the speed that data from the ISP is arriving at the router box?

2) Or what is infact being shown in it's speed result?

The reason i ask is i just wanted to know the speed that that ISP is sending data to
the ROUTER box and how to discover that speed value?
.....That speed is always likely to be FAR slower than
your "link speed" between your Laptop and the router box right?  WI FI link..

For example, if i use the same speed web site with a HARD WIRED internet connection
then the result is showing me what i wanted to know.......the supply speed of the ISP

but is WI FI different?

i can ask perplexity ai

thanks
C

ps....i must point out its a PUBLIB WI FI supply i am connecting to via my WI FI on my handset....
....that PUBLIC BUSINESS ROUTER BOX is down the street from my house and it connects to an ISP.  I believe the box receives quite fast  ISP data, and then it will  allow clients (handsets) to connect to it at quite fast "WI FI internet rates."

i just wondered WHAT IT IS i am measuring when my device then runs a web page like FAST dot com?

[Leee]

Without any first hand knowledge of the technologies involved, I can only suppose that any browser based speed test can only measure the throughput between the browser and the server providing the test service (at fast.com, in this case).

The speed reported would be the lowest speed (bottleneck) anywhere between the browser and the server.

If the WIFI speed between your PC/laptop/whatever and your in-house router is slower than the speed between your in-house router and your ISP, then the WIFI speed would be the limiting factor and that would be the highest reportable speed.

If you have blazingly fast WIFI connectivity locally but your connection to the ISP (cable modem or whatever) sucks, then the best speed you will get will be the ISP speed and that is what would be reported.

If, for some reason, your computer itself is ridiculously slow, that might be the bottleneck.

The slowest link in the chain will be the max reported rate.

fast.com says I'm getting about 87 Mbps.  Since a wifi user right close to my router is getting five times that, I suspect that somewhere in my house there's probably an ethernet wire that's only good for 100 MBPS.  Maybe time for some new wires!

[gadget42]

mostly for future thread visitors, a few additional resources:

https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/megabits-vs-megabytes-and-why-it-matters

https://www.allconnect.com/blog/mbps-vs-mbps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte