On 11/17/23 11:27, Dave Taht via Nnagain wrote:

one of the things we really wished existed was a standardized way to 
test latency and throughput to routers. It would be super helpful if 
there was a standard in consumer routers that allowed users to both ping
 and fetch 0kB fils from their routers, and also run download/upload 
tests.

Back when I was involved in operating a network, we tried to track latency and throughput by standard ping and related tests. We discovered that, in addition to the network conditions, the results were often dependent on the particular equipment and software involved at the time. Some companies treated ping traffic (e.g., anything directed to the "echo" port) as low priority since it was obviously (to them) less important than any other traffic. Others treated such traffic as high priority - it made their results in review articles look better.

In another case we discovered one brand of desktop computer was achieved much higher throughputs over the net than similar products from other manufacturers. It took some serious technical investigation but we eventually discovered that the high throughput was achieved by violating the Ethernet specification. The offending vendor didn't follow the rules about timing. But their test results looked much better than the competition.

IMHO the root of the problem is that you can not assume much about what any software and hardware are doing. There are lots of specs, standards, and mandates in RFCs or even governmental rules and regulations. But lacking any kind of testing or certification, it's difficult to tell if those "standards" are actually being followed. If someone, technical organization or government regulator, declares or legislates some protocol, algorithm, or behavior to be a required "standard", it should be accompanied by mechanisms and processes for testing to verify that the standard is implemented correctly and is actually used, and certification so that purchasers are informed.

Jack Haverty