[Bloat] anyone have info on the netflix speed test (fast.com)?

[David Lang]

On Thu, 19 May 2016, moeller0 wrote:

>> On May 18, 2016, at 21:51 , David Lang <david at lang.hm> wrote:
>>
>> /. is talking about a new speed test to show your download speed. It doesn’t
>> show upload speeds or ping time.
>
> From fast.com:
> What is Fast.com measuring?
> Fast.com estimates your current download speed. You will generally be able to get this speed from leading internet services, which use globally distributed servers.
> Why does Fast.com only report on download speed?
> Download speed is most relevant for people who are consuming content on the Internet, and we want fast.com to be very simple and fast.
> Why does Fast.com not report on ping, latency, jitter and other things?
> Fast.com is a simple-to-use way for consumers to estimate what speed their ISP is providing. It is not a network engineer's analysis and diagnostic suite.
> How is the number calculated?
> To calculate this estimate, Fast.com performs a series of downloads from Netflix servers.
> Will Fast.com work everywhere in the world?
> Fast.com will work globally on any device (phone, laptop, or smart TV with browser).
> Why is Netflix offering Fast.com?
> We want our members to have a simple, quick, commercial-free way to estimate the speed their ISP is providing.
> What can I do if I'm not getting the speed I pay for?
> If results from fast.com and other speed tests often show less speed than you have paid for, you can ask your ISP about the results.
>
>
> This looks like marketing PR somehow inflicted the release of an internal demo. I agree with jb the one thing it has going for it is a short name… It does only one thing but does that a) badly and b) arguably it only even does 1/2 thing as ingress and egress are simply not completely independent. Arguing that Ping (RTT) and jitter are “network engineer’s analysis and diagnostic” tools and hence out of scope for their simple tool shows that they are aiming to low (I would go as far as claiming that with the explaining text the aim is still on the “own foot” territory, but I digress).

I guess one thing that it does is shows anyone who is targeting netflix with 
slowdowns (or just not upgrading to meet capacity needs) where the problem is.

And since this is netflix, they really do only care about download speed :-(

they should care about download speed while also doing an upload, to prevent 
pauses.

David Lang