I was reminded again today of the old adage that even when you think you know what the problem probably is, until you measure it, you’re likely to be wrong. This applies particularly to factors that impede your internet speed.
The ADSL internet bandwidth package we signed up for, many moons ago, was 3 Mbps. I know, that seems laughably slow to many of you, but I don’t download video much and it’s adequate for my needs. On a whim, Tim decided to test the speed and found it to be only 1.14 Mbps (even when taking out everything in the way, such as firewall and router). We tested a few times, and got similar results. So eventually we called up the ISP and complained, they ran their tests and found nothing, and as a last resort from their side, offered to send us a new modem.
Now the model I had was less than a year old, a Thomson Speedtouch ST516 V6, which I’d bought when I had trouble connecting last year. So I was doubtful that it would turn out to be an issue with the modem, more concerned that it might be an issue with the phone wiring in this old house. But hey, it doesn’t hurt to try a new modem, so we agreed.
A couple of days later, a new Thomson Speedtouch ST516 V6 modem shows up in the mail. I plug it in, run speedtest.net again, and all of a sudden we’re getting 2.12 Mbps, a good-sized increase and much closer to what we’re paying for. (The house wiring and various other factors probably make up the rest).
So now I’m puzzled. Two modems, from the outside exactly the same, with the same model number, bought 11 months apart, with very different results. It’s not like there are user-configurable jump pins on the back that could be set wrongly. The only thing I can think of is that I got a dud with the first modem. Anyone have other explanations?