Thanks for your quick reply and the awesome website. I hope others will
appreciate your input as much as I.
My speed tests vary from the time of day and from day to day but are very
close to the speeds claimed by my DSL supplier.
Question: Is a lower "latency to Server" number better, I hate to assume?
Latency, Frank, is a rather vague metric. Latency in general could be any of
several figures. "Ping Latency", for instance, is the time to ping to a target,
and get a response. Latency won't be a direct result of bandwidth - you can
have high bandwidth and high latency. Dialup, properly setup, could have
decently low latency, but terribly low bandwidth.
It's possible that the setting for your connection, that controls your
bandwidth, could affect latency. If your "final mile" connection (the wire
between the LEC's connection office and your house) is set too optimistically,
you could be experiencing frequent packet losses. Constant retrying
transmissions could overload your connection, and send your latency figures into
the toilet.
Speed tests are dependent upon the location of the speed test server, relative
to your ISP. If your connection to the speed test server goes through the
Internet, the results that you get will be affected by Internet traffic more
than by the speed of your final mile connection.
All of these issues are discussed, in more coherency, at DSLR Networking forums.
--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.