quote:Originally posted by LostInSpace:
Okay, Marvin what say you on this? Hi guys!
It's very confusing that's for sure and the main reason I put up the calculator page. Microsoft themselves didn't do it right with IE so that should explain some of the widespread confusion out there about bits, bytes, megabits etc. Internet Explorer reports speed in storage units and not speed units!
My calculator is actually pretty unique because it converts speed to storage and back and forth. This is NOT normal but required because of IE's reporting style. Because of this the calculator became necessary to try and get things back to an 'apples to apples' comparison.
It's been a few years since I looked at the issue but at the time I researched it pretty thoroughly and put my findings on that page.
One thing I recommend strongly is testing against real world servers and not speed testing sites. A person is generally better off to test against sites that he will typically visit. Another consideration is that a person should test against 'known good' servers. An example would be a well-managed network like Microsoft's.
Otherwise speed testing results will not be very accurate.
BTW, I always recommend using IE for speed tests because then we can skip the whole debate on what measurement we are reporting in. Because IE holds around 98% of the market share - basically everyone has it and then we are again back to apples to apples :-)
