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Speedtest.net is a data hog

lavrishevo

lavrishevo

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 9, 2007
1,864
204
NJ
I travel a lot with work so I found it interesting to see what kind of speeds I will get in the cities I am in. As I just got my first LTE phone 3 weeks ago, it is even more intriguing with a new toy. The funny thing is I was not running the test but a few times in each city. What a data hog!
 

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Kinda makes sense the faster your connection the more it will use testing the speed because its transferring more data.
 
I don't know how to answer this without sounding snarky, but I'll try.

I don't know how much data the app uses, but considering your post it must be a decent amount. Sending and receiving 1MB of data won't measure sustained data speeds like 25MB of data.
 
I like the usage breakdown on Android.

Speedtest definitely is a data hog. I ended up using like 180MB first day with iP5 and most was speed test.
 
OneMike said:
I like the usage breakdown on Android.

Speedtest definitely is a data hog. I ended up using like 180MB first day with iP5 and most was speed test.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. I do like the breakdown as well. At least this can tell you the culprit if you are racking up data. I still have my unlimited plan but I also do not wish to be throttled so I monitor my usage. Anyway, just for all you iphone users. Remember not to constantly run the speed test app or you will waste your data just checking how fast your connection is. :eek:
 
OneMike said:
I like the usage breakdown on Android.

Speedtest definitely is a data hog. I ended up using like 180MB first day with iP5 and most was speed test.
Click to expand...

I have run about six Speedtest app tests on Verizon LTE and by looking at the minute by minute data usage on my acct. on Verizon's web site, it looks like each LTE Speedtest run is gulping about 10MB total. So yes, it can sure add up.
 
darngooddesign said:
I don't know how to answer this without sounding snarky, but I'll try.

I don't know how much data the app uses, but considering your post it must be a decent amount. Sending and receiving 1MB of data won't measure sustained data speeds like 25MB of data.
Click to expand...

Speedtest.net doesn't download a fixed amount. It downloads for a fixed amount of time. So if you are on LTE it will be downloading a large amount of data every time you run it.
 
It's supposed to use a lot of data. In order to get a statistically significant result you need to push a lot of data through in order to get a reasonable average. In reality a good test would last much longer and use more data, but they are trying to strike a balance between data usage and reasonable results.
 
bozzykid said:
Speedtest.net doesn't download a fixed amount. It downloads for a fixed amount of time. So if you are on LTE it will be downloading a large amount of data every time you run it.
Click to expand...

Where did you read this? Seems like it goes faster on a faster connection to me. I would guess that they are just downloading a 10 MB file and timing it.
 
Assuming you're on one of the new mobile share family plans, are you able to change your plan to a higher level and not be hit with overages if you're already close to the cap?
 
Its not a data hog, if anything its you being a fool, wasting data on speed test. Just stop running speedtest all the time. How exactly do you think it test your speed? It has to download something. LTE is fast, and with any fast connection to accurately tell the speed, it will need to download a larger file.
 
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