Do we need a pinned post on testing bandwidth and latency?

[Anonymous]

Do we need  a pinned post on conducting speed and latency tests? Just a thought! Apologies if there already is one and I missed it. 

  I have duplicated this post in the Broadband Connection section, where it is also relevant.  

Over the year since I joined Vodafone/CityFibre,  I have  seen a large number of posts showing dissatisfaction with downstream and upstream speeds and with high latency, and having seen responses to those posts. it is very clear that guidance on how to conduct tests would be very useful. Often,  OPs complain about speeds/latency and then we discover that the issue is the conditions under which they have conducted the tests. A lot of time is wasted waiting in call centre queues or in reporting and responding here. 

For example, if a speed test is conducted using a WiFi connection, many do not realise that they are rarely going to get the advertised speeds even on a multi-thread test. Tests of one's basic BB connection should always be done with the device connected directly to your router by Ethernet using a physical network or at least a patch lead (CAT5e or better.) 

I am not necessarily offering to write the guidance for a pinned post, because I'm sure that a trained techie would do a much better job. 

What's our thoughts on this? 

[Ripshod]

If we started pinning topics we'd only need 4 to give us nothing to do here:

• Testing bandwidth and latency
• Using your own router with Vodafone
• Digital voice without the Vodafone router
• Load balancing (Vodafone's take)

I know I'd be bored around here. 😃

[Anonymous]

Point taken, but you are assuming that folk would read them. 😂

[Jayach]

If they are not going to read them, there is no point in having them.

[Anonymous]

My comment was a light-hearted response to the previous light-hearted comment.

Having pinned posts offering assistance on the key perennial issues is a good principle. A good number of folk will read them particularly if it is made clear that folk should read them before wasting time calling CS and before posting their issue here. Those responding to issues can also direct folk to pinned posts,  thus saving lots of time explaining.

The Virgin Media forums have 'sticky threads' . These have been useful although some of the advice has become outdated due to lack of maintenance. Virgin Media Cable Forum