Your download speed doesn't necessarily prove your network link isn't saturated

black

Imagine you're a server. Your purpose is to obviously to serve content.This means, you're uploading content to your users. If you wget a file, it tests your download speed, which isn't the point and therefore, it can't fully prove prove that there's no issues with the network link. That's like someone hearing a traffic report saying there's congestion leaving the city, they drive into/towards the city and see no congestion and conclude that everything is fine.



Usually, a node is not constantly downloading stuff, so you'd see amazing wget speeds from cachefly, but on a packed node you'll notice a huge difference in upload speed.



So please, run some upload tests as well to prove your point. That's more important than your download speed, if you're a server.





/rant

earl

You can do a ping from your server to a host, packet loss would be a good indication that your line is saturated or is experiencing issues on your network.

you can also install MTR , which is like a traceroute/ping on repeat. MTR Displays the percentage of package loss in real time.

apt-get install mtr-tiny

mtr <ip or address>

to force ipv4

mtr -4 <ip or address>

I also notice if you have packet loss from doing a ping from the server out, normally indicate your server's upload is saturated.

If you ping from say a local computer to your host and you receive packet loss, this would indicate that your servers download speed is saturated.

So it's best to ping from both ends.

Silvenga

earl said: packet loss

A saturated connection has no connection to packet loss. Packet loss is the effect of statuation but statuation is not the cause of packet loss.

We only see packet loss during saturation when the network devices or links are of poor quality and are unable to handle to load. But we also see packet loss for other reasons - bad wires or load balancing for example.

shovenose

I am not a server. I am a human.

OK, but in all seriousness, this is a very good point. And there's no easy to test this. Unless you have access to a 10Gbit VPS.

earl

@Silvenga said:
A saturated connection has no connection to packet loss. Packet loss is the effect of statuation but statuation is not the cause of packet loss.

We only see packet loss during saturation when the network devices or links are of poor quality and are unable to handle to load. But we also see packet loss for other reasons - bad wires or load balancing for example.

So if packet loss is the effect of saturation then a simple ping would show this, is it not better to ping then to download a large test file that would aggravate the situation more?

and I never said saturation is the only cause I did say "saturated or"

earl

@shovenose said:
OK, but in all seriousness, this is a very good point. And there's no easy to test this. Unless you have access to a 10Gbit VPS.

Just so happens..

http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/20490/exclusively-by-2host-com-10gbit-fully-burstable-xen-vps-7-m

black

shovenose said: OK, but in all seriousness, this is a very good point. And there's no easy to test this. Unless you have access to a 10Gbit VPS.

A dedicated port would be pretty decent. That's a bit costly though.

shovenose

Yes but it's not common nor do many providers I'd actually want to order from do it.