The difference in results is due to the different layers of the OSI model. A direct socket-to-socket connection works at the lower TCP transport layer. A HTTP connection uses a browser which works at the application layer and is subject to factors such as browser caches and proxies which can affect results, particularly on high speed networks (see the following FAQ). Socket-to-socket testing is available in MCS MySpeed Edition and the MySpeed PC Standard and Advanced Editions.

MCS MySpeed includes socket testing in addition to HTTP testing. The socket-to-socket download and upload speed tests provide the most accurate speed tests available. The standard HTTP speed test will be used as a backup, in case a client's firewall prevents direct socket connections to the MySpeedServer ports. You can also setup the download and upload independently, with one using socket and the other using HTTP.

RATED NETWORK SPEED			EXPECTED SOCKET RESULTS
Network	download	upload	download	upload
LAN	10 Mbps	10 Mbps	9.49 Mbps	9.49 kbps
LAN	100 Mbps	100 Mbps	94.9 Mbps	94.5 Mbps

HTTP Speed Tests: MySpeed measures actual HTTP data transfer performance -- not rated network speeds. Since there will always be some overhead associated with a network connection, you can expect results on high quality networks (and reasonably fast computers) to approach around 95% of the rated download speed and around 92% of the rated upload speed, similar to the following:

RATED NETWORK SPEED			EXPECTED HTTP RESULTS
Network	download	upload	download	upload
T1	1.544 Mbps	1.544 Mbps	1.46 Mbps	1.44 Mbps
Cable Modem	3.0 Mbps	256 kbps	2.88 Mbps	241 kbps
LAN	10 Mbps	10 Mbps	9.49 Mbps	9.15 Mbps

When MySpeed was tested in a local 100 Mbps LAN environment, with a client connected to the server via a 10/100 Mbps switch with various speed and duplex settings, the following 'download/upload' results were observed (all numbers are in Mbps):

10 Mbps Full	10 Mbps Half	100 Mbps Full	100 Mbps Half
9.49/9.17	8.08/7.77	85.4/69.0	70.4/65.1
9.49/9.17	8.12/7.98	82.1/70.4	71.4/65.1
9.49/9.10	8.12/7.65	82.6/69.0	71.7/66.3
9.49/9.17	8.05/7.70	85.9/69.0	71.2/66.3
9.49/9.12	8.11/7.77	84.9/71.8	72.6/62.7

Please note: (1) The CPU speed of the server and/or client used can dramatically affect the results. (2) The upload results for 100 Mbps are displayed for reference only - even though we only rate MySpeed HTTP upload accuracy to 10 Mbps.

Download: The default file used for the download speed test is a fully compressed 10Mb file. The file may be changed to any file in the ‘Applet Configuration, Operations’ options. However, if changed the replacement file should also be fully compressed, otherwise the speed test results may be inaccurate as compressions will reduce the amount of data transmitted for the test.

Upload: Multiple upload sizes, ranging in size from 8 KB to 128 KB (size depends upon the web server used and your Internet connection speed), but with an 8 second timeout.

Timeout: The timeout value of 8000 milliseconds (8 seconds) can be modified via the timeout setting in the ’Adminstration, Applet Options, Operations’ option.

It is the ratio of the slowest download rate to the highest download rate, as seen during a single MySpeed download test. Full Details

If MySpeed detects that your cable modem system supports an 'upload burst', that upload burst number will be displayed. Some cable modem systems allow small data transfers (like 8K or less) to operate faster than the rated speed of your cable connection, and only cap the data transfer to the rated speed after a very short period of time (300ms or so) of constant use of the data channel. Please note that this burst mode is usually only available to you when there is extra (unused) capacity in the cable system.

Apache: Servers running the latest version of the Apache HTTP server produce better results for upload when the network connection speed 10Mbit or greater. This is because Apache provides larger buffers than IIS, which is currently limited to 8K. MySpeed limits the upload buffer on Apache to 128K. The server itself should have network/Internet connectivity sufficient to handle multiple concurrent MySpeed tests (100 Mbps server connectivity is common today). To try MyConnection Server on your web server, download a trial copy.

Virtual Servers: Please note that MyConnection Server should not be placed onto a 'virtual web server', as most virtual servers restrict bandwidth to 1.5 Mbps (or less) per virtual server.

Under ideal network conditions, MCS MySpeed will provide virtually identical results every time that it is run (verified in lab conditions). And that accuracy is only possible because MySpeed times data transfers down the millisecond (1/1000 second), while most other speed testers can only time data transfers accurate to 1/100 of a second (10's of milliseconds). So MCS MySpeed is very precise.

However, in most environments, you will find that you are sharing the network, your Internet connection, and the server you are connecting to, with other Internet users. So unless you are the only person using the network and the server, you can and should expect a little variation in the results.

If you see wildly different results each time MCS MySpeed is run, that strongly suggests that you are sharing your network and/or server with too many other Internet users.

MyConnection Server will work on any network. The MySpeed network test is optimized to provide accurate download results up to about 100 Mbps and accurate upload results up to about 10 Mbps when an Apache web server is used. Other web servers can be used, but the accuracy of the upload numbers will be reduced slightly.

It should, as we have tested in various proxy and web cache environments. However, in these environments, MySpeed may run with reduced upload accuracy. If you notice any issues, please contact us with details, as there are known workarounds.

It should. However, some aggressive firewall techniques may interfere with some network tests. If this happens in your firewall environment, please contact us for known workarounds.

Yes, go to Administration, Applet Configuration to view and modify settings. Some items that can be customized are below:

• Strings: to localize to another language or adhere to company conventions
• Labels: add/remove labels on the graph
• Scale: change the 10 kbps to 1 Gbps range
• Color: change the red/yellow/green to bps color mapping
• Extras: enable/disable extras: upload burst, QOS, RTT, max pause

Yes. MCS parameter values can be overridden by setting a HTML applet paramater in the web page serving the applet. This technique can be used to create custom behaviors on a page by page basis.

For example the HTML below can be inserted within the <applet></applet> tags to set the speed test to Automatic Start mode.

<param name="start" value="*">

It is also possible to create multiple applet configuration files with different parameter settings and set up multiple web pages to serve the applet using different configuration files. This can be set in the Administration, Applet Configuration option, or in the web page HTML. For example, the code below would use a user-created myconfig file for the web page:

<param name="config" value="myconfig">

MCS is not currently sold in other languages, however you can easily translate the display text of the server applet to another language. To do so, go to ‘Administration, Applet Configuration, Messaging’ and edit the text labels as desired.

A problem with IIS often causes it to grab port 80 on all IP addresses, not just the ones assigned to websites. For information on how to resolve this, see Microsoft support, info for IISv6, info for IISv5.

MCS has a built-in web server that can be used to serve the applet and your associated web pages. You can also use a third party web server such as IIS or Apache by utilizing the codebase parameter within the applet HTML tags to specify the location of the MCS Server. In the example below, the codebase calls the applet from ‘www.visualware.com’. Please note that the domain used to server the applet has to be allowed under Server Configuration, Permitted Domains.

<applet MAYSCRIPT archive="myspeed.jar" code="myspeed.class" width=600 height=400 codebase="http://www.visualware.com">

Jitter is a key measure of VoIP quality. Jitter refers to is the variation in time between packets sent and packets arriving caused by network difficulties such as route changes, congestion, packet loss, traffic regulators etc. VoIP works by sending voice data as a stream of packets from source to destination. These packets can take a varying amount of time to reach the destination and invariably do not arrive in the order in which they were sent.

For a VoIP telephone call to work well the packets sent from the source must arrive within a certain time window (or ‘buffer’) in order for the receiving end to reassemble the packets in the correct order and reproduce the spoken words. When there is excessive jitter the time delay is too long (high latency) and packets arrive outside the time window and get lost from the call (discarded). As a result, the recomposed sound no longer reflects exactly what was sent, and depending of the extent of the delay may not be understandable by the recipient. MyVoIP measures the level of jitter on a connection and reports the associated level of VoIP sound quality.

Packet loss plays a key role in the quality of VoIP connections, as high packet loss causes some of the voice data not to arrive to the recipient. Packet loss occurs when voice packets are discarded by the jitter buffer (see previous FAQ), or dropped by network routers/switches due to high congestion. MyVoIP measures the percentage of packet loss and reports the associated level of sound quality.

The MOS, or Mean Opinion Score, is a numeric measure used for VoIP, indicating the sound quality at the receiving end of a communication circuit. Although the score is subjective it provides a widely-used method to rate the quality of voice communication in a simple way that meaningful to end users. The score is normally between 1 and 5 with 5 being the best.

The MOS value is reported in the MyVoIP summary tab once a connection test completes, a VoIP simulation that drops below 3.5 is considered poor quality, a measure of 4.2-4.5 is considered good quality.

If you are running MyConnection Server on a server meeting the minimum requirements, the number of concurrent tests that can be run is mainly dependent on the available bandwidth. For instance, if you are running a MyConnection Server on 100Mb connection and a remote user with a 100Mb connection performs a connection speed test, all of the bandwidth will be consumed for the duration of the test (the is 8 seconds). Conversely, if most of your end-users have 5Mb Internet connections, approximately 20 tests could be run concurrently.

MyConnection Server includes a throttle option that can be set to smooth out usage and delay new connection tests until current tests have completed. This option is transparent to the end user, the throttling option can be set in ‘Administration, Server Configuration’.

MyConnection Server provides a usage throttling option which allows you to define how many tests a remote user can perform over a period of time. The period of time can be anything you require such as a number of minutes, a number of hours or even a number of days. This option can be set in ‘Administration, Server Configuration’.

MyConnection Server includes a throttle that can be set to smooth out usage and delay new connection tests until current tests have completed. This option is transparent to the end user, the throttling option can be set in 'Administration, Server Configuration'.