Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt

Started by chrisj7903

Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   11 February 2019, 20:16

I ran a speed test tonight (7:38pm 11 Feb 2019 in Australia) and have attached the resulting CSV file.

Two questions:
  1. Why is date showing as 1 Feb not 11 Feb?
  2. I much prefer the old text file report, both contents and format. Can I still get that type of report? See the attachment (my IP address was obscured by me, NetWorx reports it fine).

SoftPerfect support forum

TIA
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   13 February 2019, 00:16

It seems in the date not only the day is wrong in your files, but also the year - it was recorded as 2018-02-01 19:38:04. The only reason I can think of is an incorrect system time. What about the dates shown in the Speed Meter window: are they correct? What about any other dates, say in Usage Reports?

Regarding the new vs old text format, the new format was simplified to allow easy charting. For example, the CSV file can contain many lines and it can be loaded in MS Excel for analysis. I guess we could include the IP address there or testing server location, but is there any practical use for that information?

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   13 February 2019, 19:31

I ran another speed test and it looks OK this time. Obviously something went amiss when I did a test at ~ 19:38 yesterday, and by coincidence about the same time as the previous speed test on 1 Feb 2018! Anyway probably something I did or didn't do yesterday. (My system time is automatically set to Internet time by Windows, and is always correct with less than 1 sec error)

SoftPerfect support forum

(By the way, the "Per day" report tab looks OK, but the "General" tab has some overlapping date text. You might consider changing the long format dates to short format to avoid this)

Regarding the main topic: the new CSV format vs the old text format, a few suggestions for if I may:
  • add a headings row at the top. I can't identify the B column contents at all (-1 and 8 of what?). I figured columns C and D are Bytes/sec but are they upload, download, averages or maxima? All those values provide useful info, so a column for each would be great. Mbits/s values would be more appropriate than bits/s for a speed test (see my XLSX file).
  • insert data from row 4, onwards. With the IP address and provider name first two columns, and a column for the ping result. This would add confidence the CSV report is for the correct server.
In summary, the old report had more useful info, so it would be great to bring that info into the CSV too. But I really do like that each test result is now captured in one CSV row, thats is a good improvement (keeps all info in one place).

One last query: I ran the ping test under Tools > Ping, but it showed 0 ms (see picture), whereas the Speed Meter showed a more credible 8ms. I'm wondering if I'm doing the Tools > Ping test correctly?

SoftPerfect support forum

Many thanks for your attention,
Chris
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   14 February 2019, 15:42

Thank you for your feedback. I guess we can disregard the mystery with the speed test date. Whatever caused it, it's not happening again.

Regarding the ping time of 0ms vs 8ms, in this case you pinged your own IP address. Obviously the ping to the router is always near zero, while the ping to an external server used in speed testing would take longer. The speed meter reports the latter. The "-1" ping time signifies that the ping was unsuccessful.

Regarding the overlapping characters on the General tab, we have fixed it as you suggested.

Regarding the speed meter data export, we have extended it as follows:
  • Your IP address, ISP name and server location are captured for every test.
  • The export is now also available in HTML and text, in addition to CSV.
  • To keep the file simple the export respects the configured settings:
    • Mbit or MB depends on the selection under Settings - Graph - Transfer rate unit.
    • Maximum values or average values depends on what's selected in the drop-down box in the Speed Meter window.

You can download the latest build here. This is sample report in CSV with maximum readings and MB:

SoftPerfect support forum

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   14 February 2019, 19:38

Good stuff, thank you. I installed the pre-release and the new format CSV and TXT files are great (I didn't try the HTML):

SoftPerfect support forum

Regarding my Tools > Ping test, your answer makes sense, except my router address is fixed at 192.xxx.xxx.xxx?

The IP address I used yesterday (14.203.53.82) is just copied from the top of the Speed Meter (for TPG here in Adelaide). I repeated same today and still get 0 ms ping. So still wondering what's happening?
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   14 February 2019, 20:26

A home router has at least two IP addresses as shown in the diagram below.

SoftPerfect support forum

Here is an article about that: Internal and External IP Addresses Explained.

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   14 February 2019, 20:55

OK, so I gather the IP address shown at top of Speed Meter is my own routers external IP address, and my provider changes it day to day. I can see that IP address (193.115.77.97) listed when I log into my router as "IPv4 address" so that seems to confirm.

How do I find out IP address of my ISP's server. My NetWorx must know it already since it reports a ping of 8-9 ms, which I assume is for my ISP's server. But maybe I'm misunderstanding the purpose of Tools > Ping... ???
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Speed Test results: new CSV file vs old Txt   14 February 2019, 21:17

It's not shown anywhere in NetWorx. The application uses it internally to test download and upload speeds, but it's not exposed to the user. Basically because it cannot really be used for anything other than interacting with the application.

The Tools - Ping command is a simple GUI for the ping utility. You probably don't need to use it unless you have a reason to.

Sometimes you can find a solution faster if you try the forum search, have a look at the knowledge base, or check the software user manual to see if your question has already been answered.

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