Are internet speed tests really accurate?

Question

I just got a new internet plan (I live in Canada) according to the sales person on the phone this plan has unlimited bandwidth and comes with 150Mbps which will cost $75/month.

Problem is, I tried 3 different speed test websites and my own ISPs tester it averaged around 20 Mbps on the other sites, 40 on ISPs tester.
Does this mean I’m not getting what I signed up for?

Also why is it that the speed is slower if I connect the ethernet cable compared to over the wifi

Thanks

Edit: Thank you for all your replies, I will see what can do, i.e test all the stuff that needs testing or double checking. Then probably contact my ISP if all else fails.

Cheers,

In: Technology

Answer 1

Just writing to clarify some points here. This whole “wired is faster than wifi” thing is a myth. It is a holdover from many years ago when 2.4gHz networks were top of the line. A high end 802.11ac wifi device is capable of download speeds of 1600Mbps on a single channel and these devices can support up to 8 channels with an average total data rate of nearly nearly 7Gbps. Even a low end, single channel 802.11ac adapter should be over 400Mpbs.

For a vast, vast majority of people actual download speed is going to be limited by the server they are downloading from or by their ISP. If the end device is an older device or a low end device it could be limited by the onboard wifi adapter, but anything made after like 2015 should be 802.11ac.

Your actual data rate you see at your router is going to vary based on demand on your regional infrastructure. All of the signals from your area get routed to a single locations before being sent out to all over the world. If there is a lot of people online at the same time, there may be a bottleneck at that location which slows down data rates for all the customers. The same thing happens on 4G networks if too many people attempt to connect to a single transmitter.

The only way to mitigate this problem would be to switch to a 5G home service or move to a newly built neighborhood which has fiber optic cables installed all the way to the router. This is what my neighborhood has and I currently pay $65 USD/month for just under 1Gbps. The actual data rate I see at any individual device is usually around 350Mbps. I think the highest data rate I ever saw was connecting to a google server in California and it was like 480Mbps.