How does the Optimum speedtest work?

This Optimum speed test starts by determining your Optimum connection and then selects a speedtest server nearest near you.

When you click on the GO button it will send packets of data from the speedtest server to your device.

The Optimum speed test checker is powered by Ookla and measures the ping (latency), download speed & upload speed from your device and the test server.

The time that it takes this data to go to and return from the server determines your Optimum internet speed.

How reliable is the Optimum internet connection speed test?

This Optimum speed test is powered by Ookla which one of thee most popular internet connection speed test and provides accurate and consistent testing experience and results.

By automatically selecting a speed test server closest to you, this eliminates latency and bottlenecks that may skew performance results.

Ookla has a worldwide network of over ten thousand speedtest servers in over one hundred and ninety countries.

Source: How Ookla ensures accurate reliable Speedtests

To improve accurateness of your test, it is recommended to run the Optimum speed test from a device directly connected into the Optimum gateway modem or router.

This will help give an accurate reflection on the performance of the Optimum broadband connection and help rule out the wireless related issues.

If you cannot connect your device directly into the Optimum modem or router, ensure that the device you are running this test is as near the modem or router as possible. Also run the speed test at least twice and from two separate devices to make sure that the issue is not on one of the devices.

Exactly what do the speed test results from my Optimum speedtest mean?

What’s the Ping result mean?

Ping is also called latency which in connectivity terms refers to the the time (or delay) it takes for data to travel from one device to another. In this case, from your device using the Optimum broadband connection to the nearest server.

Ping sends information to another computer (in this case, the Ookla speed test server) and measures in milliseconds (ms) how long it takes to get a reply back.

If the Ookla test server is very far away or the network is busy it will take longer to receive a response and the ping value will be high.

This Optimum speed tester will automatically select a speedtest server closest to your location to eliminate latency and bottlenecks which can distort performance metrics.

A fast ping (low ms value) means a more responsive Optimum internet connection.

What’s a good ping rate?

A typical ping rate to a device across the same city should be lower than 20ms. A normal ping rate between cities you’d expect to see ping values between the values of 30-60ms, and between continents the figure can be over >200ms.

The speed test above will show you the location of the test server so that you can determine whether your ping result is good.

What is Jitter?

All data (e.g. an email, image, video, voice call, etc) is sent across the internet as a series of small packets. These packets usually move at a constant rate and are put back together at the destination.

Jitter is the rate of delay during the transmission of the packets.

Think of it similar to running a tap and then increasing or decreasing the flow rate of the running water coming out. When the flow becomes irregular (because of the increasing and decreasing), the Jitter metric increases – which is not good.

You don’t usually notice jitter because networking devices can smooth it out however, you will be aware of jitter while on a video and voice calls because the connection will momentarily hang or break up.

Optimum Download and Upload speed metrics explained

Find out More:What does the Download and Upload speed metric on my Optimum speed test actually mean?

Likely causes of Optimum slow broadband internet speed

There are several reasons why your Optimum internet connection is not performing as expected. While we cannot address each and every possible reason, we have listed a number of likely possibilities.

Depending on your Optimum broadband setup, some of the recommendations may not be applicable in your case. We hope that they may trigger possible reasons or get you heading in the right direction to resolve your fault.

Is it the Optimum internet connection that is slow or could it be your device (PC/laptop/phone)?

You may need to check how many apps are concurrently running on your device that may be utilising your system resources (mainly RAM memory and CPU) and your Optimum internet connection bandwidth.

If you are on a laptop, you may use the task manager to see your CPU and memory utilisation.

On other devices you could try restarting the device which should hopefully kill all programs that may be running in the background.

Run the Optimum speedtest on your personal computer and your phone to see how the speed test results compare between the two devices.

Hopefully the will provide you with some info to work with in terms of if the issue lies with your device or the Optimum internet connection.

• What exactly does the Optimum download and upload speed actually mean?
• 5 Ways to Speed Up Your Optimum internet connection Speed
• DNS hack to speed up internet browsing on your Optimum broadband

Is your wireless network connection the problem?

The cause of the issue could be the wireless network connection and not the Optimum internet connection.

You could rule out the Wifi network network being the cause of the problem by connecting your computer directly into the Optimum internet modem or router using an ethernet cable and run the Optimum speed test again.

If speed is better when you are connected using an ethernet cable then this suggests that the issue could be with the wireless.

Other things to investigate are:

• Are the WiFi channels you’re using for your wireless network network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbors?
• Is your Wireless frequency congested? You should consider switching to 5Ghz?
• Could your Wifi network signal from the modem or router obstructed?
• Does your performance get better when you’re standing directly in-front of the Optimum Wifi network modem/router?

The amount of devices connected to your internal network

All devices that are connected to your internal network or Wifi is utilising the same Optimum broadband internet connection.

If you have multiple devices on the internet, streaming videos, streaming music, downloading or uploading files, video conferencing, etc, they may have an impact on the speed of your Optimum broadband internet connection because the bandwidth has to be split between all the devices.

Do you know how many devices are connected to your Optimum broadband connection? Don’t forget about all the smart home gadgets, security cameras, doorbell cameras, Alexa/Google home hub or other similar devices that may be constantly connected.

Who is connected to my Wifi network?

• Have you checked that your wireless network password has not been shared?
• Do you have an open Guest Wi-Fi network?

Nearby Neighbors may be on your wirelessi network and using up all the Optimum internet bandwidth downloading, uploading, streaming or running peer-to-peer file sharing over your Optimum internet connection. Worse than that, they could be carrying out illegal activities.

There are two applications that you can use to scan your wireless network to check who is connected:

• Windows users can use Wireless network watcher
• Apple MAC users can use whoFi (who is on my Wifi)

Both applications will scan your wireless network and show you a list of the devices connected.

As an alternative, log into your Optimum wireless router to find out who is connected to your wireless network.

Check out the tutorial on how to use both applications

Wi-Fi signal strength

If your device is unable to pick up a strong signal it will have an effect on the throughput, speed and internet performance irrespective of how fast the Optimum internet connection is.

Conditions that can affect the wireless signal are;

• Walls, doors or floors between your device and the Optimum broadband internet modem or router
• Electrical appliances such as baby monitors or microwaves
• Overlapping Wifi network signal from your neighbours
• General distance between your device and your Optimum broadband internet modem or router.

Do I need a Wifi network signal booster for my Optimum broadband internet?

If you discover that you have wireless black spot in your property, a Wifi signal extender aka a Wi-Fi booster is the solution to increase your signal strength across the home.

The Wifi network booster simply picks up your existing Wifi signal as it is starting to become weak and then re-transmits the Wifi network signal at a stronger rate to extend its reach.

Place the Wi-Fi network booster/extender where the Wifi network signal from the Optimum internet router or model is beginning to become weak. Roughly where the wireless network signal drops down to two bars. You could use your phone to determine where this is.

Health of your End device

Viruses and malware can slow your device and your performance of your device. Viruses and malware could be working silently and hidden in the behind the scenes download and uploading information and thus slowing the performance of the whole internal network down.

When was the last time you ran a full Virus and Malware check on your device?

When’s the last time the Optimum internet modem or router was rebooted?

In the same way as other Internet Service Providers, Optimum’s broadband infrastructure is frequently upgraded to support new features and changes in technology. Equally, the broadband internet routers or modem at your property will also occasionally need to be updated to support changes in the Optimum internet network.

The update could be in the form of a software update or an upgrade of the physical Optimum modem/router hardware to a newer version.

You can carry out the software upgrade by logging into the Optimum modem/router. If you can’t do this or are not confident doing this, get in touch with Optimum and they are able to either do this for you or guide you through it.

The type and age of the device

Newer PCs, phones and other internet enabled devices will be generally faster than older devices due to developments in networking technology and protocols.

Are you seeing the same issues or newer devices?

Is the issue external to your property?

This is one of the most common reasons for Optimum internet connectivity faults. There are miles of cabling used to bring the Optimum internet connection to your property.

The problem could be with the physical connection that comes into your property and goes into the modem or router in your property.

You should get in contact with Optimum who should be able to run the relevant connection checks to see if there is a fault on the Optimum broadband internet connection.