Modem connection

[Anon]

Hi,

I was searching all arround for a speed testing connection... for modem (you're navigating at 31.85K for example).

I need to check how fast my connection speed is running (so I would like to redirect a user on that basis)? So I wish to know which is the command in php that can show that?!! Any other idea to do that (to display the speed connection & to redirect on the speed basis)?!!

Thanks.

[[deleted]]

There is no function for checking the connection speed. PHP is server side, and PHP is stateless.

The only thing you can do is markt the time when you send a page. Then in that page you put a javascript onload() function that redirects to another page.
Then you measure the time between the two page requests. Then you know the size of the page and the time it took to download completely (onload is executed when the page is fully loaded)

But in general,you can't accurately fund a users connection speed, because the internet does not have any constant speed anywhere.
It could be 200Mbit now, and 1kbit in two seconds time.

[Anon]

Hi,

So how comes those from cnet.com are testing your connection? There is no javascript inside involved. At least... I think so, cause you can see a dinamic test in it (the info is printed while is checking your speed). Still not quite sure about that system, cause I can't find it right now (it was the section abou upgrade your modem - is your local dsl provider fast enogh test it now...), but I can't find it anymore).

I know that php is actually a server side, & that's why I wanna do it in php. How can I measure a download time from a server to browser with php?!! (No, js, please. I wanna do it in php. ( There must be some way to do it. If the js has to be involved Okay,... but I wanna do it - display all resoults with php ;-)

Ex. how can I measure that with php from a page to a page & do a certain page checking loops, just like with a ping (How are they doing that with ping buy the way?)? There must be some access comand a/o control over it in php?

Php is very powerfull. There must be a way to do it. I belive in that. Any idea?

[matto]

On the cnet page it says:

"What this test does...when you click "Go!", a 100k file is downloaded from our servers, which will calculate your bandwidth from the CNET Web Services site"

So perhaps they send some 100k header/HTML/JS stuff which, when downloaded completely starts reporting to cnet? This would mix up upstream and downstream, of course.

Perhaps the http functions are the place to have a look at? (header())

just an idea ...
matto

[kparker]

So how comes those from cnet.com are testing your connection?

Well, why not read their own fine print? Right on http://webservices.cnet.com/bandwidth/:

  What this test does...when you click "Go!", a 100k file is
  downloaded from our servers, which will calculate your
  bandwidth from the CNET Web Services site...

The pages are asp, so somehow they are timing what their back-end is doing when it sends you the file. You could certainly interface to something like that with PHP, even if you might have difficulty writing the whole thing directly in PHP. FWIW, it's common to see +-50% differences in speed each time you measure, and I suspect the effect is worse the higher your bandwidth is. After all, if you've got a dialup connection that is actually running at 21.6k, that's going to be quite a bottleneck right there, and your little local isp's T1 can go from 50% saturated to completely unused by anyone else and you won't notice a thing.

[[deleted]]

Apart from all the inaccuracy, would be possible to use something like this:

Use microtime to get the current time.
Use passthru() to send a 100k html of empty html tags (or something else that doesn't show up in a browser)
Use microtime again to measure how long it took to send the file.
Print the results to the client.
That should do it all in one go.

But... who'd ever want you t send them 100k of data to see if they have a slow connection? The problem of a slow connection is that sending 100k takes a long time :-)

[Anon]

Hi,

In fact they're sending you a bunch of code that looks like this <ýµM¡0.3¹!®Ó°..Â^{.(.‡&Tá .k>} (probably ASCII encoded) with a help of javascript.
It's cool. It's measuring from the begining to the end (while including in the file a text of 50K) & passing to another page with a js:

<script>
<!--
CurrentTime = new Date();
ST = CurrentTime.getTime();
//-->
</script>

& with this <bunch of encoded human non readable text> & with...

<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
CurrentTime = new Date();
ET = CurrentTime.getTime();
Factor = 1000;
if (ET == ST)
{DT = 0}
else
{DT = (ET - ST)/Factor;}

DataSize = 50;
LS = DataSize/DT;
kbpsx = Math.round((LS8)10*1.02);
kbps = kbpsx/10;
isp = '';
ac = '';

location='/bandwidth/results.asp?kbps=' + kbps + '&ISP=' + isp + '&AreaCode=' + ac
// -->
</script>

By the way on testing I've got 7.4 kbps. With other words my provider realy sucks. & I've to pay for it (i have flate rate isdn that should go with 64K... May I add that www.galactica.it realy sucks as a provider, I need half an hour only to connect to the internet,... crazy. Huuu, another two months to go & than bye...) It took a century to complete this bandwith operation. ;-)

& then also you might ask:"Why would you measure that just to solve the problem for a graphic template that is about 100K?!!" Once you've downloaded it you have it in the memory - not always & in all cases, but...).

I like the solution very much. You all gave a very good solutions. For testing purposes is more than just great. I'll try to do it too. I'm sure that visitors would appritiate that too.

-Gord