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It can be a bit confusing for newbies, but the "speed" of networking technologies means different things depending on context.
When you look at the spec. sheets and cockpits/control panels of the kit, it usually report the "link rate" (literally the rate at which the local link is connected) whereas speedtest etc report the end-to-end average throughput along an entire pathway (strictly speaking speedtest doesn't measure the speed of anything, it measure the time it takes to transfer a measured amount of data and computes a statistical average.)
It's rather like the difference between the speedometer and odometer (or trip computer) in a car. Both are reported in the metric of "miles per hour," but the speedometer and trip computer "mean" different things.
Then there's other horrors (like duplex modes, traffic levels, contention, etc.) to worry about just to muddy the waters further.
Unfortunately, it's all rather complicated and newbies can tie themselves in knots worrying about it.
The 433mbps you cite for the router connection is indeed a "link rate" measure, but your wouldn't expect to see that if you speedtested it, even in ideal conditions.
Speedtest effectively tests the slowest "hop" on the pathway between the device you run the test on and the speedtest server you run the test against (of which there are many to choose.) In olden it always used to be one's Internet link that was the slowest hop and thusly speedtest effectively tested your Internet speed. But with faster and faster Internet links, this is not always the case. For example, the laptop I'm using to type this has a pathetically slow 76mbps Wi-Fi NIC so if I speedtested using your 200mbps Virgin ISP link, the test would be curtailed by my laptop's Wi-Fi performance.
So the take home is to bear in mind that speedtest is an end-to-end throughput test, whereas the kit cites different numbers (the link rates) in the hype and the two are not the same thing even though both report in "bit per second."
Professionals do use things like speedtest, but we know "what's up" with it and only really use it as a rough guide (ie order magnitude indicator) rather start stressing that link says "X" and speedtest only reports (let's say) "70% X." Ultimately, if it's working well enough for ones needs, I tend not to worry about it and get on with my life. |
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