How are you testing your ADSL speed?
If you are testing against an Internet site, all bets are off. There could be bandwidth limitations anywhere between your ISP and the Internet site.
If your only choice is an Internet test, test in the dead of night, and try several different speed test sites.
The only legitimate end-to-end test would be to download a large file from a server located locally at your ISP. If your ISP has a download page with support files, as many do (for example, ISPs often provide downloads of Mozilla, email clients, etc.) this is a good candidate - as long as it is local.
However, increasingly, ISPs do not have local servers, especially if they are national or regional. Ask a technician at your ISP if there is a local server with large files that you can download as a test.
This situation is easier with local ISPs and cable ISPs. For example, cox.net provides local support pages in each market, and there are files that can be downloaded from there. So, I can test my Cox connection by going to the local San Diego support site and downloading support files.
Other than end-to-end tests, your DSL modem should have internal diagnostics that will report the actual link speed. If you have access to the user ID/password to access the DSL modem's internal web pages or Telnet session (many ISPs do not provide this to customers) then you should be able to get this information from the modem. |
