Broadband Speed tests & Tomtom Satnav

ReganAndCarter

ReganAndCarter

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Would appreciate some advice about broadband download speed tests. I've used various speed testers over the years, but the figures I get in the results mean nothing to me. They never tell you if the figures are good bad or indifferent - how would I know? Also can anyone recommend a good reliable speed test?

Reason I ask is because several years ago I tried to update my Tomtom satnav by connecting it to my desktop pc - it's a wired Plusnet router, no wifi, standard connection not fibre. It all went wrong, after what seemed like eternity it didn't update and I lost all my maps on the satnav. Seemed to have to leave the satnav connected overnight to download updates - is this normal? How long would they normally take on an average connection? Complete disaster, had to buy another new satnav.

I was never sure if maybe it was because my internet connection was too slow, or maybe because I didn't have my pc setup correctly and it was shutting down part way through download.

I think it's time to update my Satnav and I'm fearing disaster again.
 
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A website called "Fast.com" is quite reliable. It takes less than 10 seconds to conduct the test.

Try updating the satnav with all other devices turned off.
 
jurassic sparkk said:
A website called "Fast.com" is quite reliable. It takes less than 10 seconds to conduct the test.

Try updating the satnav with all other devices turned off.
Click to expand...

Thanks jurassic. My desktop is the only device in house and directly connected to a wired router/modem.

'll try fast.com and post up the results here. Hopefully someone can interpret them for me.
 
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ReganAndCarter said:
Also, are they likely to be good enough for a very large Tomtom maps update download?
Click to expand...
It the upload speed you want to be looking at. That determines the download speed. It should be at least half of the download speed - which it seems like it's not. You can contact your internet provider asking why is it quite low.

It should be fine though. It may take a while to install.

How did it go wrong last time installing the update? Which error appeared?
 
It can and does depend on your computer. Are you copper back to the exchange (quite slow), FTTC (quicker) or FTTP (quickest)? My old (less than10 YO) PC won't do better than 150Mbps in cable yet my MacBook Air will report nearly 3 times that over WiFi. I'm FTTP with a 500 Mbtps connection.
Reloading my old Sat Nav on the PC takes approximately 1 hour.
 
jurassic sparkk said:
It should be fine though. It may take a while to install.

How did it go wrong last time installing the update? Which error appeared?
Click to expand...

Thanks again. That's what I wanted to hear, because the test results are meaningless without something to compare them too. The router I'm using is quite old, I have a newer one from Plusnet somewhere - would this be likely to improve speeds?

I've found some Tomtom tables giving upload times according to various speeds (they say 'download' - I suppose it's because it's from their point of view, but slightly confusing.

help.tomtom.com

Advice for downloading updates

We recommend taking the following into consideration before downloading any large updates, for example a new map. A wired internet connection is generally faster and more stable, in general: Wired ...
help.tomtom.com help.tomtom.com

Looks like my speeds are near the bottom of what is recommended/workable - and should expect very long time to upload the large map updates.

Can't remember which error appeared last time - was several years ago. I believe the update process wipes all the existing maps first, then installs new ones. It wiped mine, but could never get the new ones installed so ended up with blank satnav which seemed irreversible. I remember it took hours and my pc kept shutting down. Maybe my fault, poss not got pc settings right to avoid this. Will make sure I change settings next time to stop pc going into sleep/shutdown.

I'm a bit reluctant to experiment, because it was a costly cock up last time.
 
Last edited:
Diver Fred said:
It can and does depend on your computer. Are you copper back to the exchange (quite slow), FTTC (quicker) or FTTP (quickest)? My old (less than10 YO) PC won't do better than 150Mbps in cable yet my MacBook Air will report nearly 3 times that over WiFi. I'm FTTP with a 500 Mbtps connection.
Reloading my old Sat Nav on the PC takes approximately 1 hour.
Click to expand...

I think it's copper, I'm not on a fibre tariff for broadband.Thanks for your advice.
 
Do people still use Tom Tom these days? I have a Tom Tom XL but haven’t used it for years. I remember getting an email a few years ago saying it wasn’t being supported anymore. Is your TT still supported with updates? I prefer to use Google Maps on my phone. Live traffic information and automatically offers a re-route if traffic is heavy/jammed on my route.
 
Doing a bit of research, looks like my old router may not be helping things. Poss at least 8 years old. I'll dig out the newer one and see if speeds improve.
 
jurassic sparkk said:
It the upload speed you want to be looking at. That determines the download speed. It should be at least half of the download speed - which it seems like it's not. You can contact your internet provider asking why is it quite low.
Click to expand...

Actually no. Download speed is determined, well by the download speed. Plusnet is also my ISP, I'm on FTTC fibre to the nearest box, then copper the final section, contracted for 40Mbps/10Mbps. Speed tests show I get around 38Mb/9Mbps.

R&C's 13Mb, should be more than adequate for downloading maps, even light streaming. The issue might simply have been the TT server, very busy, or Plusnet had a poor, or overworked connection to TT's server. Plusnet has for years had an issue connecting to the Facebook server. I often have to refresh the FB page, to get a complete page to appear.
 
Harry Bloomfield said:
Actually no. Download speed is determined, well by the download speed.
Click to expand...
That sentence does not provide any meaningful information because it defines the concept using itself. In essence, it tells me nothing new or useful about what determines download speed.
 
jurassic sparkk said:
That sentence does not provide any meaningful information because it defines the concept using itself. In essence, it tells me nothing new or useful about what determines download speed.
Click to expand...

You stated that download speed, was limited by upload speed - which is an untrue statement. The two speeds are distinctly, and entirely, separate.
 
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