F.A.Q.

LAN Speed Test FAQ

What is 'Write Speed'?

This is the 'Upload' speed writing to your server or shared folder.

What is 'Read Speed'?

This is the 'Download' speed reading from your server or shared folder.

What is the time measurement in the box 'Time to Complete:'?

Time is all represented in seconds.  Now, keep in mind that the timer only times actual data transfer relevant to the speed test.  It shuts off while the client and server are talking to each other giving commands, etc.  It also shuts off while updating the screen, during time slicing, etc.

Why are my write speeds faster than my read speeds?

The write speed can be faster because your drives are caching the writes.  That means that we are writing to the memory on the drive, and then the drive takes it from the memory and places in on the hard drive.  The drive tells LAN Speed Test that the file is done transferring after the test packet is written to the cache memory - not the hard drive.  Since the cache memory is lots faster than the hard drive the results for writing are faster than the reading.  When reading the data back from the hard drive, the data has to actually come from the hard drive.  In other words, what the results are really displaying here is the real read speed from the drive, but the transfer speed from the host computer to the hard drive cache memory on the write.  To change your write cache settings, go to your device manager, find your drive, right click and choose properties, and go to the 'Policies' tab.

When I test, why I am getting 'Connection to LST Server Failed'?

This error means that LAN Speed Test client can't find LST Server at the IP address you entered.  Unless you are using LST Server, you need to put in the shared folder that you want to test to instead of the ip address of the LST Server.  Just press the [...] button (next to 'Folder or Server IP'), select the shared folder, and run the test.  You should see the right results now!

Why does my test not finish correctly or take long pauses?

This is usually caused by certain anti-virus engines or software firewalls.  Try disabling the anti-virus software and firewall temporarily for testing.  You may be surprised how much your anti-virus/firewall software can affect your network speeds.

I have two network adapters; can I select which one to use?

When using LST Server, it's simple...Just select your NIC under 'Listening NIC + Port' and click on 'Reset Server'.  For LAN Speed Test, however, Windows does not give us an easy way to manually choose which NIC to use as a client.  Windows tries to figure out which NIC is performing the best and then chooses that one to route IP traffic.  With that being said, I know of two different ways we can get around that...The first option (the easiest, but probably least desirable), is to first disable the NIC that you don't want to use, and then run LAN Speed Test.  The second option, is to go into your LAN NIC settings,  Select 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)', select properties, select advanced, uncheck automatic metric, and adjust accordingly as suggested in this article...  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299540.

UPDATE - New! With LAN Speed Test (Lite) v1.3 it's as simple as selecting the correct NIC from the dropdown box (when testing to LST Server only - when testing to a shared folder, LAN Speed Test uses the higher priority NIC).  LAN Speed Test (v3) will have this ability with the next update

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