This first-of-its-kind paired-test analysis reveals many previously unknown systemic issues, including high variability in NDT7 test results and systematically under-performing servers in the Ookla network. To characterize the behavior of these tools in wide-area deployment, we collect more than 80,000 pairs of Ookla and NDT7 measurements across nine months and 126 households, with a range of ISPs and speed tiers. Our results show that Ookla and NDT7 report similar speeds under most in-lab conditions, with the exception of networks that experience high latency, where Ookla consistently reports higher throughput. To study the effects of the test design, we conduct a series of controlled, in-lab experiments under a comprehensive set of network conditions and usage modes (e.g., TCP congestion control, native vs.

Our goal is to characterize when and to what extent these two speed tests yield different results, as well as the factors that contribute to the differences. In this paper, we present the first-ever comparative evaluation of Ookla and NDT7 (the latest version of NDT), both in controlled and wide-area settings. Two prevalent speed tests, Ookla's Speedtest and Measurement Lab's Network Diagnostic Test (NDT), are often used for similar purposes, despite having significant differences in both the test design and implementation, and in the infrastructure used to perform measurements. Consumers, regulators, and ISPs all use client-based 'speed tests' to measure network performance, both in single-user settings and in aggregate.

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