Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

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johnkm
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Location: Hampshire UK

Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by johnkm »

British Telecom Wholesale is one of the main UK providers of the broadband infrastructure in the UK and they have reference speed test, the 'BT Wholesale Broadband Performance Test' that allows customers to check their broadband speeds. Unfortunately, Firefox 56 completely messes up this test, giving very slow and random results (I suspect it could have something to do with Shockwave Flash, which is used in this test). I only found this out after repeating the same test run in IE and then also found my laptop (with version 55 32bit) was still running this test perfectly OK
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LIMPET235
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by LIMPET235 »

Hi,
Have you tried any other speed test sites?
Try > http://www.speedtest.net/

Moving to Firefox Support...
[Ancient Amateur Astronomer.]
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(Always choose the "Custom" Install.)
TheVisitor
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by TheVisitor »

Also a non-flash speed test here: http://speedof.me/
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therube
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by therube »

URL: http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

What version of Flash?

Maybe there is a FF x64/Flash issue?
Do you get more acceptable results if you test with FF 56 x32/Flash?


(Backup, cough, FF 57 should be out tomorrow, or so.)
Fire 750, bring back 250.
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johnkm
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Location: Hampshire UK

Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by johnkm »

Thank you for your replies. Other speed test sites still work, but they are not considered reliable 'reference' sites for the purpose of reporting faults. In my case, I am with Plusnet, a BT subsidiary, so a working BTW test is rather important.
Since posting, I have found that my wife's Netbook has 56.0 (which is marked 32bit), so it looks as though this is a problem with version 56 as a whole.
johnkm
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by johnkm »

PS: My Flash version is 27.0.0.183, which as far as I know is the latest, as I haven't received any update nags
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RobertJ
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by RobertJ »

.
Even though I'm in the US I ran that test at

http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

with both FF56.0.2 and FF57.0 and had no problem.

.
FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
johnkm
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by johnkm »

I can only say that is really weird. Last night I applied the current update 56.0.2 to the laptop that was working OK with 55 32 bit and that now has the same issue. I have also come across another report of this on another forum:
http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/ ... &fpart=all
Is there something different with the US version of Firefox?
I should have said that the BTW test will run OK, but the results very considerably each time it is run. Or to put it another way, we have a crap connection that maxes at only 2 Mbps, so a small drop can seriously effect download speeds. Therefore, when the BTW test is run and you get random figures significantly below that (sometimes down to 0.8Mbps), that suugests a line/exchange fault.
Vitesse
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by Vitesse »

Just a hunch, but could it be a Flash-related problem? I'm in the UK, but on EE, not BT. Both the BTW and Ookla tests (my normal choice, also Flash-based) are reporting suspiciously low download numbers at about 4Mbps. I normally reckon on about a one or two Mbps difference from the figure on the modem control panel, which is currently 9.14Mbps - Speedof.me (HTML5) reports 7.95Mbps, maxing at 8.38.

Those tests were run on a W10 machine with Fx56.02, but not on an ethernet cable, which BTW specify.
Vitesse
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by Vitesse »

Looks like I might have hit the answer - just ran the BTW and Ookla tests on Chrome, with an older Flash version (27.0.0.183) installed. Result for both: 7.83Mps!
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RobertJ
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by RobertJ »

.
FWIW for that test on BTW when I ran it from the US with Flash 27.0.0.183 my speeds were

Down - 67.1 Mpps
Up - 3.0 Mbps

.
FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
johnkm
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by johnkm »

I love the speeds that I can only dream about! Unfortunately, I live 3 to 4 miles from the exchange, on the end of the line, in a rural location with few other properties, so the likelihood seeing fibre giving that sort of speed any time soon, is very remote!
Could you repeat the test a number of times, as when I do that, I get all sorts of random results from 0.8 to 1.6Mbps, even though the actual speed is just over 2.
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RobertJ
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by RobertJ »

.
I ran the test io BTW three times and the results were quite variable. Download ranged from about 18 Mbps to 68 Mbps. Upload somewhat more consistent.

I ran speed tests to my ISP's site and the results were very consistent down of 93.0 ± 0.5 Mbps and up 12.0 ± 0.1 Mbps.

I also ran speed tests to a site 1,900 miles away and the results were very consistent down of 92.9 ± 0.4 Mbps and up 11.4 ± 0.2 Mbps.

Even though I'm in the US it seems rather strange that two test run within one minute of each other had such large differences It might happen over hours with network traffic changing and the load on the test server changing; however, over a minute I would be quite suspicious.

FYI - I spent a number of years living in England on the outskirts of Virginia Water.

Cheers

.
FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
johnkm
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Re: Firefox 56 bug causes UK broadband speed test to fail

Post by johnkm »

Thank you for that, it's virtually the same random results I have been seeing with repeated tests with about a one minute gap between them and it's certainly an odd defect. I have notified my ISP to warn them to expect a number of complaints about speed variations and I hope Mozilla can identify the cause fix the problem soon.

PS: some of my family also lived in Virginia Water at one time
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