Advanced networking tests in V8 - couple of comments

[KelvynT]

Just upgraded to the release version of V8, well done - it looks good and runs perfectly on Windows 8.

Just a couple of comments about cosmetic stuff in the Advanced Networking tests (which sadly is almost all I use PT for, along with Advanced disk tests!)

1) My test client is a small-screen netbook (1024x600) and the test dialogue box disappears under the taskbar, and is not resizeable. Not a major problem, just a niggle for me.
2) I'd prefer to see the average throughput shown on the main dialogue, rather than just in tiny text on the graph
3) New graphing options are welcome, but I miss the average throughput overlay on the graph. In the new version, it's an either/or choice.
4) Not all graph choices in the Customize dialogue are persistent - for example, Show date & time is, but plot line widths are not.

Kelvyn

[David (PassMark)]

1) In PT8 we are listing the system requirements as a 1280 x 1024 pixel display. Even mobile phones have resolutions higher than 600 pixels nowadays. Maybe you can change the Windows task bar settings to "Auto hide" to gain the extra few pixels.

2) We should be able to replace the display of the "Current speed" with "Average speed" once a test is complete. I'll see if this can be done for the next patch. We added a max and min value in release V8.0.Build 1003 (18/Oct/2012), so I am not sure of you have seen that.

3) Yes, it has gone. It isn't impossible to add back in, but it isn't trivial either now that we can plot multiple series at the same time. If enough people feel it is an issue then we can do the work and add it back in.

4) The attributes associated with a particular data series are reset each time a new series is added. The attributes associated with the graph in general are stored.

[Michael (Passmark)]

We've implemented point 2 in build 1006 released today. When implementing it I found there was a bug that current/min/max speeds were all average speeds. While the test is running these are now all instantaneous speeds between updates, and as discussed the current speed changes to an average at the end of the test.

[KelvynT]

Much appreciated - thanks for the rapid feedback! As for point (1), yes, hiding the taskbar helps - not a big deal (I only keep it as it's been my reference platform for Wifi reviews for a couple of years).

[KelvynT]

OK, tried this now, and found that av. speed shown at end of test differs from that shown on graph -for example, just ran one showing av in dialogue box of 39.26Mbits/sec, on graph it's shown as 37.4Mbits/sec

(BTW, apologies for putting this thread in the wrong topic).

[Michael (Passmark)]

Having a closer look at this, it seems our graph is displaying the results in base 2 figures (1kpbs = 1024bps) whereas the network test window is using base 10 (1kpbs = 1000bps).

37.4 * 1024 * 1024 = 39,216,742.4 bps
39.26 * 1000 * 1000 = 39,260,000 bps
The same value bar some precision lost by only showing 1-2 decimal places in the mbps figure.

When dealing with bits the standard tends to be base 10, unlike figures involving bytes, where the situation is somewhat more muddled. The next patch release will correct this to use base 10 everywhere involving the network test.

[KelvynT]

Thanks for the clarification!