This is a nice little addition.
The UX is nicer than even the best web sites for this (assuming you're comfortable with the command line).
macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
21–30 of 99 posts
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's also the beauty of Fast.com, that it uses the Netflix content servers as benchmark and not some ISP edge hosted Speedtest server with special priority. That gives a more realistic expectation of how Netflix, and in this case Apple downloads, will actually perform. And it can't be artificially boosted by the ISP. That being said, I assume both Netflix and Apple have very special CDNs with ISP co-located content…
Another issue with Fast.com is that sometimes it'll choose an OpenConnect box, which is inherently a box at a super close ISP datacenter meant for achieving gigabit speed without the ISP incurring upstream transit costs.
But who cares? If that's the same box that I connect to when I view Netflix content, then that's the performance I want to know about. Unless you are saying this OpenConnect box (will have to look whatever that is up later) is different from what connection is made when I hit Play, then that could be an issue.
Then again, Fast.com is primarily a tool for Netflix. It let's its users feel like they are getting "useful" information, but actually provides much more useful information to Netflix than users. If that data generated from Fast.com use allows them to provide better service, then great. So if from time to time they decide to switch to different boxes (premise), then I'm actually okay with that too.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this Copy-on-Write? Is the copy a real file or is this a filesystem implementation detail?
APFS has CoW semantics, so I would assume it uses the APFS filesystem features.
I'm pretty sure that feature is older than OS X, let alone APFS. It might be implemented using CoW now, but it certainly hasn't always been.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#24[deleted]
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's also the beauty of Fast.com, that it uses the Netflix content servers as benchmark and not some ISP edge hosted Speedtest server with special priority. That gives a more realistic expectation of how Netflix, and in this case Apple downloads, will actually perform. And it can't be artificially boosted by the ISP. That being said, I assume both Netflix and Apple have very special CDNs with ISP co-located content…
There is a flip side to fast.com, though: it’s much more likely that it will encounter throttled speeds on mobile devices, since many unlimited plans keep the connection to Netflix artificially slow. Not endorsing that for a second but I was using fast.com as an absolute measure of internet speed until I realised this. But speedtest has the issues you’ve outlined too, there are very few 100% reliable options!
The flip side was and I guess still is the exact reason for existence of fast.com. ISPs were throttling Netflix, so Netflix rolled out its own speed-testing service on its own infrastructure to publicly shame ISPs about the throttling.
Without knowing about that background information, I suppose use of fast.com is a bit tricky.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#26I hope this improves the network stack in ipads as well. Now that apple has same cpu arch on both ipads and macs, i expect better network tools for ipads.
I recently tried setting my ipad 5g as a hotspot but couldnt share the internet over the ethernet over my dock. If i could do that, it would enable the full 1+ gigabit 5g speeds that i get natively on ipad to the 2.5G port on the usb-c dock connected ethernet.
I also tried tethering through usb-c which gave only 250mbps.
Finally settled using wifi tethering which maxes around 600mbps.
It would be great if there is possibility to share 5g over ethernet, that would blow any 5g hotspot out of water with the chipset apple have put in the ipads.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the file settings ("Get Info") you can set a "stationary pad" flag means whenever the file gets edited, a copy is created, and the original file doesn't change. When you're taking a screenshot of a portion of the screen you can hold the spacebar to move the rectangle around.
Is this Copy-on-Write? Is the copy a real file or is this a filesystem implementation detail?
The stationary feature has existed since the “Classic” days. Probably MacOS 7. So it comes from the HFS era.
It would be more accurate to say when you open a file with the Stationary flag set, a new of copy of the document is open in the default application. I don’t think a file system copy is created until you save.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another issue with Fast.com is that sometimes it'll choose an OpenConnect box, which is inherently a box at a super close ISP datacenter meant for achieving gigabit speed without the ISP incurring upstream transit costs.
But who cares? If that's the same box that I connect to when I view Netflix content, then that's the performance I want to know about. Unless you are saying this OpenConnect box (will have to look whatever that is up later) is different from what connection is made when I hit Play, then that could be an issue. Then again, Fast.com is primarily a tool for Netflix. It let's its users feel like they are getting "useful"…
I think the key part is needing that understanding that it tells you how fast Netflix will perform, which is likely not the same as general internet performance. That can be useful to compare with tools like https://speed.cloudflare.com/ to see how your ISP's peering holds up but it's definitely an important nuance.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#29Nice! A network tool I've always wanted is one that automates the investigation you have to do manually if you are experienceing "internet issues". I mean, the check list is quite straightforward but still a pretty manual process, stuff like:
- Do I have the expected IP?
- Is there large packet loss or latency issues hinting at connectivity issues?
- Can I ping the local gateway?
- Can I ping to outside network?
- Is my nearest DNS responding?
- Is another, remote DNS responding?
- What does Downdetector or similar say about the service I'm trying?
It would be nice with a one click tool that just went through this in order and gave a diagnosis.
Re: macOS Monterey's new network quality tool is surprisingly good
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Useful if you want to e.g. automate VPN network switching or locations Can you elaborate on that a bit, please?
If you have a VPN named "MyVPN" you can start it from the command line with: networksetup -connectpppoeservice "MyVPN".
I use this as part of an ssh ProxyCommand. It's wonderful.