I'm not disagreeing.
@Dan_the_Van wrote:
For what it is worth performing a buffer bloat test always gives me a result of D on a good day I might get a C.
Yes, and knowing that means that if you see a "D" you can assume that it's normal, whereas an "F" is a red flag.
Clearly there are thousands of people using a Hub2 with a "D" score who are perfectly happy, so no need to comment.
My point about the waveform test, is that it captures a snapshot of many relevant metrics in one test, as a diagnostic starting point.
@Dan_the_Van wrote:
Over diagnosis of an issue in the first instance should be avoided as it can add a layer of complication that's not required.
Having the most complete set of metrics in a single test, doesn't mean that you have to react to it, or over diagnose anything.
The waveform test simply gives the maximum amount to data in one simple test, without the user avoiding telling you something. The test itself is no more difficult to run than any others, and provides a convenient and simple URL to reply with - rather than having the user figure out how to do screenshots, upload the image, and post a picture in their reply, etc.
The issue I most often see is something like, someone is complaining that their YouTube is buffering, so you ask them to screenshot a speed test (of both upload and download speeds), but because they think that they have a download speed issue, they repeatedly don't provide the upload result (because they don't think or accept that it's relevant). Whereas getting them to provide the waveform result URL, you can see the upload speed and latency - so are able to point out that the speed test you asked for was done while another user of the home network was uploading something, or a mobile was doing a cloud backup etc, and invalidating the entire test.
The problem with doing one test at a time approach, is that network conditions change between tests, and you never know when the person you are trying to help is now doing the next thing you've asked for, or if they've disappeared for the day (or week) - so you are waiting around for a reply that sometimes never comes. Again, doing the test that provides the most metrics, means that you and I don't waste our time waiting for the next response.
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