Java 8

Installation/Setup

Test Customization

Admin Settings and Queries

Test Settings and Results

Errors/Troubleshooting

Glossary

Anyone running MyConnection Server 9.7i or below will find that every test fails under the new Java 8 update.

To solve the issue simply upgrade to v9.7j or above. Click here to download.

NOTE: If tests have been published to third party web servers then FURTHER CHANGES WILL BE NEEDED in relation to the applet code. These changes are explained here.

The MCS Main Menu can be accessed at the URL http://mcs_address/myspeed/admin, where 'mcs_address' is the domain or IP of your MCS server.

If there is no MCS custom test page redirection enabled from the MCS root directory, the MCS Main Menu can then be accessed at http://mcs_address, where 'mcs_address' is the domain or IP of your MCS server.

For help moving an installation see the links below. These details upgrading but the process is the same as moving, even if the version isn't changing.

Windows
Mac OS X
Linux/Unix

A problem with IIS often causes it to grab port 80 on all IP addresses, not just the ones assigned to web sites. For information on how to resolve this, see Microsoft support, info for IISv6, info for IISv5.

Info for IISv7:

If any of the sites listed in IIS7 Manager have a binding of *:80, :80 or [host header] on :80 then IIS will grab every single port 80 regardless of whether the site is running or not. IIS7 has a 'listen list' (more information).

The solution, according to this page, is to run the following command from the command prompt:

netsh http add iplisten ipaddress=x.x.x.x:80

...which will add the x.x.x.x address (and only the x.x.x.x address) to the listen list. IIS will not listen on any other address.

The IIS and WWW services need to be restarted for the changes to take effect.

MCS has a built-in web server that can be used to serve the applet and your associated web pages. You can also use a third party web server such as IIS or Apache by utilizing the codebase parameter within the applet HTML tags to specify the location of the MCS Server. In the example below, the codebase calls the applet from 'www.visualware.com'. Please note that the domain used to serve the applet has to be allowed under Server Configuration, Permitted Domains.

<applet MAYSCRIPT code="myspeedserver/applet/myspeed.class" archive="/myspeed/myspeed.jar,/myspeed/plugins.jar" width=600 height=400 codebase="http://www.visualware.com">

Apache: Servers running the latest version of the Apache HTTP server produce better results for upload when the network connection speed 10Mbit or greater. This is because Apache provides larger buffers than IIS, which is currently limited to 8K. MySpeed limits the upload buffer on Apache to 128K. The server itself should have network/Internet connectivity sufficient to handle multiple concurrent MySpeed tests (100 Mbps server connectivity is common today). To try MyConnection Server on your web server, download a trial copy.

Virtual Servers: MCS is supported on virtual servers.

MyConnection Server will work on any network. The MySpeed network test is optimized to provide accurate download results up to about 100 Mbps and accurate upload results up to about 10 Mbps when an Apache web server is used. Other web servers can be used, but the accuracy of the upload numbers will be reduced slightly.

It should, as we have tested in various proxy and web cache environments. However, in these environments, MySpeed may run with reduced upload accuracy. If you notice any issues, please contact us with details, as there are known workarounds.

It should. However, some aggressive firewall techniques may interfere with some network tests. If this happens in your firewall environment, please contact us for known workarounds.

If you are running MyConnection Server on a server meeting the minimum requirements, the number of concurrent tests that can be run is mainly dependent on the available bandwidth. For instance, if you are running a MyConnection Server on 100Mb connection and a remote user with a 100Mb connection performs a connection speed test, all of the bandwidth will be consumed for the duration of the test (the is 8 seconds). Conversely, if most of your end-users have 5Mb Internet connections, approximately 20 tests could be run concurrently.

MyConnection Server includes a throttle option that can be set to smooth out usage and delay new connection tests until current tests have completed. This option is transparent to the end user, the throttling option can be set in 'Administration, Server Configuration'.

Download: The default file used for the download speed test is a fully compressed 10Mb file. The file may be changed to any file in the 'Applet Configuration, Operations' options. However, if changed the replacement file should also be fully compressed, otherwise the speed test results may be inaccurate as compressions will reduce the amount of data transmitted for the test.

Upload: Multiple upload sizes, ranging in size from 8 KB to 128 KB (size depends upon the web server used and your Internet connection speed), but with an 8 second timeout.

Timeout: The timeout value of 8000 milliseconds (8 seconds) can be modified via the timeout setting in the 'Administration, Applet Options, Operations' option.

It is the ratio of the slowest download rate to the highest download rate, as seen during a single MySpeed download test. Full Details

If MySpeed detects that your cable modem system supports an 'upload burst', that upload burst number will be displayed. Some cable modem systems allow small data transfers (like 8K or less) to operate faster than the rated speed of your cable connection, and only cap the data transfer to the rated speed after a very short period of time (300ms or so) of constant use of the data channel. Please note that this burst mode is usually only available to you when there is extra (unused) capacity in the cable system.

The default ports for the various MyConnection Server test types are listed below. The ports can be changed if needed in the MCS server configuration page.

MySpeed: TCP, ports 20000, 20001
MyHiSpeed: same as MySpeed above (the HiSpeed module requires use of the MySpeed module)
MyVoIP: UDP, ports 20000, 20001, TCP port 5060 (SIP test)
MyCapacity: UDP, port 8090
MyVideo: TCP, port 554
MyIPTV: UDP, ports 554, 555, 556
MyRoute: ICMP outbound - echo request; ICMP inbound - TTL expired in transit, Echo reply
MyFirewall: UDP/TCP, these ports (or port ranges) are set in the 'custom test' option

The following ports should be opened to enable DNS lookups, reporting of host names, ISP information and country locations.

Port 43 - Whois Lookups
Port 53 - DNS Services

MyConnection Server includes a web engine which normally runs on HTTP port 80, although it can run on other ports. If MCS is to coexist on a server with IIS and you want MCS to run on port 80, see: stop IIS port grab.

MCS MySpeed includes socket testing in addition to HTTP testing. The socket-to-socket download and upload speed tests provide the most accurate speed tests available. The standard HTTP speed test will be used as a backup, in case a client's firewall prevents direct socket connections to the MySpeed Server ports. You can also setup the download and upload independently, with one using socket and the other using HTTP.

RATED NETWORK SPEED			EXPECTED SOCKET RESULTS
Network	download	upload	download	upload
LAN	10 Mbps	10 Mbps	9.49 Mbps	9.49 kbps
LAN	100 Mbps	100 Mbps	94.9 Mbps	94.5 Mbps

RATED NETWORK SPEED			EXPECTED HTTP RESULTS
Network	download	upload	download	upload
T1	1.544 Mbps	1.544 Mbps	1.46 Mbps	1.44 Mbps
Cable Modem	3.0 Mbps	256 kbps	2.88 Mbps	241 kbps
LAN	10 Mbps	10 Mbps	9.49 Mbps	9.15 Mbps

10 Mbps Full	10 Mbps Half	100 Mbps Full	100 Mbps Half
9.49/9.17	8.08/7.77	85.4/69.0	70.4/65.1
9.49/9.17	8.12/7.98	82.1/70.4	71.4/65.1
9.49/9.10	8.12/7.65	82.6/69.0	71.7/66.3
9.49/9.17	8.05/7.70	85.9/69.0	71.2/66.3
9.49/9.12	8.11/7.77	84.9/71.8	72.6/62.7

The time stamps in the table are all supposed to be local, however there is a known issue in Java itself which can cause the wrong timestamp to be shown.

There's information on this bug here: http://www.petefreitag.com/item/171.cfm

An official bug report was filed with Sun Microsystems (the makers of Java), though it was closed as 'not reproducible' despite evidence to the contrary: http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6362432

We would suggest the following:

(1) Please try updating your Java VM. Most customers have found that this solves the problem completely.
(2) If this fails, try switching off the "adjust clock for daylight savings time" option. We have found that this solves the problem under older Java VMs.

If the issue still presents itself then please contact us.

Under ideal network conditions, MCS MySpeed will provide virtually identical results every time that it is run (verified in lab conditions). And that accuracy is only possible because MySpeed times data transfers down the millisecond (1/1000 second), while most other speed testers can only time data transfers accurate to 1/100 of a second (10's of milliseconds). So MCS MySpeed is very precise.

However, in most environments, you will find that you are sharing the network, your Internet connection, and the server you are connecting to, with other Internet users. So unless you are the only person using the network and the server, you can and should expect a little variation in the results.

If you see wildly different results each time MCS MySpeed is run, that strongly suggests that you are sharing your network and/or server with too many other Internet users.

The difference in results is due to the different layers of the OSI model. A direct socket-to-socket connection works at the lower TCP transport layer. A HTTP connection uses a browser which works at the application layer and is subject to factors such as browser caches and proxies which can affect results, particularly on high speed networks (see the following FAQ). Socket-to-socket testing is available in MCS MySpeed Edition and the MySpeed PC Standard and Advanced Editions.

Yes, go to Administration, Applet Configuration to view and modify settings. Some items that can be customized are below:

Yes. MCS parameter values can be overridden by setting a HTML applet parameter in the web page serving the applet. This technique can be used to create custom behaviors on a page by page basis.

For example the HTML below can be inserted within the <applet></applet> tags to set the speed test to Automatic Start mode.

<param name="start" value="*">

It is also possible to create multiple applet configuration files with different parameter settings and set up multiple web pages to serve the applet using different configuration files. This can be set in the Administration, Applet Configuration option, or in the web page HTML. For example, the code below would use a user-created myconfig file for the web page:

<param name="config" value="myconfig">

There are tutorials available that show the steps needed to display a MCS test page instead of the MCS main menu. Choose appropriate link below:

Tutorial MCS versions lower than 9.4k

Tutorial for MCS versions of 9.4k and higher

The links to the 'detailed analysis' that appear in the applet Summary tab and the Web detail report can easily be turned off through the process below.

To disable the links you must first create a custom test and publish the custom test to a web page.

To disable the links to the detailed analysis, use the steps below:

1. From the MCS Main Menu, go to 'View Published Pages'
2. For the page that you want to modify, click the corresponding link in the 'Configuration' column
3. On the 'Applet Configuration' page, click 'Show global applet' options
4. Click 'Operation and display options' to expand the section
5. Scroll down to the 'Detail Report Link Display', uncheck the box for 'Allow links to detailed analysis' and Save

The Applet Configuration options can be used to customize many display and behavior options of the MCS applet, such as the text displayed, show/hide metrics, show/hide tabs, enable Session ID (automated tagging of results), turn animation on/off, automatically start test on page load, etc.

MCS is not currently sold in other languages, however you can easily translate the display text of the server applet to another language. To do so, go to 'Administration, Applet Configuration, Messaging' and edit the text labels as desired.

Oracle, the developer of the Java programming language, released Java 6 Release 24 (Java 1.6.0_24) in February 2011 to remedy 21 vulnerabilities: Announcement

As part of this security release, it appears that the ability to copy & paste from a computer's clipboard into a Java environment has been deemed a security threat, and therefore disabled. MyConnection Server is not preventing the copy/paste function -- the Java program on your computer is preventing it.

Solution:

In order to allow access to the clipboard, add to your java.policy file the following line and retry:-

permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard";

The java.policy file can be found in the java install directory, normally:

C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\security\

Copy the file to User Home folder:

C:\Users\--your--user--name--\ (Win7)    

or

C:\Documents and Settings\<user> for (XP)

AS ".java.policy" Please note the period (.) at the front of the file name. Example shown to the right.

Add this line

permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard";

to the file just after the following line:

// "standard" properties that can be read by anyone      

The file should now look like this:

SAVE file and reload browser

Copy and paste to the clipboard will now work for the MyConnection server applets.

The most common problem in this situation is an incorrect server specification. When entering a host name or IP address for an alternate MyConnection Server to post results to it's important to leave the HTTP:// preffix off. For example entering http://mcs.visualware.com would fail, whereas just mcs.visualware.com would succeed.

If you are still experiencing problems please contact us

The problem you have encountered is a Java problem caused by version 1.7_21.

There are two ways to solve this:

   1) Upgrade MyConnection Server to 9.5c, this should resolve the issue. The download links are available at here. Recommended
   2) If upgrading is not a viable option it's possible to replace the existing 'rta' file with a newer version. Download the rta.zip file and unzip it into the /data folder of the MyConnection Server installation directory. Make sure the MyConnection Server service is shut down when doing this.

The message mentioned above looks like the image below:

This is an issue with Java and requires and complete uninstall/reinstall to solve. Click here for help fully uninstalling Java. The latest version of Java can be downloaded from http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp.

If a 'NOT LICENSED for…' message appears on the MCS applet, it is due to the applet being served from an unauthorized domain or IP address. As a security measure, the MCS applet can only be served from a domain or IP that you authorize. To enable authorization, from the MCS Main Menu, go to Administration > Server Configuration, scroll down to the Permitted Domains and add the domain or IP address that you want to allow.

Jitter is a key measure of VoIP quality. Jitter refers to is the variation in time between packets sent and packets arriving caused by network difficulties such as route changes, congestion, packet loss, traffic regulators etc. VoIP works by sending voice data as a stream of packets from source to destination. These packets can take a varying amount of time to reach the destination and invariably do not arrive in the order in which they were sent.

For a VoIP telephone call to work well the packets sent from the source must arrive within a certain time window (or 'buffer') in order for the receiving end to reassemble the packets in the correct order and reproduce the spoken words. When there is excessive jitter the time delay is too long (high latency) and packets arrive outside the time window and get lost from the call (discarded). As a result, the recomposed sound no longer reflects exactly what was sent, and depending of the extent of the delay may not be understandable by the recipient. MyVoIP measures the level of jitter on a connection and reports the associated level of VoIP sound quality.

Packet loss plays a key role in the quality of VoIP connections, as high packet loss causes some of the voice data not to arrive to the recipient. Packet loss occurs when voice packets are discarded by the jitter buffer (see previous FAQ), or dropped by network routers/switches due to high congestion. MyVoIP measures the percentage of packet loss and reports the associated level of sound quality.

MyConnection Server provides a throttling option which allows you to define how many tests a remote user can perform over a period of time. The period of time can be anything you require such as a number of minutes, a number of hours or even a number of days. This option can be set in 'Administration, Server Configuration'.

MyConnection Server provides a throttling option which allows you to define how many tests a remote user can perform over a period of time. The period of time can be anything you require such as a number of minutes, a number of hours or even a number of days. This option can be set in 'Administration, Server Configuration'.

The Access Control List can be reset using the intructions below. If you're having problems accessing MyConnetion Server and have recently made changes to the Access Control List then follow this FAQ.

To reset the Access Control List:

A full list of variables can be found here.

These variables are the same for both SQL and Javascript reporting.

This problem sometimes occurs when you log out of Terminal Services. This seems to be caused when the logon tab specifies the System service, and is resolved by setting the service to run as the Administrator user. To change the user in Windows 2003:

1. Stop the service
2. In the service Log On tab, check This Account
3. Enter Administrator as the user name
4. Enter the password and re-confirm it in the relevant boxes
5. Click OK
6. Start the service