Apple's "networkQuality" tool (or the open source alternative that you can run in other operating systems:
https://github.com/network-quality/goresponsiveness) is very useful to understand how your connection behaves under extreme conditions, but extreme conditions is not something home connections see regularly, so make sure to use a combination of tools if you want to understand how your home connection behaves under
expected use.
It's more of an art than a science, really, and your ISP may be optimizing for more average use cases.
Personally, I like to start with a regular web-based speed test (I'm biased towards https://speed.cloudflare.com, but any test that shows latency under load is OK, like https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat or https://fast.com [1]) and then combine it with "networkQuality" running concurrently (if possible, from a different host) and see how it impacts the numbers.
Of course, this only makes sense if you have your own router running (for example) OpenWRT where you can enable active queue management (SQM/AQM) and actually do something to improve the results [2].
[1] In more recent times I'm finding fast.com to be a bit unreliable, as some ISPs may treat Netflix traffic specially (like allowing for longer bursts over contracted speeds, etc. — net neutrality notwithstanding).
[2] I highly recommend this last option if you can. In my case, it allows me to be able to run "networkQuality" during a video call (over WiFi even) without any visible degradation. See: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/...
It's more of an art than a science, really, and your ISP may be optimizing for more average use cases.
Personally, I like to start with a regular web-based speed test (I'm biased towards https://speed.cloudflare.com, but any test that shows latency under load is OK, like https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat or https://fast.com [1]) and then combine it with "networkQuality" running concurrently (if possible, from a different host) and see how it impacts the numbers.
Of course, this only makes sense if you have your own router running (for example) OpenWRT where you can enable active queue management (SQM/AQM) and actually do something to improve the results [2].
[1] In more recent times I'm finding fast.com to be a bit unreliable, as some ISPs may treat Netflix traffic specially (like allowing for longer bursts over contracted speeds, etc. — net neutrality notwithstanding).
[2] I highly recommend this last option if you can. In my case, it allows me to be able to run "networkQuality" during a video call (over WiFi even) without any visible degradation. See: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/...