Differences in European test locations

[shopanalyst]

Hey guys,
as I'm writing on a new blog post, I've been doing some tests on some more or less know German shops from the different european test locations (except Dublin and Gloucester, because they don't support IE8 and I wanted consistent test conditions).
The result has been, well, unexpected. In general I'd assume that, the further the test locations get away from the shop's server the slower the time to first byte and load times will be due to latency. But this isn't always the case compared to the "home location" Frankfurt. I'll post the test results below including traceroute tests (wanted to be sure, they are really further away - at least by means of hops) and hope for your ideas. My only explanation so far would be very different internet connections to the test servers. The test conditions have been:

• IE8
• DSL speed
• 5 test runs
• first view only
  

Tests were run on http://www.strenesse.com/ which is hosted in Hannover, in the middle of Germany. But that's just an example.

Amsterdam, NL (11 hops):

• First Byte: 1.632s
• Start Render: 5.216s
• Load Time: 7.854s
  

Brussels, BE (14 hops):

• First Byte: 1.244s
• Start Render: 10.941s
• Load Time: 18.880s
  

Frankfurt, DE (8 hops):

• First Byte: 0.650s
• Start Render: 4.691s
• Load Time: 7.472s
  

Geneva, CH (11 hops):

• First Byte: 0.594s
• Start Render: 5.370s
• Load Time: 8.095s
  

London, UK (10 hops):

• First Byte: 0.561s
• Start Render: 4.028s
• Load Time: 6.434s
  

Moscow, RU (19 hops):

• First Byte: 0.676s
• Start Render: 5.610s
• Load Time: 8.765s
  

Paris, FR (14 hops):

• First Byte: 0.806s
• Start Render: 4.214s
• Load Time: 6.311s
  

Stockholm, SE (16 hops):

• First Byte: 0.584s
• Start Render: 4.051s
• Load Time: 6.370s
  

What surprises me most, are the results of London, Paris and Stockholm (and actually even Moscow for being that far away).


Thanks for any hints,
Martin