Question about internet speed and wireless

[BigRedRage]

Just got an email:

Dear Valued Customer,​

To get the fastest speed offered with your package, you should upgrade your modem. A DOCSIS 3.0 modem is the proven option, which utilizes our most advanced technology to support faster speeds than ever before for the best online experience.​

You can rent a modem from Cox – and the first 6 months are FREE. Simply click here to take advantage of this limited time offer, or stop by a Cox store near you. If you have any questions or need help, please contact us at 1-866-961-0329.​

If I do upgrade to a 3.0 modem, will that speed up my wifi too or just my stuff that is direct connected to the modem?

Only my PC is directly connected, everything else including my xbox one is wifi.

I get about 30mbps on my computer and then when I do a speed test on my phone over wifi I get about 13mbps. is 13 pushing the limits of wifi? its already so far less than being direct connected that I feel like purchasing a better modem will only make my actual PC faster and my PC is my least used internet connected device in the house so that does not provide value for me.

The rokus, xboxs, tablets and cell phones all utilize the internet far more than the PC.

Should i look in to channel bonding? I do have a 2.4 and 5 channels that I run wireless on.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Just got an email:





If I do upgrade to a 3.0 modem, will that speed up my wifi too or just my stuff that is direct connected to the modem?

Only my PC is directly connected, everything else including my xbox one is wifi.

I get about 30mbps on my computer and then when I do a speed test on my phone over wifi I get about 13mbps. is 13 pushing the limits of wifi? its already so far less than being direct connected that I feel like purchasing a better modem will only make my actual PC faster and my PC is my least used internet connected device in the house so that does not provide value for me.

The rokus, xboxs, tablets and cell phones all utilize the internet far more than the PC.

Should i look in to channel bonding? I do have a 2.4 and 5 channels that I run wireless on.

You need the 3.0 modem to get the most that you can from the cable. Let's say you are on a 25mb connection. Your 2.0 should be good enough. If you are on 50mb+, you want 3.0

Wifi is dependent on the technologies used in the router via the modem. You need to get a good router that goes to 802.11n speeds. There are 802.11a and 802.11b, then g and then n. N is where you need to be.

 

[puckhead]

You need the 3.0 modem to get the most that you can from the cable. Let's say you are on a 25mb connection. Your 2.0 should be good enough. If you are on 50mb+, you want 3.0

Wifi is dependent on the technologies used in the router via the modem. You need to get a good router that goes to 802.11n speeds. There are 802.11a and 802.11b, then g and then n. N is where you need to be.

802.11ac is out in the wild now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac

 

[dreamcastrocks]

802.11ac is out in the wild now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac

Yeah, I know that. They aren't cheap though and I know BRR is.

 

[puckhead]

Zing!

 

[BigRedRage]

I have 802.11N dual band router with 5ghz signal + 2.4ghz signal. Thats why I asked about bridging, I read about that a little and it sounds like combining both signals into one super signal.

Speed was 30 but they upped it to 50 now thats why they prompted me to go 3.0 but if my lan speed increases, that doesnt mean a wifi increase, correct?

I just dont know what I do to speed up the wireless nor do I see how more speed coming through modem would have anything to do with wifi. Nor do I know how much bandwith should come through a wifi signal, what improves it, where it caps, etc. if im only getting 13mbps wifi anyway on a 30mbps connection maybe even with new modem and 50mbps i still get 13 through wifi.

 

[Covert Rain]

I have 802.11N dual band router with 5ghz signal + 2.4ghz signal. Thats why I asked about bridging, I read about that a little and it sounds like combining both signals into one super signal.

Speed was 30 but they upped it to 50 now thats why they prompted me to go 3.0 but if my lan speed increases, that doesnt mean a wifi increase, correct?

I just dont know what I do to speed up the wireless nor do I see how more speed coming through modem would have anything to do with wifi. Nor do I know how much bandwith should come through a wifi signal, what improves it, where it caps, etc. if im only getting 13mbps wifi anyway on a 30mbps connection maybe even with new modem and 50mbps i still get 13 through wifi.

Basically that is correct. If your internet connection is slower versus the speed capability of your modem and/or router you will never see download speeds exceed that no matter how much money you spend on a router. If you were at 30mbps and are now getting say 50 mbps, if your router can handle that you should see improvement in both wired and wifi connections. Again, assuming your wifi can handle the higher rated speeds.

If your router can easily handle higher speeds and you see no improvement? There is probably something wrong. It could be settings. Make sure to check your router settings. With some you have to enable the faster "N" bandwidth to utilize those capabilities. Run a speed check to validate you are in fact getting the speed (50 mbps) advertised. That could be the problem as well. If they say you are getting 50 but only getting 13, your equipment isn't the problem.

If all that checks out keep in mind not all modems/routers are created equal. Some modems and routers handle "traffic" more efficiently, less data packet drops and are able to handle the flow of traffic to multiple devices more efficiently. For example, my old wifi router could handle my speed as rated. However, I was experiencing lag when multiple people were streaming and my son was playing games. I upgraded to a new modem and replaced my router and the result was much better performance all the way around. Fewer lag issues etc. If your router is getting overwhelmed it's possible that it's slowing down traffic on other channels (wired or wifi).

The best analogy I can give is this. If you have a highway that only has the capacity for 50 cars at a time and has traffic lights that are not coordinated you end up with congestion. If that same highway has very efficiently coordinated traffic lights, that traffic runs smoother with less delays. You will see better performance on higher end modem and routers but it won't double your speed or anything.

If you are not experiencing packet loss or lag for example and not straining your router? Nothing is going to help you except more raw speed (capacity). In my house it matters because I share alot of data between my devices. So, regardless of my internet connection, I have internal network data that is constantly going back and forth. So my router now has to handle my internet connection and my internal network data going back and forth. I have to have a very robust network to handle all the traffic.

 

[BigRedRage]

Basically that is correct. If your internet connection is slower versus the speed capability of your modem and/or router you will never see download speeds exceed that no matter how much money you spend on a router. However, if your Routers rated wifi speed is capable of 50 Mbps and your only getting 13..there could be something wrong. Run a speed check using a PC just using wifi.

Keep in mind not all modems/routers are created equal. Some modems and routers handle "traffic" more efficiently, less data packet drops and are able to handle the flow of traffic to multiple devices more efficiently. For example, my old wifi router could handle my speed as rated. However, I was experiencing lag when multiple people were streaming and my son was playing games. I upgraded to a new modem and replaced my router and the result was much better performance all the way around. Fewer lag issues etc. If your router is getting overwhelmed it's possible that it's slowing down traffic on other channels (wired or wifi).

The best analogy I can give is this. If you have a highway that only has the capacity for 50 cars at a time and has traffic lights that are not coordinated you end up with congestion. If that same highway has very efficiently coordinated traffic lights, that traffic runs smoother with less delays. You will see better performance on higher end modem and routers but it won't double your speed or anything.

If your not experiencing packet loss or lag for example and not straining your router? Nothing is going to help you except more raw speed (capacity). In my house it matters because I share alot of data between my devices. So, regardless of my internet connection, I have internal network data that is constantly going back and forth. So my router now has to handle my internet connection and my internal network data going back and forth. I have to have a very robust network to handle all the traffic.

By the way, make sure to check your router settings as some you have to enable the faster "N" bandwidth to utilize those capabilities. Also, if you use anything to split the signal at your devices don't use Hubs. Use switches as they won't divide your bandwidth when devices are not in use.

I never really have issues and have rokus in every room and play xbox online. All the phones and tablets are on wifi too. evertything is generally fast I just feel it could be faster and faster could help with disconnecting from madden.

maybe.

So maybe i need a better router. Ill find out my current model and research it a little bit but it sounds like i dont really need to go get a 3.0 modem as the only thing getting modem speed is the barely used PC anyway.

 

[Covert Rain]

I never really have issues and have rokus in every room and play xbox online. All the phones and tablets are on wifi too. evertything is generally fast I just feel it could be faster and faster could help with disconnecting from madden.

maybe.

So maybe i need a better router. Ill find out my current model and research it a little bit but it sounds like i dont really need to go get a 3.0 modem as the only thing getting modem speed is the barely used PC anyway.

The only thing I will say about the Docsis 3.0 modems is they handle data more efficiently. When it comes to gaming lag kills. The new 3.0 modems have better channel redundancy and failover capability through something called "multiple channel bonding". This comes in handy when competing with neighbors for bandwidth during peak times.

If channels are overloaded your DOCSIS 3.0 modem can bond multiple channels together to provide one big pipe. The old DOCSIS 2.0 modems can only utilize one downstream and one upstream channel at a time. If that channel is overloaded things will slow down.

If your router was bought recently, personally I would do the opposite. I would start with the modem and go with a better brand. Some of these no name brands you get from your ISP are horrible. I use a Motorola Surfboard standalone and I love it.

 

[BigRedRage]

The only thing I will say about the Docsis 3.0 modems is they handle data more efficiently. When it comes to gaming lag kills. The new 3.0 modems have better channel redundancy and failover capability through something called "multiple channel bonding". This comes in handy when competing with neighbors for bandwidth during peak times.

If channels are overloaded your DOCSIS 3.0 modem can bond multiple channels together to provide one big pipe. The old DOCSIS 2.0 modems can only utilize one downstream and one upstream channel at a time. If that channel is overloaded things will slow down.

If your router was bought recently, personally I would do the opposite. I would start with the modem and go with a better brand. Some of these no name brands you get from your ISP are horrible. I use a Motorola Surfboard standalone and I love it.

My modem is a 2.0 surfboard. I purchased the router and modem in probably 2011 when I left centurylink due to crap speeds in my neighborhood.

 

[Covert Rain]

My modem is a 2.0 surfboard. I purchased the router and modem in probably 2011 when I left centurylink due to crap speeds in my neighborhood.

Well I can tell you that I was getting something like 30% to 40% packet loss with my 2.0 modem. When I switched to the 3.0 surfboard my packet loss is now around 2% peak. Made a huge difference for me. I admit there could have been something wrong with my old modem but I don't see any difference now during peak times or off times.

 

[BigRedRage]

Well I can tell you that I was getting something like 30% to 40% packet loss with my 2.0 modem. When I switched to the 3.0 surfboard my packet loss is now around 2% peak. Made a huge difference for me. I admit there could have been something wrong with my old modem but I don't see any difference now during peak times or off times.

Cool. Ill have to look at everything then. LAst i checked speed on direct connection I was paying for 20mbps and getting 30 so I was pretty happy but I dont know a ton about networking and could be losing power.

Ill run some tests, get my model numbers and etc and post it all over the weekend.

 

[Covert Rain]

Cool. Ill have to look at everything then. LAst i checked speed on direct connection I was paying for 20mbps and getting 30 so I was pretty happy but I dont know a ton about networking and could be losing power.

Ill run some tests, get my model numbers and etc and post it all over the weekend.

Run this a handful of times during peak and non-peak. See what your average download/upload and Packet loss is.

http://www.speedtest.net/

 

[BillsCarnage]

For dual band wifi routers you'll get better range with 5ghz, but slower overall connection. With the 2.4 band you'll get a better overall connection with less range.

Depending on the size of your house and the location of the router you might try sticking to only the 2.4ghz.

A few other things to check on wifi:
What channel is it broadcasting? Out of the box is 9, i believe. Very few people actually change this. You can download a wifi scanner to your phone and see what the popular channel is - you don't want the popular channel.

You could also assign IP's for each device if you're comfortable poking around the router settings.

And yes, get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. It's well worth it. Don't rent; buy outright instead. The Moto surfboards are about $70-100.

 

[BigRedRage]

For dual band wifi routers you'll get better range with 5ghz, but slower overall connection. With the 2.4 band you'll get a better overall connection with less range.

Depending on the size of your house and the location of the router you might try sticking to only the 2.4ghz.

A few other things to check on wifi:
What channel is it broadcasting? Out of the box is 9, i believe. Very few people actually change this. You can download a wifi scanner to your phone and see what the popular channel is - you don't want the popular channel.

You could also assign IP's for each device if you're comfortable poking around the router settings.

And yes, get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. It's well worth it. Don't rent; buy outright instead. The Moto surfboards are about $70-100.

Isnt the bold paragraph opposite? 5ghz faster but needs to be close, 2.4 slower but spreads through whole house? I am getting a repeater at some point too.

I mostly only use the 2.4, the 5 seems unreliable.

Last night I finished a game vs my buddy with no issues when he hosted. Then I hosted and my whole internet went down in the first quarter and stayed down for at least 20 minutes.

I went into my router and modem and opened the ports xbox says it wants open here:

Opening ports on router for xbox live http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/networking/network-ports-used-xbox-live

Specific ports madden uses http://help.ea.com/en/article/what-online-ports-should-i-open-for-madden-nfl-15/

Will find out soon if that did anything.

I also changed my channel to 1 hoping that does something too. didnt know I could search for least used channels, I will try that as well.

Before all the crashing I ran a speed test on the xbone and it came back with 13mbps and 1% packet loss.

I wish the 5GHZ worked better as all of the rokus are on 2.4 and if they stream while I game I imagine I will have problems.

More and more tempted to move my lines and modems and do a direct connect on xbone and make the pc wireless.

 

[BigRedRage]

Apparently the second time it crashed, the internet is still down. Daughter is texting me that its not working.

Tempting to go next door from work to frys electronics and try to find a surfboard/router all in one 3.0 and see if all problems go away. I read all in one isnt great and its best to have 2 units. I guess I can get new bad ass modem and see how everything goes and worry about router later. Router is on, wifi is on but no internet connection

 

[BigRedRage]

spent 30 mins on phone with cox, because net isnt up they cant test it and sending a free tech on tuesday. saw issues recently and said its either them or my modem so im going to get a 3.0 modem on way home today and see what happens. Once that is solid then im going to tinker more with router to see if I can up the speed at all.

 

[Covert Rain]

For dual band wifi routers you'll get better range with 5ghz, but slower overall connection. With the 2.4 band you'll get a better overall connection with less range.

Depending on the size of your house and the location of the router you might try sticking to only the 2.4ghz.

A few other things to check on wifi:
What channel is it broadcasting? Out of the box is 9, i believe. Very few people actually change this. You can download a wifi scanner to your phone and see what the popular channel is - you don't want the popular channel.

You could also assign IP's for each device if you're comfortable poking around the router settings.

And yes, get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. It's well worth it. Don't rent; buy outright instead. The Moto surfboards are about $70-100.

You have that backwards. In general, the higher the frequency of a wifi signal the shorter its range. 2.4GHz networks cover a substantially larger range than 5GHz wireless networks. The newer routers that use "beamforming" have tried to mitigate that for the 5GHz range but regardless that band offers more throughput.

The GHz band is only partially related to speed. Both 802.11a operates at 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Depending on the router they both can support the same data rate (i.e. 54Mpbs). Dual band routers have the capability of simultaneous dual-band operation on both 5GHz and 2.4GHz ranges with the same speed up to a certain point.

For example, on my router I can get 1.3Gbps Wi-Fi speed at 5Ghz and 600Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band. So I can operate at a cap of 600Mbps regardless of band. For faster data requirements I would need to use the 5Ghz band but I might have a shorter distance in which to operate at those speeds. The advantage of the the 5GHz band is it's less likely to be congested where many more types of wireless signals operate in the 2.4GHz band.

More and more tempted to move my lines and modems and do a direct connect on xbone and make the pc wireless.

That is what I would do. Honestly, the one bad thing about wireless is you never can account for signal interference. I have never used the wireless connectivity for anything other than my Blu Ray players, AV Receivers and stuff like that. When it comes to gaming, I would always recommend a wired connection. My son does wireless gaming on his PC but his room is right next to the router and his new gaming PC has dual band "AC" compatibility. It's less likely he will have problems being so close to the wifi.

Tempting to go next door from work to frys electronics and try to find a surfboard/router all in one 3.0 and see if all problems go away.

That's where I would start because it's unclear why you are getting dropouts. It could be either the modem or your router. However, you will get a better more reliable connection with a 3.0 modem no matter what.

 

[BigRedRage]

thx. cox looked at it and thinks the problem is on them but getting modem anyway

 

[BigRedRage]

new modem much faster on lan and wifi, still lost signal 2 straight games vs friend. Played online ranked game all the way through

 

[BigRedRage]

Internet was down from morning until about 4-5pm Sunday. Its definately on cox as I had the new modem on for all of that.

Router speed picked up on its own. Xbox on wifi now getting anywhere from 25 to 40 MbPS instead of 13. I also opened all ports on router that xbox live calls for.

Phones still get 10mbps on wifi though.

Played through a full game on Madden sunday night no problems.

When its on, its on. Seems there is a cox issue is all.

 

[Covert Rain]

Internet was down from morning until about 4-5pm Sunday. Its definately on cox as I had the new modem on for all of that.

Router speed picked up on its own. Xbox on wifi now getting anywhere from 25 to 40 MbPS instead of 13. I also opened all ports on router that xbox live calls for.

Phones still get 10mbps on wifi though.

Played through a full game on Madden sunday night no problems.

When its on, its on. Seems there is a cox issue is all.

They can tell you if they see any issues when you get dropout during a game. It still might benefit you to get a more robust router so your wifi is more stable but if they are telling you there is some issues on their end, I would wait until they say that's resolved before you do anything else.

Glad to see things are better! Congrats!

 

[BigRedRage]

They can tell you if they see any issues when you get dropout during a game. It still might benefit you to get a more robust router so your wifi is more stable but if they are telling you there is some issues on their end, I would wait until they say that's resolved before you do anything else.

Glad to see things are better! Congrats!

The router is staying on full time, the modems, old and new, are what go out.

The router is a netgear dual band wireless N router - I dont think it gets much better unless go to AC.

Hes going to check it out while I am at work Tuesday so wont be able to fire up madden and hope it kicks me while I am there but their log should show the internet dies for hours on end every few days and its 100% on them. Something is wrong somewhere. Shouldnt be having exact same issue on new modem.

 

[Covert Rain]

Shouldn't be having exact same issue on new modem.

That is exactly right. I know one time they found something faulty at the hub for me. So, it wasn't anything in my house but at the hub. Hopefully, they track that down. Really annoying!

 

[BigRedRage]

Cox guy found some old garbage equipment on my lines and replaced it, wife says internet is back on, we shall see if its nice and steady now!