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Bandwidth issues - can't reach advertised speeds?
SummaryJudgment
Grab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered User regular
Grab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered User regular
Cross-posting from the Home Networking thread :-)
I've recently switched to gigabit internet through Xfinity and I'm not getting the advertised speeds. I'm maxing out at 120 mbps on my desktop and 300 mbps on wireless devices. I'm running a fairly simple setup of my ISP's coax into my cable modem, an ethernet cable from my modem to my router generating a mesh wi-fi network (including a second wi-fi node), and then another ethernet cable from my router to a Powerline wall unit connecting a single desktop.
Modem: Arris S33 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VTJR48F
Router: TP-Link Deco AXE5400 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VW5JHPH
Powerline: TP-Link AV2000 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H74VKZU/
What am I doing wrong here / how would I go about troubleshooting this? The Arris S33 is specifically listed as an Xfinity-compatible device and should be good for gigabit and more. The router is good for 2+ gbps. The Powerline adapter is similarly rated for 2+ gpbs.
Initial dumb question - if I just have a plain Cat 5 ethernet cable running from the modem to the router, would that show up in reduced bandwidth like I'm seeing? I have no idea if it's a Cat 5E or 6.
I've recently switched to gigabit internet through Xfinity and I'm not getting the advertised speeds. I'm maxing out at 120 mbps on my desktop and 300 mbps on wireless devices. I'm running a fairly simple setup of my ISP's coax into my cable modem, an ethernet cable from my modem to my router generating a mesh wi-fi network (including a second wi-fi node), and then another ethernet cable from my router to a Powerline wall unit connecting a single desktop.
Modem: Arris S33 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VTJR48F
Router: TP-Link Deco AXE5400 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VW5JHPH
Powerline: TP-Link AV2000 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H74VKZU/
What am I doing wrong here / how would I go about troubleshooting this? The Arris S33 is specifically listed as an Xfinity-compatible device and should be good for gigabit and more. The router is good for 2+ gbps. The Powerline adapter is similarly rated for 2+ gpbs.
Initial dumb question - if I just have a plain Cat 5 ethernet cable running from the modem to the router, would that show up in reduced bandwidth like I'm seeing? I have no idea if it's a Cat 5E or 6.
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Have you tried running a cat 5 cable from the router to the laptop and measure the speed?
You can test two cables at once with a pc-cable-router-cable-pc configuration and iperf, though I've never tried this as throwing money at it worked for me. Pretty much any component could be bad so start ruling items out.
Also sometimes it's your ISP's fault, which is likely if it runs great one day and sucks another day
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
To test this I'd do these things in order:
1. Do a wireless test while in the same room with line-of-sight to the router. Tbh 300mbps on wireless after going through a wall or two is about expected.
2. Direct connect with a cat5e or cat6 cable from router to the laptop and test speed. If that's fast it's probably just nature of your power line adapter, but you could check replacing the cat5/6 cables at either end. If you buy new cables just get 6, they are able to hold onto gig speeds much better through interference etc. cat5e really only does gig when everything is perfect.
3. If there's a management interface for your modem see if it has a speed testing option so you can see what you're getting right at the source. Comcast might just be fucking you.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
With Gigabit your gear can be the issue like you're already looking into, but it can also be about how you're testing the speed as in not everywhere you connect will be able to supply data that fast. So how are you testing and finding the numbers?
Mostly I use the test at https://speedtest.net, but I have no idea if it reliable globally as I do my testing mostly from Denmark or close by.
the unit is less likely the problem than your home wiring. that's going to be the biggest bottleneck with powerline adapters.
Could be. It's a ranch home with the living room (my desktop) separated by the kitchen, and then my home office on the far end (the router). I know that geography doesn't map 1:1 on the wiring, but still.
I will say it's totally fine for gaming; if nothing else I don't notice any packet loss or drops, so it's an ersatz wired connection that just doesn't have the bandwidth, which is kind of whatever, since I'm never really consuming more than the 120-130 mbit it can handle. Gigabit would be nice for quickly downloading games from Steam but that's the single use case and it's not a huge deal.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Comcast was running a deal in my area for gigabit, its $60 a month and nominally more expensive than 300 or 500 so I'll probably keep it just for future proofing recreational use and/or for when my wife and I are working.
Also: how does transmission bottlenecking work? i.e. does squeezing 1000 down to 130 work better than 500; am I ekeing out a bit of extra performance with the fire hose of bandwidth behind it? If I dropped to 500 should I expect the Powerline to only manage like 80-90?
naw it doesn't work like that, the higher throughput parts of the link are basically just sitting around twiddling their thumbs while they wait for the slower parts
also think about multiple users
assuming the link between the modem and router/ap is properly 1gig, that means you can have your PC using 150, and a couple of phones using 300 without anything getting throttled
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies