I just got a new internet plan (I live in Canada) according to the sales person on the phone this plan has unlimited bandwidth and comes with 150Mbps which will cost $75/month.
Problem is, I tried 3 different speed test websites and my own ISPs tester it averaged around 20 Mbps on the other sites, 40 on ISPs tester.
Does this mean I’m not getting what I signed up for?
Also why is it that the speed is slower if I connect the ethernet cable compared to over the wifi
Thanks
Edit: Thank you for all your replies, I will see what can do, i.e test all the stuff that needs testing or double checking. Then probably contact my ISP if all else fails.
Cheers,
In: Technology
in all internet advertisements it’s “up to xxx Mbps”. and internet speed tests, only tests your connection to and from that one single specific server. it doesn’t mean every server you access is going to give you the same speed. your internet speed is determined by the slower of either you or the server you’re connecting to.
if you’ve run multiple speed tests and they are all low, then contact your provider, maybe something is up. or maybe you just tested it during a peak time when the network is congested.
the internet speed should be faster over Ethernet cable because the ethernet cable provides higher bandwidth and lower latency compared to wifi.
>Also why is it that the speed is slower if I connect the ethernet cable compared to over the wifi
If your switch only has physical ports capable of 100Mb/s of throughput then there is a realistic chance that your wireless connection (anything IEEE 802.11n and above) will provide more bandwidth. Check the specifications of your switch (or your all-in-one router/switch/modem, in all likelihood). Shouldn’t really matter though if you average less than 40Mb/s anyway.
Internet speed tests are good at measuring one thing – how fast your connection can transfer data in an internet speed test to that specific server.
Also, can’t speak for any laws in Canada or what’s the norm over there, but at least in the US, advertised bandwidth is not guaranteed – if you read the fine print for your plan, I’d expect to see the same.
Essentially, using a cable modem as an example, coaxial may in edge cases be able to support 1Gbps. Longer distance from the ISP to you, damage/etc to any cables or connectors or noise will reduce the bandwidth that the raw cabling/connection are capable of supporting. From there, the ISP will configure your modem to artificially cap the connection speed to what you’re paying for. From there, if you’re using wifi, depending upon a lot of factors you may be able to get the full bandwidth, or hardly at all.
In short, check the fine print of your plan and if you’re speed testing, make sure you’re wired into the modem/router and not relying on wifi. If you’re getting way more bandwidth wired than wireless, the issue is related to your wireless connection (older 802.11b/n connection on the router and/or computer end, too far from the router, interference in the area, etc). If you’re still getting slow speeds, you may need to wrestle with your ISP to get them to take a look at it, If you’re paying for 150Mbps and you’re only getting a max of 40Mbps even wired directly to the modem/router, if it’s anything like it is in the US they may need to send someone out to test out the cable coming into your residence and possibly repair things which will likely improve performance. If you’re paying for 150Mbps and getting like 130Mbps, they’re more likely to politely tell you to go pound sand and there may or may not be anything they can do about it anyways.
Yes, particularly ones that rely on Ookla servers to do the testing. It’s specifically designed to measure throughput on networks and the protocols used to test ensure that what was sent was received. Just make sure you’re testing from the wired connection on the router itself, not your WiFi connectin which would be considerable slower.
If anything speed test servers read high. Ookla and other major testers will set up test servers that should be really fast to connect to and don’t represent what you should really expect with much more distance connections that require more hops.
If you’re not getting anywhere near your advertised speed (within ~80% of it) then you have a problem with your ISP, or potentially with your own network.
*edit* Looking a bit deeper… if you provided your own modem, it’s possible that you are using a DOCSIS 2.0 Modem (aka older tech). Those have a top speed of ~40 MBPS. You may need a newer modem. Your ISP should be able to confirm the model of the model you brought for yourself if that’s the case.
Not always. The ISPs know what the most popular speed measuring sites are, such as speedtest, and sometimes prioritize network traffic going to them. So you may get meh speed to Dropbox to download a big file, but your access to speedtest may show 150 Mbps.
The advertised speed for consumer connections is “up to.” Whether you get this depends on congestion and how much the ISP is stretching their claims. You have to sign up for expensive commercial connections before you get service level agreements that guarantee a specific speed, with compensation should they fail to meet that level. I’m lucky since mine tests a bit higher than advertised speed almost all the time.
Speed should be faster over standard gigabit Ethernet than WiFi.
Just writing to clarify some points here. This whole “wired is faster than wifi” thing is a myth. It is a holdover from many years ago when 2.4gHz networks were top of the line. A high end 802.11ac wifi device is capable of download speeds of 1600Mbps on a single channel and these devices can support up to 8 channels with an average total data rate of nearly nearly 7Gbps. Even a low end, single channel 802.11ac adapter should be over 400Mpbs.
For a vast, vast majority of people actual download speed is going to be limited by the server they are downloading from or by their ISP. If the end device is an older device or a low end device it could be limited by the onboard wifi adapter, but anything made after like 2015 should be 802.11ac.
Your actual data rate you see at your router is going to vary based on demand on your regional infrastructure. All of the signals from your area get routed to a single locations before being sent out to all over the world. If there is a lot of people online at the same time, there may be a bottleneck at that location which slows down data rates for all the customers. The same thing happens on 4G networks if too many people attempt to connect to a single transmitter.
The only way to mitigate this problem would be to switch to a 5G home service or move to a newly built neighborhood which has fiber optic cables installed all the way to the router. This is what my neighborhood has and I currently pay $65 USD/month for just under 1Gbps. The actual data rate I see at any individual device is usually around 350Mbps. I think the highest data rate I ever saw was connecting to a google server in California and it was like 480Mbps.
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