Show off your internet speed!

ICIT2LOL · Sep 9, 2021

Well it seems to me that there is a great discrepancy between those of us who either live in the city or rural areas. As I have mentioned before I live in a country area and have to have a wifi connection that fluctuates wildly between 70mb/s and 15mb/s download and my upload is usually from around 1.2mb/s to 3mb/s.
What bugs me is why in this day and age broadband internet should be available at the high speeds that some of us have for us who live in the bush areas.
I don't understand why the upload speed is so important as I just use the machines for emails and general browsing I suppose it matters if you game?

jvickers · Sep 9, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
What bugs me is why in this day and age broadband internet should be available at the high speeds that some of us have for us who live in the bush areas.

I think this is the sentiment for people in most rural areas. It's that way in the U.S. The infrastructure is quite expensive to lay, though. Why should a company spend a ton of money laying down the infrastructure when they can get away with basically charging the same price without doing that?

ICIT2LOL · Sep 9, 2021

jvickers said:
I think this is the sentiment for people in most rural areas. It's that way in the U.S. The infrastructure is quite expensive to lay, though. Why should a company spend a ton of money laying down the infrastructure when they can get away with basically charging the same price without doing that?

Yes well I agree J but I still cannot for the life of me understand why wifi broadband cannot handle speeds higher than they do. I mean if they can communicate with space stations or satellites using what I understand is wifi by any other name why not here on earth?

BobD · Sep 9, 2021

My service is nominal 50 / 20 Mbps but I consistently get a bit more on downloads test.

bobkn · Sep 9, 2021

New Comcast xFinity, with their nominal 1200Mbps service. Comcast AX7 "Gateway" (Net and voice. One 2.5Gbps port.)

The upload speed is "as fast as" 35Mbps.

Coaxial cable to my house's wall, and inside it. Don't need no stinkin' fiber to the home.:)

jvickers · Sep 9, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Yes well I agree J but I still cannot for the life of me understand why wifi broadband cannot handle speeds higher than they do. I mean if they can communicate with space stations or satellites using what I understand is wifi by any other name why not here on earth?

That entire wireless Internet through ISPs is an enigma to me. I think it has to do with the airwaves they're allowed to use. I know there's a movement against C-Band (aka 5G) by the aeronautical and aerospace industries because it interferes with altimeters. Here's a 200+ page article on it if you get really bored:
https://www.rtca.org/wp-content/upl...t-Report_274-20-PMC-2073_accepted_changes.pdf.

That interference just seems like a bad idea. C-Band is far faster than the 4G from what I understand, but I'll survive off 4G if 5G is going to cause safety issues with planes and rockets.

Starlink Internet is purported to be quite fast, but it's pricey.

jvickers · Sep 9, 2021

bobkn said:
New Comcast xFinity, with their nominal 1200Mbps service. Comcast AX7 "Gateway" (Net and voice. One 2.5Gbps port.)

The upload speed is "as fast as" 35Mbps.

Coaxial cable to my house's wall, and inside it. Don't need no stinkin' fiber to the home.:)

Oh, how I wish we had xFinity in my area. That's a reasonable price you pay for the speed you get. We can get xtreme in my area from what I see. There's a 6.000GB usage allowance. My wife and I work from home, and my wife is forever streaming. I wish I knew how much data she used. We can't run out of data because that would stop our work cold. We can't have that for obvious reasons.

EDIT: So, you got me looking into XTREME. It's pricier than my current 110Mbps Internet by $50 after the first year, but it's 10 times faster. I'll have to call my current ISP and see if they track how much data on average we use each month. If it's well below XTREME's allotment, I'll be switching provided XTREME can live up to the advertised speed in the area in which I live.

bobkn · Sep 10, 2021

jvickers said:
Oh, how I wish we had xFinity in my area. That's a reasonable price you pay for the speed you get. We can get xtreme in my area from what I see. There's a 6.000GB usage allowance. My wife and I work from home, and my wife is forever streaming. I wish I knew how much data she used. We can't run out of data because that would stop our work cold. We can't have that for obvious reasons.

EDIT: So, you got me looking into XTREME. It's pricier than my current 110Mbps Internet by $50 after the first year, but it's 10 times faster. I'll have to call my current ISP and see if they track how much data on average we use each month. If it's well below XTREME's allotment, I'll be switching provided XTREME can live up to the advertised speed in the area in which I live.

xFinity will have a 1.2TB/month cap beginning in 2022 in the NE US. What will happen if I use more than 1.2 Terabytes in a month? The overage charge is $10/50GB, to a maximum of $100.

According to cnet, UHD video streaming uses 7GB/hour. That works out to about 5.5 hours of UHD average streaming every day in a 31 day month. HD is is supposed to use 3GB/hour, so that'd be 12.9 hours/day. I hope that forum data use is negligible. :)

jvickers · Sep 10, 2021

bobkn said:
xFinity will have a 1.2TB/month cap beginning in 2022 in the NE US. What will happen if I use more than 1.2 Terabytes in a month? The overage charge is $10/50GB, to a maximum of $100.

According to cnet, UHD video streaming uses 7GB/hour. That works out to about 5.5 hours of UHD average streaming every day in a 31 day month. HD is is supposed to use 3GB/hour, so that'd be 12.9 hours/day. I hope that forum data use is negligible. :)

That helps. I was figuring out how much my wife and I might use together. She remotes into her computer at the hospital, so I'm not sure how much data she uses in day. XTREME has a similar overage charge. The issue with them is that they increase their price each year. After 3 years, I'd be paying $140. I could always get it for the year promotional to see how I like it provide there aren't any contracts. Also, I need to double-check how much data my wireless router streams. I connect via hardwire, but she's all wireless. It might require I upgrade to something like a mesh network. I'm willing to do that.

BobD · Sep 10, 2021

I noticed that although my internet service is slow compared with many here my pings at 4ms are much better than most. Anyone speculate on this. See my post above Show off your internet speed!

ICIT2LOL · Sep 10, 2021

BobD said:
View attachment 7570

My service is nominal 50 / 20 Mbps but I consistently get a bit more on downloads test.

Well my speeds are vastly different in uploads normally 1-3 mb/s and the ping for whatever it is usually around 50ms but that is just the ISP (Telstra) that I have although I do have unlimited data on it.

BobD · Sep 10, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Well my speeds are vastly different in uploads normally 1-3 mb/s and the ping for whatever it is usually around 50ms but that is just the ISP (Telstra) that I have although I do have unlimited data on it.

I just noticed that you are also in OZ and on a radio connection. I've had a fibre connection for about 8 years but although a gigabit download is available I can't afford it. Like you I have no data download limits.

zbook · Sep 10, 2021

These are current google speeds and prices:

Code:

2 Gig
Downloads up to 2 gigabits per second, uploads up to 1. Good for tech heavy homes.

$100/mo
check
Good for homes with lots of tech
check
No data caps or annual contracts
check
Professional installation included
check
24/7 customer support
check
1 TB of free cloud storage
Requires included Google Fiber Multi-Gig Router and Mesh Extender

Code:

1 Gig
Download and upload speeds up to 1 gigabit. Supports all your devices.

$70/mo
check
Good for all your devices
check
No data caps or annual contracts
check
No installation fees
check
24/7 customer support
check
1 TB of free cloud storage
Google Wifi included (or use your own router)

Code:

Basic Internet
Download speeds up to 5 Mbps and upload speeds up to 1 Mbps.

$0/mo
check
No data caps or annual contracts
check
No installation fees
check
24/7 customer support
Google Fiber Network Box with built-in Wi-Fi included (or use your own router)

bobkn · Sep 10, 2021

ICIT2LOL said:
Yes well I agree J but I still cannot for the life of me understand why wifi broadband cannot handle speeds higher than they do. I mean if they can communicate with space stations or satellites using what I understand is wifi by any other name why not here on earth?

You connect to your ISP using WiFi? What kind of hardware are you using? I think of WiFi (formally IEEE 802.11) as a short range wireless networking standard.

jvickers · Sep 10, 2021

bobkn said:
You connect to your ISP using WiFi? What kind of hardware are you using? I think of WiFi (formally IEEE 802.11) as a short range wireless networking standard.

No, we have a cable modem. What I mean is that my wife connects to our Internet via the WiFi router. I want to see how many Mbps that transfers. I also need to see how fast her WiFi in her 10-year-old MacBook Pro is.

EDIT 5:47AM: My wife's MacBook Pro, which is around 10-years-old, probably has 802.11n WiFi at best. That has a throughput of up to 450Mbps. I retrieved that information from here:

Wi-Fi Standards, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac - Homenet Howto

On this page we list the 802.11 Wi-Fi Standards and explain how they work - frequency bands, throughput, radio channels and other techniques

www.homenethowto.com

She can't connect to our 5Ghz band. That doesn't matter since 2.4Ghz supports up to 450Mbps and has a longer range.

I have a TP-Link Archer C2300, which is a purportedly one of the quicker home routers you can purchase. So, no worries there.

Or am I completely off on my estimates of her ability to receive? That's quite possible. I researched it all, but that doesn't mean anything! :wink:

EDIT 6:21AM: Oh, your message wasn't directed towards me. Sorry about that! Still, does anything I said look incorrect?

bobkn · Sep 10, 2021

jvickers said:
No, we have a cable modem. What I mean is that my wife connects to our Internet via the WiFi router. I want to see how many Mbps that transfers. I also need to see how fast her WiFi in her 10-year-old MacBook Pro is.

EDIT 5:47AM: My wife's MacBook Pro, which is around 10-years-old, probably has 802.11n WiFi at best. That has a throughput of up to 450Mbps. I retrieved that information from here:

Wi-Fi Standards, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac - Homenet Howto

On this page we list the 802.11 Wi-Fi Standards and explain how they work - frequency bands, throughput, radio channels and other techniques

www.homenethowto.com

She can't connect to our 5Ghz band. That doesn't matter since 2.4Ghz supports up to 450Mbps and has a longer range.

I have a TP-Link Archer C2300, which is a purportedly one of the quicker home routers you can purchase. So, no worries there.

Or am I completely off on my estimates of her ability to receive? That's quite possible. I researched it all, but that doesn't mean anything!

EDIT 6:21AM: Oh, your message wasn't directed towards me. Sorry about that! Still, does anything I said look incorrect?

Right. It was aimed at ICIT2LOL.

Nothing wrong there, as far as I can see. This may or may not be her MacBook model: MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) - Technical Specifications

It's supposed to have 802.11n WiFi. No mention of band, but it may be too old for 5GHz.

I know very little about WiFi. I was surprised with my recent router change that my laptop was using the 2.4GHz band, and the download speed was limited to something like 50Mbps. The router merges 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands by default, and decides which one is best. After a long consultation with Comcast support, I found how to split the bands. Using a 5GHz connection give me a much higher negotiated data rate. (I don't recall the number.) Presumably the automatic setting optimized for range rather than bandwidth.

ICIT2LOL · Sep 10, 2021

BobD said:
I just noticed that you are also in OZ and on a radio connection. I've had a fibre connection for about 8 years but although a gigabit download is available I can't afford it. Like you I have no data download limits.

Yes Bob the problem out here is the distance of course for fibre any sort of physical connection to be made to rural areas. But I do feel sorry for you being on fibre and having such low speeds.

bobkn said:
You connect to your ISP using WiFi? What kind of hardware are you using? I think of WiFi (formally IEEE 802.11) as a short range wireless networking standard.

Well Bob I use the hardware that my provider installed for me I am not savvy enough to say what IEEE 802.11 it is but I do know htat formally that included the b/g/ac specs if that is what you mean? I use extenders in the house on 5GHz as the siganl from the modem they put in does not give me a great speed on it's own.
John

jvickers · Sep 10, 2021

bobkn said:
I know very little about WiFi. I was surprised with my recent router change that my laptop was using the 2.4GHz band, and the download speed was limited to something like 50Mbps. The router merges 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands by default, and decides which one is best. After a long consultation with Comcast support, I found how to split the bands. Using a 5GHz connection give me a much higher negotiated data rate. (I don't recall the number.) Presumably the automatic setting optimized for range rather than bandwidth.

Usually (probably always nowadays), routers have two channels: one for a 2.4GHz signal and one for a 5GHz signal. Glad to see you got it sorted out - kind of. How old is your computer? If it's really old, you could have an older Wi-Fi. That might explain the slow 2.4GHz speeds. I'm thinking about getting a TP-Link 802.11ac dongle for my wife because I will be upgrading our Internet to a 1000Mbs this coming Thursday. I'd like her to benefit from the faster speeds. That's only if her 802.11n connection isn't fast enough for my liking. A TP-Link wireless dongle is only $15. If it doesn't perform as expected, I'm not really out much.

whitedragon33 · Sep 10, 2021

bobkn · Sep 10, 2021

jvickers said:
Usually (probably always nowadays), routers have two channels: one for a 2.4GHz signal and one for a 5GHz signal. Glad to see you got it sorted out - kind of. How old is your computer? If it's really old, you could have an older Wi-Fi. That might explain the slow 2.4GHz speeds. I'm thinking about getting a TP-Link 802.11ac dongle for my wife because I will be upgrading our Internet to a 1000Mbs this coming Thursday. I'd like her to benefit from the faster speeds. That's only if her 802.11n connection isn't fast enough for my liking. A TP-Link wireless dongle is only $15. If it doesn't perform as expected, I'm not really out much.

The laptop is a Lenovo Ideapad 110-15isk. It is spec'd through IEEE 802.11n. Presumably, that applies to both bands. (It is connected on the 5GHz band now.)

I had a conversation with a fellow earlier this evening who said that the 2.4GHz band is limited to 54Mbps. I'm not completely clear on that, but I believe that it applies to 802.11g. Newer versions (like 802.11n) don't have that limit.

What USB adapter are you considering for your wife? Just curious. My second PC connects via a USB adapter, but it's larger than a dongle. A7000 – Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi USB Adapter – USB 3.0, Dual Band