Don't trust your ISP's wi-fi router

I recently got Verizon FiOS. I paid for FiOS Quantum with speeds "up to 75Mbps/35Mbps." I wasn't really expecting to hit those peeks but was pleasantly surprised when my computer plugged in was getting speeds like this:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2362119608.png

Needless to say I was slightly underwhelmed when I went wi-fi (5 feet away) and got speeds like this:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2362104766.png

Sure, this is with a 5 year old macbook pro but I was positive I could get better speeds. At my old place I only had a cable modem so used my own airport extreme wi-fi router. So I unburied my router from the move and plugged it into the FiOS wi-fi router. BOOM... Now these are the speeds I am seeing on wi-fi from exactly the same distance away:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2362102733.png

Just slightly slower than being plugged into the ethernet. So, FYI, if you are not seeing promised speeds and are using their crap routers, you may benefit from purchasing a better one.

That's fast. You'll never see see advertised speeds because if overhead but you have a faster connection then I do for the enterprise network I manage.

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Oh I knew I wasn't going to see the advertised speeds. They do say "up to" which means, "yeah, not gonna happen" but I am still pleasantly surprised with the speed of FiOS in my area.

I am surprised that they give someone that pays for this service such a horrible wi-fi router (dual external antenna no-less). Even a cheap router can be bought that will best theirs by 4x. That is pretty pisspour service in IMHO.

That's because most equipment that ISPs provide are the cheapest garbage they can buy in bulk. They're also notorious for shuffling around bad equipment. Have a modem or router that's not working like it's supposed to? Don't worry, a friendly technician will replace it with a new one, then use your faulty one at the next install (which is usually me for some reason). I've always had the best performance using my own cable modem and my own router. Now I have a direct fiber connection. Straight out of the wall into my router. No modem required, no more resetting anything. Love the simplicity.

Was that Airport Extreme set to 5GHz? If you live in a multi-unit building or crowded residential area that will help with the "clutter" at 2.4GHz.

Same set-up I use, btw - FiOS modem connected to Airport Extreme.

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Originally Posted by systemoverblow'd

Needless to say I was slightly underwhelmed when I went wi-fi (5 feet away)...

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Off topic: does distance from the router affect speeds? I always thought it was a "you either get a signal or you don't" kind of thing. But I know pretty much nothing about this stuff.

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Originally Posted by Tippster

Was that Airport Extreme set to 5GHz? If you live in a multi-unit building or crowded residential area that will help with the "clutter" at 2.4GHz.

Same set-up I use, btw - FiOS modem connected to Airport Extreme.

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I dunno, I'll check. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by toast2266

Off topic: does distance from the router affect speeds? I always thought it was a "you either get a signal or you don't" kind of thing.

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Absolutely it does. I go downstairs and to the other side of the house and the speed goes down significantly.

I just went to speedtest.net and now I want to cry.

Question, though: Isn't ping time related to speed? I have a ping of 15ms but if my speed was any slower I'd be going backwards.

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Originally Posted by systemoverblow'd

Oh I knew I wasn't going to see the advertised speeds. They do say "up to" which means, "yeah, not gonna happen" but I am still pleasantly surprised with the speed of FiOS in my area.

I am surprised that they give someone that pays for this service such a horrible wi-fi router (dual external antenna no-less). Even a cheap router can be bought that will best theirs by 4x. That is pretty pisspour service in IMHO.

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It's probably just a malfunctioning router. If you call them, they'll give you another one. (And probably give yours to someone else.) It could also be an incompatibility between the firmware on your nic and the router's wifi interface. It would be worth upgrading your adapter's firmware and drivers to see if that changes anything. One of my friends had the same issue with his thinkpad and updating the software doubled the connection speed.

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Originally Posted by iceman

I just went to speedtest.net and now I want to cry.

Question, though: Isn't ping time related to speed? I have a ping of 15ms but if my speed was any slower I'd be going backwards.

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Ping time measures latency and end point accessibility which is more closely analogous to speed. Bandwidth measures the amount of data you can send at that speed. Sounds like you have a pretty fast car on a decent road but it doesn't carry very much stuff.

ping is the time it takes for your computer to communicate with the other computer on the other side of the city/country/world

What time of the day? Heavy use time window? Looks like a Sunday afternoon - couple weeks before x-mas - probably lots of traffic on the server as well.

This reminds me of ordering comcast internet a few years ago, the 25mb package.... they sent me a DOCSIS 2 capable modem that couldn't even do half the advertised speed. Called them up and they confirmed we should have gotten a DOCSIS 3 capable modem.... the way they recycle inventory probably helps them save money on customers who don't realize they're getting screwed.

HOLY SHIT, THE MODEM THEY GIVE YOU OR SELL YOUR FOR CHEAP MIGHT HAVE A FLAW IN A FEW OF THE MODELS?!

Home networking hardware sucks. It's probably not entirely Verizon's fault. I try to never "lease" or even buy a modem from the ISP if I don't have to.

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Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

HOLY SHIT, THE MODEM THEY GIVE YOU OR SELL YOUR FOR CHEAP MIGHT HAVE A FLAW IN A FEW OF THE MODELS?!

Home networking hardware sucks. It's probably not entirely Verizon's fault. I try to never "lease" or even buy a modem from the ISP if I don't have to.

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My point genius, is some people don't even think about it. I thought Verizons newer service would have hardware able to keep up with said service. I was wrong and have fixed the problem. Some stupids would call Verizon and bitch that their service sucks (which it doesn't) because they don't realize the hardware sucks.

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Originally Posted by toast2266

Off topic: does distance from the router affect speeds? I always thought it was a "you either get a signal or you don't" kind of thing. But I know pretty much nothing about this stuff.

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The distance can affect speed. If it is not getting a strong enough signal, the first thing it will do it try and step down the speed of the connection. The number of antenna, the device's antenna, the signal type, the settings for backwards compatibility all can enter into the "effective throughput" (which is all a speed test measures). Could be a setting on the router to be B or G and not N, could be other devices and noise around on the same channel and frequency....

Router JONG question here: so can I hook my old linksys router into the AT&T router that I have to have for U-verse to boost my wifi speeds/reception?

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Originally Posted by systemoverblow'd

My point genius, is some people don't even think about it. I thought Verizons newer service would have hardware able to keep up with said service. I was wrong and have fixed the problem. Some stupids would call Verizon and bitch that their service sucks (which it doesn't) because they don't realize the hardware sucks.

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Some people might just call them with the info you found and ask them to send another router. Some might also say that your service is only as good as the hardware that provides it, but you seem to think that's stupid. However, that would make the reasoning behind you buying expensive Apple hardware something of a mystery.

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Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

Router JONG question here: so can I hook my old linksys router into the AT&T router that I have to have for U-verse to boost my wifi speeds/reception?

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Probably not. If your router is old, it may only connect on the G or even only the B protocol, whereas anything new will connect on N. That being said, it would also depend on the protocols supported by your adapter. You could use it to increase your range by rebroadcasting your existing wireless, or you could run ethernet to it and broadcast from there. But there's no way to bridge those devices that add to your speed in a given area. Regardless of how you hook it up, between 2 devices supporting ethernet and N protocols, the diameter of your service area isn't going much beyond 700'.

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Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

Router JONG question here: so can I hook my old linksys router into the AT&T router that I have to have for U-verse to boost my wifi speeds/reception?

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Not too familiar with the AT&T dsl service (we are a Verizon market area) but it is a bad idea to do 2 routers TOGETHER and can be a support nightmare. If you can switch the AT&T router over to be a modem only, then you could put a router on the network and it may increase the speed. You would have to run some speed tests, as it is now, compare the numbers to what they are promising (download and upload numbers as mentioned probably will not be hitting the promised numbers- especially if you are further away from the central switching equipment). Then make the switch to a modem only and run the speed tests. If it improves, then set up a router and do the tests again to see if the numbers are the same as the second set of tests. Also remember that the speed tests are going to central servers and may vary with the amount of traffic (the reason most good speedtests offer multiple locations and suggested servers for best connection speed on their end.

Also that "old" Linksys router may not be the best choice (again without knowing what your definition of old is and the model and specifications). In the case of Systemoverblow connection, he is faster than the "old" wireless B speed connection (B supported 11 mbps) and a really "old" first generation router would definitely be a bottleneck for him as his speed test shows almost 6 times faster than the maximum speed B could support and even a bit faster than second generation wireless G too (not saying that is what his issue was though). If you want to pursue this testing, a good source of info is the forums over on DSL Reports web site. They have many discussions of the setups and modems/routers for all ISP's.

yea i check my speed religiously but I have never really had an issue with my fios router in terms of getting my desginated speed, but then again i don't live in a city and my house is small.

i don't think its the distance persay but rather having more distance increases the number of things that can block the signal.