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summertime
join:2014-06-12

summertime

Member

Wireless Speed Tests

Hi,

I have posted this in the Time Warner forum for direct support, but would appreciate some input from others not connected with Time Warner, as they do nothing but come to my house and blame me for the difficulties I have been having.

I've been having trouble with my internet being spotty. It goes in and out at times. (My digital phone also does the same thing, as does my cable on the dvr). For internet, I am subscribed to Ultimate 50 mbps. I've been running some speed tests with the TWC website on my internet. When I run these tests, I run them from the laptop sitting within 4 feet of the Arris modem/router. There are no other wireless devices connected when I run the tests. These are the results I got over the past 24 hours. Please look at these and tell me if these results are normal?

Download/ Upload
23.44/ 4.22
15.84/5.18
23.30/ 5.26
12.15/4.80
19.45/5.07
36.58/4.28
28.38/4.36
16.63/4.83

I have more if you need them. And, I have the actual screenshots. In addition to these numbers, on the connection graph there are lots of peaks and drops. I don't know what any of this means, but one technician came yesterday and said he didn't know what to do about the phone glitches. One came today and said I'm not paying for 50mpbs, just the 5mpbs and I am getting at/near that (even though I showed him the price difference between Ultimate and Extreme, and the ONLY difference between the two is the download speeds of 50 vs. 30 (not upload speed). He also said I'm going to have problems with the phone line simply because it is digital. Is that true? No one warned me of that before I switched to Time Warner for phone service in January.

Thanks for looking at this. Any information you can give me will be appreciated.

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

2 recommendations

billaustin

MVM

Wireless speed tests will always vary. To get an accurate check, you need to use a wired connection for speed tests.

The issues with the phone and television cutting out are service issues that need to be address by your provider. Concentrate your efforts on getting this fixed first.
summertime
join:2014-06-12

1 recommendation

summertime

Member

When I connect the laptop with the wire the speed tests are great. 50mpbs and 5mpbs. I guess, then, that the wireless speeds I'm getting are to be expected.

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

1 recommendation

billaustin

MVM

Due to interference from neighbors, wireless will always vary. The more neighbors with wireless, the worse it gets. Your best bet for consistently fast wireless is to switch to the 5ghz band. Depending on your existing equipment, that may require a new wireless router and a new wireless adapter for the laptop.
summertime
join:2014-06-12

summertime

Member

Do you have any recommendations? I want to buy my own modem anyway, so I don't have to keep paying TWC to rent this gateway. I only have a few options for modems though (I have the Ultimate 50): »www.timewarnercable.com/ ··· dem.html

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

1 recommendation

mozerd to summertime

MVM

to summertime
said by summertime:

When I run these tests, I run them from the laptop sitting within 4 feet of the Arris modem/router.

The Arris works great as a CABLE MODEM but as a integrated cable modem/ Router/Switch/Wireless device performance sucks.

My suggestion is:
Purchase a Netgear R6300 wireless Router and
Put the Arris in Bridge Mode, then connect the R6300 to the bridged Arris and your wireless performance should improve very significantly.

However, do NOT run wireless test as close as 4 feet from the wireless transmitter --- move the test machine to be at least 10 feet from the wireless radios then run your tests.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to summertime

MVM

to summertime
said by summertime:

When I run these tests, I run them from the laptop sitting within 4 feet of the Arris modem/router. There are no other wireless devices connected when I run the tests.

I've stated my personal opinion about speed tests over wireless before, and that is they are made of SUCK! bar none.

2nd billaustin See Profile that if you have internet speeds that fast, it's better to test it over a wired connection.

If you insist on testing what your internal wireless -- and by extension what the Arris -- can do, or whether it's a limiting
factor, limit your variables by taking your internet out of the equation.

...as for recommendations of equipment, as you haven't given any specific needs, my usual starting point
is the router / wireless charts over at smallnetbuilder

My 00000010bits

Regards

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

1 edit

1 recommendation

Selenia to summertime

Premium Member

to summertime
Having dealt with TWC for some time(and some other cable companies for that matter), their wireless devices are made of absolute suckage for the most part. Some of the worst I seen were given to people by TWC. Not worth the $10/month certainly. Some aren't worth $10 period IMHO, nevermind a month. Many bought consumer devices suck too, but many mid and high range, even some low range aren't as bad as I seen cable companies rent out. My recommendation? Get one compatible with DD-WRT or OpenWRT that has plenty of RAM or CPU, or build your own with pfSense or Smoothwall. Many professional grade models will handle the throughput, but one doesn't need that kind of expense just to handle the faster home grade connections, unless you have Google Fiber(even then, the ports will handle the speed as will a home built router but wireless isn't up to delivering a gigabit just yet). But when I had the 50 mbit package from Cox, my laptop and tablet pulled full speed off wireless(home built pfSense box with dd-wrt router as AP handling WLAN QoS and wireless). The dd-wrt router did great on its own but pfSense rocks!

Edit: PS-I always explicitly ask the cable company for a basic passthrough modem to avoid complications. If all they have are NAT devices, I ask for one that can be put in bridged mode and make sure it can be when they deliver. If the rep doesn't know what that is, I ask for a manager and tell them to make sure I get one that can be. Often the NAT performance on typical rented modems sucks, as well.
summertime
join:2014-06-12

summertime to mozerd

Member

to mozerd
mozerd,

With my Wifi, if I walk out of the room the Arris sits in, I loose signal. So, TWC put in my old router (Netgear R6200)with an extender that plugs into the outlet. That created a 2nd network that covers the rest of my house. So, of course, speed tests get very bad throughout the rest of the house!

Thanks for your advice!
summertime

summertime to HELLFIRE

Member

to HELLFIRE
HELLFIRE,
Thanks for the smallnetbuilder link! I'll do some research in there.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia to summertime

Premium Member

to summertime
The setup I described can have as many APs as you like. Just make sure they are wired and overlapping ones are on different channels. Make sure that if you use a router as an AP, the NAT is disabled. Else, you'll have double NAT through a consumer grade router and performance will really suck. If you can't wire ethernet to the remote APs, you could bridge them to your main switch using powerline or ethernet over coax adapters, whichever is practical in your situation.

mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON

mozerd to summertime

MVM

to summertime
said by summertime:

mozerd,

With my Wifi, if I walk out of the room the Arris sits in, I loose signal. So, TWC put in my old router (Netgear R6200)with an extender that plugs into the outlet. That created a 2nd network that covers the rest of my house. So, of course, speed tests get very bad throughout the rest of the house!

If the Arris is not in bridge mode and the R6200 is used your results will be Poor to very poor. The R6200 is not a good performer, whereas the R6300 is a very good to excellent performer -- I do not recommend "extender" technology regardless who makes it.