We had A.T.&T. install their fiber internet in our house last week.
When the technician left he made sure all our TV’s, Rokus, and computers were connected. He showed me how fast videos and such loaded.
But now we notice no improvement over their regular internet. I did a couple of on-line speed tests and find we are barely getting 90mbs, not the 1000 we’re supposed to get. We are using their provided router and such, so it shouldn’t be an equipment problem.
Before I begin the nightmare of their suck job customer service, does anyone else have this service and have any tips?
I have CenturyLink gigabit fiber service, which I suppose is somewhat analogous.
What did “how fast videos and such loaded” entail? That doesn’t sound like a speed test that gives you a number that you can use. If you’re talking about just showing how great it is to start a Netflix movie on your Roku for example that’s probably not gonna look that different on a regular 20mbps connection versus a 1000mbps connection.
How are you doing your speed test? Over WiFi or plugged directly into their router over ethernet? WiFi can be significantly slower, I think in particular if you’re using 2.4G or if you’re even slightly further away (or behind a wall, etc.) with 5G.
I know you’re using the router directly so this probably doesn’t apply, but in my house the best I can do is about 500mbps I believe due to a limitation on my mesh internet system. I think there is something I can do to fix that but I’m pretty much at the “500mbps is enough” for anyone phase. I don’t actually need gigabit service, it just happened to be the cheapest option in the area even compared to Comcast’s sucky 40mbps cable service
Wow, I can’t imagine any regular Internet stuff keeping up with that kind of bandwidth…but I live under a rock, and maybe people are experiencing mind-blowing downloads elsewhere.
Regular video like YouTube and Netflix just doesn’t consume as much bandwidth as one would think.
Now, for a question: have you checked all of the switches and devices in your home network? There are some switches that will support gigabit Ethernet but if one single device plugged into them only supports 100mbps they will treat everything as 100mbps.
Try eliminating things–hook up a computer direct to the router and do your testing; that will allow you to narrow down the possible root causes.
With extremely high speed connections normal speed tests aren’t always accurate. Try using Google Fiber Speed Test instead: http://speedtest.googlefiber.net/
Yup, that sucks it should be much faster than that. Try eliminating all wireless connections (i.e. connecting only with an ethernet cable) and then run the speed test again.
If it’s much faster on a hardwired connection your home router’s wireless is limiting your speed. If it’s about the same I’d say you have a legit complaint. They always claim speeds are “up to” the speed advertised but you should be seeing more than 1/10th of that.
OP, you didn’t really explain your home networking setup, but: if you’re expecting 1000 mbps over a wifi connection, well that’s just not going to happen, period. Wifi can’t possibly keep up. On a good windy day with a great wifi router and modern devices, you’d get maaaaybe 300mbps over wifi, but probably closer to the 100mbps you’re seeing. 1000mbps is really only for ethernet connectivity, if you have a 1000 base T switch.
Here’s the thing- your connection between one of your devices is composed of multiple links- you can think of them as pipes if you like. Each one has different capacity.
So your AT&T Fiber is basically the connection between your house and AT&T’s network. But if you’re using a wireless device, that may have different speed than your fiber connection. And within AT&T’s network, there may be hops that are faster or slower. And between AT&T and whatever site you’re going to may have hops at different speeds.
The kicker is that your connection is only as fast as the slowest one. Historically that’s almost always been the connection between your house and your ISP (AT&T).
But with a 1000 mbps connection there, you’re almost certainly going to start seeing bottlenecking somewhere else. Most wi-fi isn’t 1000 mbps. Hell, a lot of wired connections aren’t that fast, or aren’t that fast all the time.
For the sake of argument, let’s say you’re running your speed test from a PC that’s wired to your router with a gigabit ethernet connection (1000base-T) with a really short cable, so that you’re actually getting 1000 mbps through it. And let’s go further and say that your AT&T fiber connection is going at the full 1000 mbps as well.
If there’s a 500 mbps hop in AT&T’s network somewhere, even if the website is on a 1000+ mbps connection, and AT&T’s external gateway is 1000+ mbps, your connection is going to be 500 mbps.
squeegee is right too; IF your equipment is super-duper 802.11ac, and everything is just-so, you might get 1000+ mbps via wi-fi. But a lot of stuff isn’t 5 ghz yet, and a lot isn’t 802.11ac (or higher) yet. All of those are going to be slower than 1000 mbps and will be a bottleneck.
I dispute that any real-world user would ever see 1000 mbps over wifi of any flavor. You’d get that speed if you were like 4 feet from the router, using the very newest device and router. And if that were the case what’s the point of using wireless at all?
I have a new Orbi mesh network, 802.11etc, the fast stuff. I just checked using my extremely recent vintage Macbook Air, which will also have latest wifi tech. The router and laptop were maybe 18 feet apart, but through a couple of walls, and I saw throughput of about 130mbps. That’s probably as good as anyone sees using wifi in the real world in a real house.
OP: call an electrician and pull wire if you want the full bandwidth, or just understand a lot of your devices just aren’t going to go full speed regardless of your possible internet speed. A median solution is to locate your fiber modem directly next to your most important device and plug that device into the router using an ethernet cable. That device will get full bandwidth*. The rest of your devices will get wifi speeds.
*Assuming that device is equipped with 1000 base T “gigabit” ethernet ports, which many recent computers would have, but maybe yours doesn’t.
I just did the same test 3 feet from the main router, using both a Macbook Pro and an Air. I tested by copying a file from my ethernet connected computer to each laptop, measuring the time with a stopwatch, then dividing by the file size (in bits, not bytes). Result: 308mbps.
I went looking for an explainer for real world wifi speeds and found this:
So yeah: 802.11ac is 100mbps typical, 300mbps on a good windy day in close proximity. Or exactly my experience.
Frankly, the claimed speeds of Wifi routers is nothing short of fraudulent. Netgear claims something like 1200mbps for the Orbi, but nobody has or will get that speed, ever.
Good, windy day means “if god the are smiling, and the weather is optimal” and the test vehicle is going down a steep slope, you’d expect the top results possibly beyond what can be duplicated.