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Don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but Time Warner has just dramatically increased internets speeds in my area (Raleigh NC) which is causing a few questions to come to mind. I suppose it relates to my getting crazy speeds of 342/23 (down/up) on my wired pc but only 60/23 on my wireless pc. TWC is renting me a modem/router combo - its an Arris TG1672.
Forgive these likely basic questions, but I'm wondering:
- should I ask TWC for a different box in order to increase my wireless speeds? Or perhaps buy my own router and ask for just a modem?
- just because speeds are faster, does that mean the pipe is broader as well? ie. should the user experience of simultaneous streaming videos across a few televisions be improved? (big surprise, my kids like to stream different netflix programs all at the same time!)
- Are the Samsung TVs and their internal wifi apps (such as Netlfix) built to take advantage of these speeds? (I ask because beyond my one wireless macbook, i think its the televisions and Direct TV wireless service that I'd like to see utilize these faster speeds...
1) Depends on the box you have. If you have the older Docsis 2.0 modem then, yes, you should ask for a newer one. If you have the newer Motorola Surfboard, that supports 3.0, no. Which do you have?
2) Yes, the "pipe is fatter" and you should be able to do more on it.
That is a telephone gateway, are you using their phone service? If so you can't just replace the modem, you need one that's compatible with their system. It appears to be Docsis 3 anyway so no need to replace it if it's functioning correctly. It's also 802.11n so it's fairly current. You'll never get remotely close to the results your getting with the wired PC, which sounds a bit off by the way, that's a very high tier speed.
Unless your clients (PC, TV, etc) are wireless n you won't get the performance benefits the router is capable of. What was your speed before the upgrade?
I was on TWC Ultimate plan which was delivering 50-60 MBpS download. They've been promising faster speeds being rolled out for a while as Google Fiber is entering our area too.
I tried posting a photo of speediest.net to this reply - its consistently around 340 down when I'm wired in. Switching from the 2.4 wife to 5G increased my wifi speed to about 110 Mbps.
I am using their phone service. I'd like to find out if there is a combined modem/phone/router box offered by TWC to share these crazy speeds across my wifi. Maybe someone here can comment further but will call TWC too.
Your modem is Docsys 3.0 so no need to replace that. However the WIFI router is only 802.11n. You could get a separate dual band 802.11AC router and hook it up to one of the downstream gigabit ports on the Arris. Also make sure you go into the WIFI part of the setup for the router and turn off any bands that you don't use. I'd kill A and B for starters. You will probably need to keep G as I bet a some of the wireless devices in your home are 802.11G. For 802.11N clients, configure them to use N only and if they are dual band, use 5GHz only.
If you option click on the WIFI icon on your mac, it will tell you the current negotiated connection speed. As others have said, you are unlikely to get anywhere near the headline theoretical speeds. I have WIFI AC and gigabit managed switches and all my large data consumers are 802.11AC. It can get pricey to upgrade all of them though. When on a wired connection I get very close to the speed I am paying Comcast for.... Of course that is in the middle of the day when all my neighbors are at work and the WIFI channels are quiet. In the evening I get significant drops in speed on both wired and WIFI. Going to the 5GHz band is a good first step. Going to an 802.11AC router with a good GbE connection would help, but Macs are probably one of the worse machines in terms of upgrading the internal WIFI adapter to an AC adapter.
Regarding your specific questions. All of the smart WIFI connected stuff in the house will share WIFI channels seamlessly, you do not need to do anything. None of these devices will expect this kind of bandwidth, nor do they need it. One thing I am seeing more and more is huge contention for channels in the 2.4Ghz range in dense urban settings. If you are in an apartment with 10's of neighbors around you, you will see significant bandwidth issues as WIFI is a sharing a relatively small # of channels. Since less people are in the 5GHz band, you get both less contention and wider channels.
A broader pipe is a broader pipe, you are diverting 'water' to many sources but there is still more water coming out the pipe to begin with.
Finally, if your home is wired with CAT5e or CAT6 cabling to each room, put as much of your technology as you can on wired connections. It will reduce contention for WIFI channels and it will be faster (device to device), more secure (as long as your router is properly configured) and more reliable.
Finally, if you can get this modem from TWC, you will be happy. The Arris (now Cisco) DPC3941T is pretty nice. DOCSIS 3, WIFI AC with 3x3 MIMO, USB, great security options, VOIP gateway and 4 Gigabit ports. http://www.cisco.com/web/consumer/support/dpc3941t.html
Last edited by timfountain; 09-11-2015 at 07:35 PM..
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thanks.
