[SOLVED] I got a 1 GB/s plan and I only get unde 4mb/s

Apr 9, 2020
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Hello,

This is my first time posting a question, and I have to say sorry because of any mistakes in what I'm gonna say here or if I didn't post it where I should've. Also, english is my second language so bare with me if I overexplain some things.

Today, I changed my TV cable and Internet Provider as my previous one was giving bad services, low download speeds and the internet was not working half the time.

I chose the 1GB/s plan, I was hoping I'd get at least more than before (I used to get around 3mb/s download speed). Now, even if the internet seems way more stable, the download speeds seem to be about 3.7mb/s, sometimes going as low as 1.5mb/s as I've seen. I don't expect to get the full 1GB/s speed, but I at least wish for an over 10mb/s download speed. A friend that lives close to me doesn't have the 1GB/s plan, but he has the 500mb/s plan (the same Internet Provider) and said that he even got 40mb/s download speed at some point, I'd love if I could get any close to that. Even tho, as I said, I have that 1GB/s plan, when I do the speed test, either on my ITP's site or any other speedtest site, I get around 40-47mb/s speed.

I have to specify that I live in two floor house. I live at the second floor, the principal router that gets the ethernet cable in is on the first floor, I get very poor signal from it so I bought another router (TP-Link) that has two antennas and has two signals (One is 5G, although my laptop can't find the 5G connection, my phone can, anyway, it's the same speed) so I connected with another cable the two routers, so I can have one of them upstairs and get stronger signal. I don't know if this may make the connection slower, I don't think so tho, because even if I connect to the first router and just unplug the second, I still get same speeds.

Please, don't recommend me to plug the ethernet cable directly into the laptop for better speeds, that's not an option for me, and I know that I can get decent speed from wifi as well, as I said, I don't even escape the full 1GB/s speed.

Thank you!
 
Solution
Your first test should be on ethernet even if it is hard to do temporally. You need to ensure that there is not something else wrong with your machine before you start replacing parts.

I would also place the laptop very close to each router and see what the maximum speed you get. Mostly this is to see if there is some issue that it does not like the second router more than your main router.

After this you can consider replacing the wifi card. External USB devices of course are the easiest but in general internal cards perform better because they can use the larger antenna in the back of the laptop screen and they tend to be higher signal power output. Replacing the internal card requires some reading of the manual and maybe...
First of all, sorry, but i have to say it. plug. the. cable.
now that thats out of my system, heres my answer

first of all, remember the 1GBps plan is 1 gigabit, not gigabyte.
lets say, you have 100 megabit, you will only download games at 12.5megabyte per second, and thats with full scaling.

with 1 gigabit you should get 125 megabytes per second, wifi will be slower tho.

5Ghz is not the same speed as 2.4ghz. it has less range but is much faster. with 2.4 you can expect around 50-60 megabit, if youre lucky and the router is in the next room or 2 over, or around 150 if its in the same room. while with 5ghz, it HAS to be in the same room, or on the otherside of the wall atleast, but you can expect upwards of 300-600 megabit.

you could also get a mesh network routers, like the google nest wifi, although its kind of expensive. you can find other cheaper ones.
a mesh network would get all of your routers at the same speed and signal power.

and also you could try finding out what wifi card there is in your laptop (if its killer or intel cards and if its 1X1 or 2X2)
2x2 is better of course.
 
Apr 9, 2020
5
0
10
First of all, sorry, but i have to say it. plug. the. cable.
now that thats out of my system, heres my answer

first of all, remember the 1GBps plan is 1 gigabit, not gigabyte.
lets say, you have 100 megabit, you will only download games at 12.5megabyte per second, and thats with full scaling.

with 1 gigabit you should get 125 megabytes per second, wifi will be slower tho.

5Ghz is not the same speed as 2.4ghz. it has less range but is much faster. with 2.4 you can expect around 50-60 megabit, if youre lucky and the router is in the next room or 2 over, or around 150 if its in the same room. while with 5ghz, it HAS to be in the same room, or on the otherside of the wall atleast, but you can expect upwards of 300-600 megabit.

you could also get a mesh network routers, like the google nest wifi, although its kind of expensive. you can find other cheaper ones.
a mesh network would get all of your routers at the same speed and signal power.

and also you could try finding out what wifi card there is in your laptop (if its killer or intel cards and if its 1X1 or 2X2)
2x2 is better of course.


Thanks for the fast reply!

The router is right outside my room, I get full signal from it, on my phone I get even the full 5Ghz signal, so I think it's close enough.

With all that, even on my laptop or my phone, I still have around 3mb/s download speed...

EDIT: nevermind, I downloaded Ookla speedtest from the appstore and I got 272mbps download speed and 312mbps upload speed.

Also I just tried downloading Call of Duty Mobile that has 1.62 GB size and I got it in around 40 seconds, maybe that means i have higher download speed on my phone? So the problem is either my laptop or I don't know what...

Still, I don't think I even have over 30 mbps download speed on my phone so... (s10e)
 
Thanks for the fast reply!

The router is right outside my room, I get full signal from it, on my phone I get even the full 5Ghz signal, so I think it's close enough.

With all that, even on my laptop or my phone, I still have around 3mb/s download speed...

EDIT: nevermind, I downloaded Ookla speedtest from the appstore and I got 272mbps download speed and 312mbps upload speed.

Also I just tried downloading Call of Duty Mobile that has 1.62 GB size and I got it in around 40 seconds, maybe that means i have higher download speed on my phone? So the problem is either my laptop or I don't know what...

Still, I don't think I even have over 30 mbps download speed on my phone so... (s10e)
phones nowadays have really good antennas and wifi cards, so it might be faster.

you should check if your laptop has 1x1 or 2x2 wifi. if it has 1x1, you could upgrade it to 2x2, and switch from a killer card to an intel one (generally are better.)
 
Apr 9, 2020
5
0
10
phones nowadays have really good antennas and wifi cards, so it might be faster.

you should check if your laptop has 1x1 or 2x2 wifi. if it has 1x1, you could upgrade it to 2x2, and switch from a killer card to an intel one (generally are better.)

How can I check that ?
 
Your first test should be on ethernet even if it is hard to do temporally. You need to ensure that there is not something else wrong with your machine before you start replacing parts.

I would also place the laptop very close to each router and see what the maximum speed you get. Mostly this is to see if there is some issue that it does not like the second router more than your main router.

After this you can consider replacing the wifi card. External USB devices of course are the easiest but in general internal cards perform better because they can use the larger antenna in the back of the laptop screen and they tend to be higher signal power output. Replacing the internal card requires some reading of the manual and maybe finding youtube video so you know how difficult it will be. Pretty much any card that will physically fit will work. Most devices use the small PCIE cards or the newer M.2 cards. Things to watch out for is if your current card has bluetooth support you will need the new one to also have that. Also since you can't add antenna to a laptop very easily you need to look the specs up on the old card and see if it is 1x1 or2x2. There are rare cards that use 3 antenna but most have 2.
 
Solution