- Nov 19, 2020
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I live in a suburb within the GTA near downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is NOT a rural area whatsoever. I had an ISP for many years that used copper wiring for their outdoor cables/wiring. Never really checked the speed I was getting at that time. It wasn't a very high speed package anyway. Mid range. But the speed was fine and nothing ever "dropped". Their prices were always increasing, so I left them and went to a 3rd party provider (that happens to use their lines).
With the 3rd party provider, I was getting speeds that were spot-on through my wired connection. Even wireless was great and spot-on around the house and much over the speed if I stood with my cell phone directly in front of the modem.
That ISP used a VOIP service and had a separate "phone-box" all connected to the modem. Is that phone box thing called a router...IDK? Or is a router something else entirely?? All I know is that there were TWO devices they provided.
I'm not tech savvy whatsoever. Please bear with me.
About 3 weeks ago, we had to switch providers again and decided to go with a company that says they provide fibre technology. They have coined their own term---FIBE technology. This company is a huge telecom company here in Canada. IT IS NOT A 3rd PARTY PROVIDER.
Our internet pkg is up to 500Mbps for downloads. This company also uses VOIP. (same as the 3rd party provider). It is necessary for certain people in this house to need a land-line phone, so....
BTW, it's not a HUGE house, roughly 2000 to maybe 2200 sq feet max. Not totally sure.
In this case, the provider gave me only ONE device and referred to it as a modem. It's called the HUB 3000. The land-line phone attaches to it.
A tech came out, cut the copper wires and put in his own wiring. I do not know if this is FTTN or FTTH. (fibre to the neighborhood or fibre to the house). I have heard that makes a difference. I have also learned that even though they claim it's fibre optics, the last 1 km is still copper wires. Who knows?? And does this matter? Is one better than the other? IDK.
My issue is this---the desktop that is connected directly by a Cat8 brand new ethernet cable to the modem is only getting max 290Mbps. We have tested at various times of day and the results are anywhere from 100 to 260-270. One day we disconnected the Wifi and did the test only on the wired connection, only on that ONE device. Everything else was turned off including the TV (which is also provided by this company and has a "signal booster box" connected to the TV receiver box). I did 2 tests in a row and the results were 307 Mbps and 327 Mbps respectively. That's the max I have ever got on a wired connection.
My package is up to 500 Mbps and I am paying for up to 500 Mbps. But obviously I am not getting this?
I have heard that depending on what area of the city one lives in, an ISP's speed can be better or worse----That, the underground wires and the infrastructure in my area may not be the best to receive the services of this particular provider?? Can THIS the cause of my speed issues?
When doing a speed test, the SERVER I connect to is about 25-30 minutes away.
Called the company who refused to send a tech over. Agent I spoke to was extremely rude and condescending the entire time... and told me the tests on his end...aka...the SIGNAL was fine. He lead me to an interface on my desktop to show me the results are 555 Mbps---"can you see this or not, can you see the results??" He told me that network to modem is fine and that the problem is my device.
Btw, the new equipment with the new provider is in the same spot as the last 2 provider's placed their equipment. Nothing has changed, not even my desktop location. There is no microwave or other things that can interfere. Everything in this house is the same as before.
Some specs----desktop is not old, mid-range "normal" desktop purchased in late 2017. The location of the desktop is an upstairs bedroom ADJACENT to the bedroom with the modem. There is literally only ONE WALL separating the 2 rooms. The wire goes through a small hole drilled at the base of that wall.
The other desktop in the house is a mid-range All-in-One desktop purchased in 2018. It is NOT attached by ethernet cable. It is located in a room directly underneath the bedroom where the modem is located. Literally the floor/ceiling separates the 2 rooms/equipment/devices. That desktop gets even less Mbps than the wired desktop, which I understand. It's using a wireless connection. However I don't think that a max speed of 135 to 140 is normal based on my 500Mbps package.
We do not download movies or music. We are not heavy computer users. We are not running multiple devices at the same time. We don't have excessive or unnecessary apps on our devices, we don't have any virus or malware. We have 2 desktops, 2 cells phones and ONE television. There is some light gaming that occurs daily for maybe 2 hours.
The cell phones in the house get and stay pretty much between 100 to 150Mbps. Sometimes, the numbers jump a little higher. Yes, those numbers are "good", but it's not near 500, is it!
The cell phones are not spectacular i phones or anything. They are mid-range and quite ok. They give no issues with any other functions and work just fine.
So I took the All-in-One desktop upstairs to the room with the modem, to test it. Speeds remained the same---in the 100 to 200 range. Attached an ethernet cable (Cat6) to modem and desktop. Speed went up just slightly. Did some research and learned that downloading a speed test app was the solution to know whether I'm getting what I'm paying for.
Learned that checking speeds by way of browser is inaccurate no matter which or how many different speed test sites you use. So I downloaded the Ookla app and the speed test showed 515 Mbps. Downloaded another app and got 488 Mbps. Yet another app gave me 495 Mbps. Pretty good, huh!!
Took OUT the ethernet cable and again ran several tests WITH AND WITHOUT USING THE APP and got results of 125, 143, 150, etc... on the 3 different sites. What's going on??
The ISP interface is useless. I cannot change channels, I cannot change or alter the frequencies. Was told by the rude phone agent that my modem selects it's channels and frequency automatically---aka--my device automatically selects what it needs. Neither him nor I can alter anything?? Their modem doesn't even have any buttons or lights to distinguish 2.4 or 5G. He says everything is" built-in".
The equipment with the last 2 providers allowed me to change things on the interface and troubleshoot equipment with a technician via phone call.
Am I sharing bandwith with the neighbor?? Am I being throttled?? I just want to figure out what the problem is?
Can someone please tell me what is going on? Why am I getting such poor speeds with a wired connection regardless of using apps or not? Shouldn't I be getting very close to 500Mbps with an ethernet cable?
I have a ROUTER that I purchased in 2017 called a D-LINK DIR 819. If I set this up to my current ISP provided modem, will it help? How do I set it up? I have all the necessary cables. The last time I used it was 3 years ago and the person who helped me with it has now moved very far away.
Or do I need to ask my provider for a different/new modem? Do I need to downgrade my speed pkg? Is the wiring done poorly outside? I understand that fibreglass is fragile. This set up wraps around parts of the outside walls. It is not a perfectly straight nor an unbending line.
I have no problem calling in again and making sure I speak with a civilized agent. I just need to know what to say and ask for? Or maybe, what can I do here on my end?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and MUCH APPRECIATION if you can try to help me!!
PS: Just noticed on this site, I had an option to select my country....didn't know that before... sorry if I posted in the wrong spot. Hopefully, it doesn't matter.
With the 3rd party provider, I was getting speeds that were spot-on through my wired connection. Even wireless was great and spot-on around the house and much over the speed if I stood with my cell phone directly in front of the modem.
That ISP used a VOIP service and had a separate "phone-box" all connected to the modem. Is that phone box thing called a router...IDK? Or is a router something else entirely?? All I know is that there were TWO devices they provided.
I'm not tech savvy whatsoever. Please bear with me.
About 3 weeks ago, we had to switch providers again and decided to go with a company that says they provide fibre technology. They have coined their own term---FIBE technology. This company is a huge telecom company here in Canada. IT IS NOT A 3rd PARTY PROVIDER.
Our internet pkg is up to 500Mbps for downloads. This company also uses VOIP. (same as the 3rd party provider). It is necessary for certain people in this house to need a land-line phone, so....
BTW, it's not a HUGE house, roughly 2000 to maybe 2200 sq feet max. Not totally sure.
In this case, the provider gave me only ONE device and referred to it as a modem. It's called the HUB 3000. The land-line phone attaches to it.
A tech came out, cut the copper wires and put in his own wiring. I do not know if this is FTTN or FTTH. (fibre to the neighborhood or fibre to the house). I have heard that makes a difference. I have also learned that even though they claim it's fibre optics, the last 1 km is still copper wires. Who knows?? And does this matter? Is one better than the other? IDK.
My issue is this---the desktop that is connected directly by a Cat8 brand new ethernet cable to the modem is only getting max 290Mbps. We have tested at various times of day and the results are anywhere from 100 to 260-270. One day we disconnected the Wifi and did the test only on the wired connection, only on that ONE device. Everything else was turned off including the TV (which is also provided by this company and has a "signal booster box" connected to the TV receiver box). I did 2 tests in a row and the results were 307 Mbps and 327 Mbps respectively. That's the max I have ever got on a wired connection.
My package is up to 500 Mbps and I am paying for up to 500 Mbps. But obviously I am not getting this?
I have heard that depending on what area of the city one lives in, an ISP's speed can be better or worse----That, the underground wires and the infrastructure in my area may not be the best to receive the services of this particular provider?? Can THIS the cause of my speed issues?
When doing a speed test, the SERVER I connect to is about 25-30 minutes away.
Called the company who refused to send a tech over. Agent I spoke to was extremely rude and condescending the entire time... and told me the tests on his end...aka...the SIGNAL was fine. He lead me to an interface on my desktop to show me the results are 555 Mbps---"can you see this or not, can you see the results??" He told me that network to modem is fine and that the problem is my device.
Btw, the new equipment with the new provider is in the same spot as the last 2 provider's placed their equipment. Nothing has changed, not even my desktop location. There is no microwave or other things that can interfere. Everything in this house is the same as before.
Some specs----desktop is not old, mid-range "normal" desktop purchased in late 2017. The location of the desktop is an upstairs bedroom ADJACENT to the bedroom with the modem. There is literally only ONE WALL separating the 2 rooms. The wire goes through a small hole drilled at the base of that wall.
The other desktop in the house is a mid-range All-in-One desktop purchased in 2018. It is NOT attached by ethernet cable. It is located in a room directly underneath the bedroom where the modem is located. Literally the floor/ceiling separates the 2 rooms/equipment/devices. That desktop gets even less Mbps than the wired desktop, which I understand. It's using a wireless connection. However I don't think that a max speed of 135 to 140 is normal based on my 500Mbps package.
We do not download movies or music. We are not heavy computer users. We are not running multiple devices at the same time. We don't have excessive or unnecessary apps on our devices, we don't have any virus or malware. We have 2 desktops, 2 cells phones and ONE television. There is some light gaming that occurs daily for maybe 2 hours.
The cell phones in the house get and stay pretty much between 100 to 150Mbps. Sometimes, the numbers jump a little higher. Yes, those numbers are "good", but it's not near 500, is it!
The cell phones are not spectacular i phones or anything. They are mid-range and quite ok. They give no issues with any other functions and work just fine.
So I took the All-in-One desktop upstairs to the room with the modem, to test it. Speeds remained the same---in the 100 to 200 range. Attached an ethernet cable (Cat6) to modem and desktop. Speed went up just slightly. Did some research and learned that downloading a speed test app was the solution to know whether I'm getting what I'm paying for.
Learned that checking speeds by way of browser is inaccurate no matter which or how many different speed test sites you use. So I downloaded the Ookla app and the speed test showed 515 Mbps. Downloaded another app and got 488 Mbps. Yet another app gave me 495 Mbps. Pretty good, huh!!
Took OUT the ethernet cable and again ran several tests WITH AND WITHOUT USING THE APP and got results of 125, 143, 150, etc... on the 3 different sites. What's going on??
The ISP interface is useless. I cannot change channels, I cannot change or alter the frequencies. Was told by the rude phone agent that my modem selects it's channels and frequency automatically---aka--my device automatically selects what it needs. Neither him nor I can alter anything?? Their modem doesn't even have any buttons or lights to distinguish 2.4 or 5G. He says everything is" built-in".
The equipment with the last 2 providers allowed me to change things on the interface and troubleshoot equipment with a technician via phone call.
Am I sharing bandwith with the neighbor?? Am I being throttled?? I just want to figure out what the problem is?
Can someone please tell me what is going on? Why am I getting such poor speeds with a wired connection regardless of using apps or not? Shouldn't I be getting very close to 500Mbps with an ethernet cable?
I have a ROUTER that I purchased in 2017 called a D-LINK DIR 819. If I set this up to my current ISP provided modem, will it help? How do I set it up? I have all the necessary cables. The last time I used it was 3 years ago and the person who helped me with it has now moved very far away.
Or do I need to ask my provider for a different/new modem? Do I need to downgrade my speed pkg? Is the wiring done poorly outside? I understand that fibreglass is fragile. This set up wraps around parts of the outside walls. It is not a perfectly straight nor an unbending line.
I have no problem calling in again and making sure I speak with a civilized agent. I just need to know what to say and ask for? Or maybe, what can I do here on my end?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and MUCH APPRECIATION if you can try to help me!!
PS: Just noticed on this site, I had an option to select my country....didn't know that before... sorry if I posted in the wrong spot. Hopefully, it doesn't matter.
Last edited:
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