Need help explaining ethernet/router situation with landlord

[mackneasy]

I've been having an issue with my new network after I moved to a new place. Awhile after I moved in, the wireless began experiencing problems with the modem/router (provided by Comcast) and it got so bad she eventually bought a Netgear N750. This was just the other day, and the wireless is better but still spotty, especially for my desktop and my Xbox 360.

I've been using a powerline Ethernet connection in order to bypass the spotty wifi. The first Comcast technician that came in told her there was no problem with it, but another one came in the other day and told her it's ruining everything. She now refuses to let me use an Ethernet cable, and my desktop has the most frustratingly useless wireless connection, and online gaming is utterly impossible.

Because I said that my Ethernet connection fixes everything, she is under the impression that it is "stealing" her own mbps rate (she measures everything with the Xfinity speed test). The only way that I know that it could be possible is through QoS, which is turned off in the router settings.

I'm dealing with someone who knows nothing about networking. She thought "Gigabit Wired" labeled on the router's box meant with the wifi. I have moderate experience but not enough to deal with this. So my question is this: is there any other method of data packet prioritization besides QoS and how can I convince her that my Ethernet cable is not the problem?

 

[Richard Ricardo]

It would be very difficult to explain it to somebody who doesn't listen to you. My suggestion would be to call in another comcast technician and ask him to explain to her that the ethernet is not causing any problems. Since you aren't a technician, she will take their word over yours.

 

[bill001g]

You ethernet cable though COULD be her problem. You have crappy wireless prevents you from using what she perceives is HER bandwidth. If you can use none then she can use it all. When you have ethernet you now have the ability to consume bandwidth. How much depends on what you do but really there is nothing stopping you from use all the bandwidth.

It really depends how big the internet connection is. If it is large like the 105m ones you see lately it is almost impossible for someone to use even a fraction of this unless they are doing abusive things like torrent. If it is a smaller connection is not too hard for one user doing simple things like netflix hi def video or other forms of video streaming to eat 4-10m.

There really is no easy way to limit the traffic each user gets even with QoS. Your router can only really control what it is sending ie upload bandwidth. The more common problem is over use of the inbound..ie download bandwidth. This one the ISP is in control of what traffic is send or discarded and your router can't do a lot since the data is gone before it see anything.

I suspect this is mostly a non technical issue based on her perceptions of use. It doesn't really matter what the speed test says. If you have a 40m internet and you are using 10m and she wants to use 20m it will run fine. Speedtest will say she can only get 30m when you are using 10m but if she does not actually need more than 30m it won't run any slower. The only time you see a degradation in service is if the connection gets to 100% load and something must be delayed or dropped. This is similar to a highway, when it is not overcrowded every one runs at the speed limit until you get one too many cars and then it slows down.

 

[Beachnative]

1) Ask the landlord to see her contract with Comcast and see what service level she has (bandwidth speed)
2) Test her bandwidth using only one computer connected to the internet
3) If the connection speed is slower than what you are promised call Comcast and complain- You a re paying for a "best effort" service and not CIDR- Committed Information Data Rate meaning they promise you up to a certain speed
4) If the speed is good then I'd look at the traffic on the WiFi- The Netgear N750 is dual band up to 750M (or so they say) and as long as you are not running something that hogs up the bandwidth you should be OK.
5) I would ask the landlord to see what WiFi devices are connection and make sure there are no road blocks such as B devices slowing crap down.
6) Change the SSID to another name and add devices one at a time to see when it slows down. This will allow greater control of who is logging on and demand.

Also why are you using a desktop and an Xbox at the same time? If you are using the built in WiFi adapter then buy another one that connects using a USB cord and I can place the adapter for better reception. A desktop sits down low and making the signal crappy, my new HP i7 16GB machine had a built in and it sucked! I bought a new Netgear USB using a USB cord with extension and it kicks butt!!! No loss and all the bars are lit.

 

[mackneasy]

You ethernet cable though COULD be her problem. You have crappy wireless prevents you from using what she perceives is HER bandwidth. If you can use none then she can use it all. When you have ethernet you now have the ability to consume bandwidth. How much depends on what you do but really there is nothing stopping you from use all the bandwidth.

It could, but through the process of elimination I know for sure it is not any of my devices that are the problem. The problem is consistent when all but one of my devices have disabled their wireless functions. It is consistent with and without the ethernet connection. It is consistent when no one else is even in the house and all other devices are shut off or not in the house.

I suspect this is mostly a non technical issue based on her perceptions of use.

This is probably part of the issue. She says whenever I'm gaming using ethernet her phone won't connect to the router. Now she's relating a connection problem to a data rate problem.

 

[mackneasy]

1) Ask the landlord to see her contract with Comcast and see what service level she has (bandwidth speed)
2) Test her bandwidth using only one computer connected to the internet
3) If the connection speed is slower than what you are promised call Comcast and complain- You a re paying for a "best effort" service and not CIDR- Committed Information Data Rate meaning they promise you up to a certain speed
4) If the speed is good then I'd look at the traffic on the WiFi- The Netgear N750 is dual band up to 750M (or so they say) and as long as you are not running something that hogs up the bandwidth you should be OK.
5) I would ask the landlord to see what WiFi devices are connection and make sure there are no road blocks such as B devices slowing crap down.
6) Change the SSID to another name and add devices one at a time to see when it slows down. This will allow greater control of who is logging on and demand.

Also why are you using a desktop and an Xbox at the same time? If you are using the built in WiFi adapter then buy another one that connects using a USB cord and I can place the adapter for better reception. A desktop sits down low and making the signal crappy, my new HP i7 16GB machine had a built in and it sucked! I bought a new Netgear USB using a USB cord with extension and it kicks butt!!! No loss and all the bars are lit.

Because of her complaints she received three free months of an upgrade to their premium internet service (whatever the hell that means), and though it made my web browsing marginally faster, it still does not fix the problem. The problem is not the internet, but in the wireless transmission. I have yet to study the logs on the new router, but on the old I noticed that the router/modem (Arris TG862) constantly restarted its wireless functions (randomly between 5-25 minutes apart), which is fine for web browsing, but is something that game consoles cannot handle because it boots me from online and requires that I manually reconnect.

The connection has cut out once or twice on my desktop, but honestly I should probably get a USB wifi adapter. It does indeed suck, so hopefully that will fix the problem on that.

If that works, then at this point the only problem is my xbox. I'll tweak the settings of the router when I get back from school and try to assign a static IP, open the necessary ports, etcetera to see if that will help. My only frustration is the strange way the router slows and/or stops wireless traffic and the witch hunt that ensues in my room, which has ended in the ban of my Ethernet cable.

 

[bill001g]

I see that is totally irrational. To think the actual wireless signal is affected by a ethernet cable. You might affect the total utilization of the WAN but you running your traffic over ethernet rather than wireless should actually help her wireless signal because it now is competing with less devices.

Pretty much the way the router is designed is you have switch chip which the ethernet connects to. You have a radio chip which the wireless connects to. And you have a cpu chip that both these chips connect to that does the function of the router. Except for some small amount of broadcast traffic no data flows between the switch chip and the radio chip. It goes to the router chip and out to the internet.

If there is some bug "maybe" the ethernet traffic could cause issues for the router chip that caused to to tell the radio to disconnect. Generally the radio chip is handling all the communication with the end device including all the encryption and packet retransmission completely independently of the router cpu.

This really sounds like you have random wireless interference from a neighbor or some other device in your house.