[SOLVED] Not getting 200 Mbps as advertised by Spectrum

[alextrify]

Hi there,

I received a letter in the mail from Spectrum yesterday saying that they're upgrading our speeds to 200 Mbps from 100 Mbps at no additional cost; the upgrade was effective immediately.

However, I'm not getting speeds close to 200 Mbps at all on my ASUS laptop. It goes up to around 130 Mbps only. The strange thing is that my iPhone 7 (iOS 12.4.1) can get speeds up to 231 Mbps. I've tested both speeds on speedtest.net. Both are connected to the 5 GHz band. 7 devices are connected to the router.

Computer specs:
https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-GL552VW/
OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit, version 10.0.18362
CPU: Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-6700 HQ CPU @ 2.60 GHz, 2.59 GHz
Mobo: Asus GL552VW


Router:
TP-Link Archer A7
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AC17...0945985&sprefix=tp+link+archer,aps,223&sr=8-3

Modem:
Spectrum's Ubee E31U2V1
DOCSIS 3.1 Advanced Voice Modem
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1578219/Charter-Spectrum-E31u2v1.html#manual

Router's firmware is updated to version 1.0.11.

Not sure if everything is accurate or if I included everything that's needed (bear with me as this is my first post and I'm not tech savvy at all).

What can I do?

Thank you in advance.

 

[kaehligj]

You need to test the "speed" directly on the modem/router from your PC, with no other devices connected.

"Speed" - not speed - because it is actually not speed on a network connection.
It is bandwidth, which is confusing as it still is Mbps - but averaged over time.

The router will share and distribute this bandwidth between all connected devices.
If you have 3 devices connected, you will then get 200Mbps/3 = 66.6Mbps bandwidth pr device, as you can never get a higher total bandwidth than you pay for.

Hope this clarifies the mystery ?

 

[bill001g]

You need to test on ethernet.

The numbers you see on wifi are deceptive marketing numbers not actual transfer speeds. These idiots would call a 1gbit ethernet cable 2000 because they add the transmit speed and receive speed together. Unlike wifi ethernet can actually send 1gbit and receive 1gbit at the same time.

Your speed difference are likely related to the nic cards in the devices and how close you are to the router. You end devices and the router will negotiate the fastest possible connection that each support. If you end device can not use the faster encoding the router supports it will drop back to the slower ones.

This site somewhat more scientific testing of routers. Look at how low the number are compared to the fake marketing numbers.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/119-5-ghz-profile-dn/35

 

[alextrify]

Okay, so I have tested my laptop on ethernet and it did go up from 130 and has hit speeds of 170 Mbps, but it's not consistent. It still stays at around 120-130 consistently.

Would I need a new NIC card for my laptop then?

 

[mdd1963]

Few laptops are going to have any user replaceable parts pertaining to wired network...

I'd just accept your laptop might be partially limited by it's chipset, and call it a day. And just because they say 200 Mbps, do not be expecting constant 200 Mbps everywhere you go, everything you do....; as you've learned already, be happy if you even get it (or close to it) 'sometimes'

 

[gggplaya]

Computer specs:
https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-GL552VW/
OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit, version 10.0.18362
CPU: Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-6700 HQ CPU @ 2.60 GHz, 2.59 GHz
Mobo: Asus GL552VW

Your laptop lists it's specifications as "Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n or 802.11 ac (WiDi) ". So unless you paid extra for the wireless AC card, your laptop is probably just wireless N.

For wireless N 130mbps real world speeds is probably about right for most consumer routers with out of the box settings.

Now that you have 200mbps, you may want to consider upgrading the network card to wireless AC or even wireless AX (wifi 6) standards. They're only about $15, it's a cheap upgrade.