Slow router and DSL

[P_Hoops]

At my house we have a modem/router that was provided by our cable company and I know this is not going to provide the house with intense blazing speeds but for our demand it seems to suit us properly. My dad is the one who is in control of all the wireless and wired aspects of our network and has absolutely no idea of what he is doing. He does lookup on forums and on google to get aid on how to do things but beyond that he is very in the dark. Our network tells us that we have something like 40-50mbps network phone and tv package and it typically does well. Normally my computer on the router will get a max of 15mbps download speeds at 5mb/s and when others are on the network depending on what they are doing, its usually 4-5mbps downloads between 1-2mb/s and for the most part has consistently remained this way. I understand when you are video streaming, especially at higher res, online videogaming, or downloading anything, a lot of the bandwidth is taken up and everyone else tends to have a slower connection. For example, my dad had to block Roblox from our network because it takes up almost all the bandwidth, even when connected to the Ethernet. Among what is connected our network, we have the television, but that has its own dedicated network access so I'm told, an apple TV, a WD my book, 4 tablets, 5 or 6 PCs one of which is Ethernet link and not WiFi, 5 or 6 iphones, and a personal cellular network connection because T-mobile, no explanation needed. So lately our network has been acting up, it is very consistently slow and even our television access is limited. I talked to our provider and they told us typically a slow connection straight from the source arises from working on the DSL network but they have not since they laid new fiber-optics two months ago. Its basically gotten slow to the point where I cannot even refresh my Instagram feed or check my email throughout the day and even watching tv is so bad it either freezes up or has very poor resolution. So far from the info i have received from our provider and others on google is that someone is using all the bandwidth. I've narrowed it down to two or three possibilities being that either someone is lying at our house and is constantly downloading/video-gaming/or HD video streaming, someone has hacked into our network and is using it or planted some virus or whatnot (wouldn't be a surprise because my dad has like no idea what he is talking about and doesn't know how to manage the network), or lastly our provider is lazy and is making up excuses for a hardware malfunction or network malfunction. I'm curious though as to what really is happening and I would at least like to see our performance back to the way it had originated from. So is there something I can do about this?

 

[Ralston18]

The router's logs may provide some insight but overall your network is most likely overloaded and further impaired if mis-configured or otherwise not set up correctly.

The network will only be as fast as the slowest link any physical problems (cables, ports, splitters, etc.) will aggrevate the problem.

Probably not a virus and yes your ISP is likely to point back at you especially if you are not using a router or modem/router provided by them.

All around not much can be done unless you and your Dad can agree to work it all out together. Maybe time for a family meeting......

 

[P_Hoops]

The router's logs may provide some insight but overall your network is most likely overloaded and further impaired if mis-configured or otherwise not set up correctly.

The network will only be as fast as the slowest link any physical problems (cables, ports, splitters, etc.) will aggrevate the problem.

Probably not a virus and yes your ISP is likely to point back at you especially if you are not using a router or modem/router provided by them.

All around not much can be done unless you and your Dad can agree to work it all out together. Maybe time for a family meeting......

Okay thanks, that's kinda what I figured.