Home WiFi slow

Saints Rest

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My apologies if this should have gone in an existing thread, but "new threads are good" a wise, but Sille, man once told me.

So I have Google Nest Wifi as my router with two points broadcasting my Optimum internet. It's about a year old. There's an ethernet cord from the modem to the first Nest point in a closet very close to the center-center-center (in all three dimensions) of our house. The second Nest point lives on the first floor.

When I run an internet speedtest within the Google Home app on my phone (which seems to be giving a score on the speed coming into the Nest router from the cable modem, I get scores in excess of 200mbs on the down and over 30mbs on the up. When I test the mesh network, I get great connection ratings.

In the past, when I would run speedtest.net on any of our devices -- MacBook Pro, iPhone X, or anything else, -- I generally got over 100/25. But lately, I'm getting scores in the range of 15-30 on the down and 5-10 on the up. Again, this goes for laptops and iPhones.

Nothing else has changed. No new devices sucking up bandwidth.

Any suggestions?
 

Saints Rest

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Is your ethernet speed unchanged? Just wondering if your provider is throttling you.
Yes. The speed that the Google Home app gives me (which I believe is measuring the speed coming into the WifI router) remains "blazing fast" at over 200-220 on the down and 30-40 on the up.
The issue is the speed out of the Nest Wifi into my devices.
And all devices seem to be suffering equally.
 

swiftaw

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Jan 31, 2009
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Have you tried changing the wifi channel, is possible your current channel is encountering interference.
 

SumnerH

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I have not. Nor do I have any idea how to do so.
1. Check first that you don't have 5Ghz disabled; most modern wifi routers will have 2 different bands (the older, lower-frequency bands and the newer 5Ghz bands) that they support. Often they expose both under the same network name ("SSID"), but sometimes they'll name them as My_Network and My_Network_5Ghz or something like that. You should see both from your clients when connecting (a phone generally has an easy interface to pick your network, so you can scan and see if there are 2 options and try the other one if so).

2. From your router's configuration (which you access by pointing a browser at it from a hard-wired computer: the IP address/URL should have been recorded during setup, but is possibly http://192.168.1.1 ), there should be an option to set the channel. Trying a few different options can sometimes find one that nothing else in your area conflicts with—a neighbor's wifi, remote control airplanes, a wireless stereo extender, or whatever. Sometimes if the neighbors or your house's electronics change you may need to hunt around again for a good choice.

If you're using 5Ghz it'll look something like this (sometimes it's just the numbers 36-140 without the frequency, to look less intimidating):
channels.png

If you're on an older protocol it'll be more like this, with channels 1-11 or :
channels2.png
 
Last edited:

Red Sox Physicist

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Jul 15, 2005
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Natick, MA
1. Check first that you don't have 5Ghz disabled; most modern wifi routers will have 2 different bands (the older, lower-frequency bands and the newer 5Ghz bands) that they support. Often they expose both under the same network name ("SSID"), but sometimes they'll name them as My_Network and My_Network_5Ghz or something like that. You should see both from your clients when connecting (a phone generally has an easy interface to pick your network, so you can scan and see if there are 2 options and try the other one if so).

2. From your router's configuration (which you access by pointing a browser at it from a hard-wired computer: the IP address/URL should have been recorded during setup, but is possibly http://192.168.1.1 ), there should be an option to set the channel. Trying a few different options can sometimes find one that nothing else in your area conflicts with—a neighbor's wifi, remote control airplanes, a wireless stereo extender, or whatever. Sometimes if the neighbors or your house's electronics change you may need to hunt around again for a good choice.

If you're using 5Ghz it'll look something like this (sometimes it's just the numbers 36-140 without the frequency, to look less intimidating):
View attachment 43059

If you're on an older protocol it'll be more like this, with channels 1-11 or :
View attachment 43060
The 2.4 GHz band only has 3 non-overlapping 20 MHz wide channels in the USA. For the 2.4 GHz band only select 1, 6, or 11. Some countries also allow channel 14.
 

SumnerH

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The 2.4 GHz band only has 3 non-overlapping 20 MHz wide channels in the USA. For the 2.4 GHz band only select 1, 6, or 11. Some countries also allow channel 14.
That's kind of true, but in practice interference doesn't follow 20 MHz-wide channels necessarily.

Those are good options to start with, definitely. But you can sometimes see better performance in real life by switching to something interim.
 

BlackJack

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Oct 11, 2007
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nayrbrey

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Yes I definitely recommend get a Mesh system, I have the Google one like Blackjack as well. 3 access points on 3 levels and it’s been a life saver. TV/Gaming PC/Xbox/work laptops and 4 phones give it a workout but it has held its own.
Also look into buying your own modem if you are renting from Xfinity/provider modem. I went with the Netgear cm600, but there are multiple options.
 

BlackJack

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Oct 11, 2007
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Yes I definitely recommend get a Mesh system, I have the Google one like Blackjack as well. 3 access points on 3 levels and it’s been a life saver. TV/Gaming PC/Xbox/work laptops and 4 phones give it a workout but it has held its own.
Also look into buying your own modem if you are renting from Xfinity/provider modem. I went with the Netgear cm600, but there are multiple options.
If you have Fios, and ditch cable (ie internet only or internet/phone only) you don’t even need the modem. Plug an Ethernet cable from the controller in your basement directly into the base unit and you’re off to the races. I don’t know if other providers have a similar setup or not.