Edit: at risk of preemptively saying “solved” - disabling the QoS on the router bumped the desktop browser speedtest from the ~600 up to >950Mbps.
My internet plan with my ISP is for 1000 Mbps. This is far more than I need almost always, but it is what they say I am paying for. However, I can’t get any speed tests to read more than ~650 Mbps, which is around about what my old package was.
My router itself has a speedtest functionality and that is what I’m getting off of that. As I’m writing this post, I did a speedtest on my wired-in desktop and got ~590Mbps on speedtest.net.
One thought I had was that maybe the ethernet cables themselves are the limit. All of them say ‘cat5e’ (actually, just checked and the modem-to-router is cat6), though, which should be 1000Mbps, yea? I swapped out the cable from the modem to the router once and got the same speed with the new ethernet cable.
Maybe the router is just too weak? Well, I used iperf3 between two desktops that are both hardwired in and I got ~940 “Mbits/sec”. Unless I’m messing up the unit conversion (which I certainly am annoyed by the difference between “megabytes per second” and “megabits per second”), that is the 1000Mbps that I’d expect to max out the ethernet cables. So, since those two machines are going through the router, it doesn’t seem that the router is the bottleneck for my speed to the great outdoors.
The modem? The modem’s specsheet says it can do 2.5Gbps (well, actually I assume there is a funny typo - it says “10/100/1000/2500 Gbps RJ-45 port”, but I don’t think it is doing 2.5 terrabytes/bits per second). The little led on the modem is lit up the color for “an ethernet device is connected at 2500 Mbps”.
So, should I start hassling my ISP about my missing 350 Mbps? Is there some other obvious thing I should test before I hassle them? I certainly don’t want them to say “have you turned it off and on again”? (once I wrote that, I did go and unplug the modem and router, stand around for 30 seconds, and then plug in the modem and then the router. after I did that, I got one speedtest from the router at 820Mbps, and then the next two tests are back to ~550).
Edit: I do not have fiber, I have a coax cable coming into the house. The person trying to sell me fiber said “your current internet is shared with the neighbors”.
Issue 1: Don’t use the speed test on your router. Use OpenSpeedTest on your desktop browser. Router hardware isn’t made for this type of function and can often pass traffic (using hardware acceleration) faster than it can decode packets (using the CPU, required for speed tests).
Issue 2: test at off-peak times of day. Last mile for ISPs can get congested and limit actual speeds
Issue 3: Disable QoS, detailed traffic analysis, or other packet-inspection tech on your router. These often require passing the packets through the CPU which can limit max throughput. Check to be sure that “hardware acceleration” is active if possible for your router (sometimes called “cut through forwarding”). This can impact WAN <=> LAN traffic by not LAN-only as it needs to be bridged in a way that LAN-only traffic doesn’t.
Regarding issue 3 - in America there are data caps and couldn’t this potentially push someone to hit those caps or have the ISP enforce data caps because you’re now a “power user”?
Additionally, does any of option 3 bind your firewall some and reduce your protection?
Sorry for questions, I am trying to learn/understand stuff this.
Unless I’m misunderstanding your question, disabling QoS shouldn’t have any effect on your data cap because it’s just speeding things up (bandwidth) rather than increasing the amount of data used. Think of it like taking a 100 mile trip at 100MPH versus 50MPH. You’re doing the same distance just in half the time.
Well, speeding data up would mean you get to caps quicker. Reaching a data cap in half a month vs a month can be a big deal for some people.
Are you permanently drawing data at full available bandwidth?
Data consumption isn’t a constant stream limited only by your speed, it’s a question of demand. Maybe compare it to getting groceries: Getting them by car may be quicker than on foot, but that doesn’t mean you’ll need more of them.
Oh, I think I know the issue now! The answer was about pinging and getting accurate speed counts. I’m thinking about what happens after when someone leaves that setting off.
Sorry, my mind was working on a different scenario using the same solution.
As with my analogy above, the trip length (data size) is still the same whether you get there in 30 minutes or an hour. Your data usage won’t change unless you were somehow delayed from using it all, which isn’t really a thing unless we’re talking about super slow speeds like 1-5Mbps. Your demand for data and the speed at which you can get it aren’t necessarily related to one another.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I think I came to a realization that you were answering based on pinging and monitoring speeds for a test. My mind was thinking about someone leaving that option turned off after the tests and what they would do with increased speeds (e.g., change their demand).
Sorry for the confusion.
I turned off QoS and immediately am getting 930 on speedtest.net from the desktop browser!
Also, very helpful to know Issue 1 here. I assumed that the router would be the best spot to test since it is farthest upstream (other than the modem). I didn’t know it could pass traffic faster than it can decode, but that makes sense that people would have tried to make that the case. The router is still getting ~500 Mbps while the browser is much closer to the full 1000.
Ayyyy awesome! Glad to hear you’re getting full speeds now!
I’ve personally run into this before, when I got my first gigabit connection. Definitely took me a long time to track it down, and required someone on SmallNetBuilders forum telling me about it haha
With a gigabit connection, you shouldn’t really need QoS, unless your upstream is getting saturated (since I don’t think the coax gigabit providers offer symmetric up/down). But if you do, you’ll want to get another device to do it, or use more simple approaches like just capping throughput per device. If you don’t already have a homelab server, a recent Raspberry Pi should be able to handle it (and then you’d also be able to set up PiHole and other fun self-hosted services)
Worth noting that I’m sure your plan is “up to 1000mbps”. They always use the words “up to”. The speed you are paying for is the maximum you can get, not the minimum that they guarantee you will get.
In Germany we achieved a ruling so they need to provide a minimum network speed. If they cant do that, you can deduct some of the fee after you gave them multiple tries to fix the problem.
When used by marketers, “up to” should be understood by customers as, “we guarantee you’ll never get more than”.
Also worth noting, if you call their tech support about it every day, you’ll have wasted their time and money.
If you want to avoid back and forth with the ISP you basically need to single test every part of the chain. Your side Coax, Modem, Router, Cable, Device.
Connect directly to modem on 2 different devices and 2 different cables. Since your intranet speed test seemed ok maybe not much concern here, but this is for the ISP. They will ask you to use another device, another cable. If you see same speed diff across that then you maybe have a good case for them to help diagnose.
Check for splitters, or other coax hops on your end of the line. If you don’t have other coax things like TV then just remove those. If speeds are good direct on modem, then it’s likely your router. Not sure what its specs are but many consumer routers are just not up to the task of how many clients a home has these days. You can maybe test with just one thing running on the router, if there is a lot of other traffic going its speedtest may just be slow on both ends.
I myself have gone through this struggle of latency, and poor sporadic performance, upgraded to more enterprise level gear, separate router, switch, and AP to split compute and traffic more effectively. For me this lowered my overall ping, and I typically always see at or > then my advertised speed but that of course if very location/ISP/time of day dependant.
tl;dr: Test everything, prove its the ISP end, then they will help you diagnose and figure it out, if not time to upgrade
Let’s back up just a moment - is there an issue you’re trying to diagnose, like bad lag, packet drops, excess ping, etc.?
If not, then don’t worry about the speeds too much unless you feel like you’re being overcharged.
Speed test from who?
I’ve got gigabit fiber from AT&T and Netflix’s site is the only one that can reliably shove a full gigabit at me. (Or ,rather the 940mbps, which is “gigabit” according to Ma Bell.)
Maybe try fast.com and see if you get different reported speeds?
Maybe the router is just too weak? Well, I used iperf3 between two desktops that are both hardwired in and I got ~940 “Mbits/sec”.
Also this doesn’t mean anything: switching is probably handled by an ASIC in the router, and routing is handled by the CPU to keep track of all the NAT table state stuff, so you 100% could have a device that’ll pass gigabit on the lan, and only 10mbps on the wan.
940mbps is gigabit because there’s some overhead at the various network levels. If you see that much, the actual raw traffic is getting pushed at 1gbps. (I assume you know this, just saying it for everyone playing along at home.)
99.9% of the time, you’ll never get the FULL speed possible from an ISP, you’re just paying for the expected capability. The last mile of delivery to where your house is connected is generally the limiting factor, then the network type at the handoff.
Example:
- if you ordered fiber, that’s a direct handoff to you, so you’ll be getting a guaranteed circuit speed of whatever you pay for (but not always the FULL speed for other limiting factors).
- if you ordered coax cable, you’re generally going to be on a shared circuit with your neighbor, and the more connections at the handoff means less bandwidth for you. If 5 homes all use tons of traffic constantly, your metered speed will always be less than what you’re max potential speed is.
So the best way to test yours is just any old bandwidth testing platform, like speedtest.net or whatever, that has a testing endpoint close to your home.
Now, your bandwidth test may say 650mbps, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be getting that at all from every place on the Internet. It depends on how close whatever you’re talking to is, and what THEIR max speed is. Any network noise or obstacles in the way to you obviously slow things down, just like your travel between two places by driving.
Edit: on your router, that means the ENTIRE switch on all ports can do 2.5Gbps, not each port. Coax can’t even go faster than 1Gbps on Docsis 3.0, and 3.1 is 2.5Gbps max in lab conditions.
In Canada from what I’ve seen it’s most often than not +5-10% over the speed you’re paying for. For example with a 400mbps plan you will get about 450 when plugged in
Canada’s entire population is 40 million. US is over 330 million, with 10x more density centers with the same coax delivery for some carriers.
