Please Help Cannot Figure Out Why I'm Not Getting Speeds Paying For

[miraclemandi]

Hello. I've been testing my speeds for a while and every now and then I'll see it hit 100Mbps or a little better but I cannot for the life of me figure out why my speeds are so much less than the 100Mbps I upgraded to. I even had them come out to check but I think they filter everyone thru the client's knowledge and if you don't know what they should check, well, they don't. He disconnected a signal booster I had purchased and told me it was providing too much power which could cause issues. I thought he'd check cords, outlets, the outside connections, pole connections etc, NONE of that happened. For the three or four days after the tech visit it seemed I was getting good speeds but it went right back to getting half or sometimes even lower than that. Of course a restart of the modem, router, pc and all does give a little boost but not only is it short-lived but there has to be a way to pinpoint what is going on so I can straighten it out once and for all. 

 

Latest test from this site is 

 

Download :: 68.7 Mbps 8.6 MB/s  Upload :: 7.1 Mbps 885 kB/s 

 

It is even worse on Speedtest.net and it used to show ten to twenty percent better score:

PING 36ms DOWNLOAD 58.17Mbps UPLOAD 11.41Mbps

 

While I am not computer illiterate, I don't know anything about internet speed or how to go about pinpointing my issue. I don't even know what information to include to get proper help. 

 

Almost forgot to mention I am wired. Tested all the cat5e cables and they are all fine. I have wi-fi but I'm not concerned with those speeds. 

 

I am running Windows 7 Pro Sp1 64-bit

TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075
SMBIOSBIOSVersion F.1E
Interface: SATA 3.0Gb/s
AHCI Mode: Activated
Trim Status: Enabled
Rapid Mode: Not Supported

PC Make & Model: HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15-b119wm

Motherboard: Hewlett-Packard 193B (Socket FT1)

Processor: 1.6GHz up to 2.4GHz AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M Accelerated Processor

Memory: Total Physical 7.47 GB, Crucial 8GB (2X4GB) PC3-12800 1600MHZ DDR3 204PIN SODIMM 1.35v CL11 Unbuff Max Bandwidth  PC3-14200 (889 MHz)

Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7600G Discrete-Class Graphics and Up to 3057MB Total Memory

 

I figured you don't need my storage device info. 

 

I've tried so many things I don't know where to start or what is even relevant. 

 

I appreciate any and all responses and help! Blessings to you and yours! Amanda

Edited April 8, 2018 by miraclemandi
forgot to mention I'm wired

[Preston ashbrook]

Hello, I am very new to this site but I have a suggestion because I just now got the speeds I paid for after 4 years of service. I called mediacom to complain about my speeds. They remotely chandelier my modem to enable 5g.  I went from 20 to 30 mbps to testing at 80 to 104. I pay f9r 100 mbps. Ask your isp about that. Hope it helps

[miraclemandi]

Thank you Preston ashbrook for your reply.  I appreciate your help and I sure wish it were that simple for me.  I have my own modem (SB6190) and until recently I had 5G enabled (disabled it w no plans to reenable - do a search: The 5G Network: What You Don't Know May Kill You), but even then I mostly used my laptop which is wired so any test I did didn't involve the wifi connection. I've complained to Spectrum  many times but like I said earlier, it's like since I don't know exactly what I don't know, they only go so far. They give no information that I don't already have or at least that I can check on my own without special equipment. They offer to come check my line but as stated earlier, it's like they start with their handheld machine and tell me about signals they are getting which mean all is fine and they have no reason to check anything else. They get on my laptop and for some reason, they get a great speedtest result and I will get on and try and it'll be what it's supposed to be until either right after they leave or usually a few days later. 

 

Since I originally posted my plea for help here on the forum, I downloaded an app from sharewareonsale dot com called TweakMASTER 3.60. I was a bit leary but it scanned fine with Kaspersky and it has undo options and of course system restore should things go awry so I figured why not. I realized it was probably just optimizing TCP/IP and MTU but I figured it knows how to do it better than I (wouldn't know where to begin) so I tried it. Well, I'll be, shortly thereafter I was getting speeds up to 110Mbps. I thought, YEAH I had found a way to fix it or around it BUT then, I kept losing internet and like I said I'm WIRED. It would do it constantly within minutes of me rebooting the modem, router etc so I figured it had to be something the tweaker changed that I don't know how to check and fix so I ended up reverting back to previous config. Needless to say I haven't tried to 'TWEAK' anything since but my speeds have been a bit better anyway. The test I just ran here showed 116Mbps Down & 7.9Mbps Up, Speedtest gave me 83.24Mbps Down & 11.98Mbps Up so even though I still don't know how to fix it, or check it, at this moment speeds are pretty good; at least tolerable and not making me question my choice to upgrade plans.

 

I'd still like to understand this situation better but I'd probably have to study 'networking' in order to understand it to the point of being able to recognize, evaluate and fix network issues! Anyway, thanks again for reaching out with your help! Be blessed! Amanda

[tallcr]

Amanda: Not to be too blunt about it, but I would crawl on my knees over broken glass in the Sahara Desert at noontime to be able to get Spectrum again! I cursed it from the first day I had it (when it was Time Warner Cable) to when I moved to a mobile home park that only gets DirecTV and its bundled (satellite)  "broadband", Hughes.Net, which (forget Gen5) regularly gets between 1-3 Gbps with Gen2 at all times...AND comes with data caps!! I would dearly love to be back with Spectrum, and getting even 25 Gbps! Not being snotty, but,  truly, count your blessings. TallCR

[miraclemandi]

Thank you TallCR for your reply. Please forgive me for giving the impression that I do NOT appreciate Spectrum, I do. Even when it was Time Warner I knew from my experience with AT&T DSL back in 2009 and CenturyLink satellite back in 2012 that Time Warner was the most reliable internet in this area. This is why even though tempted at times to consider switching, I haven't done it. As of right now I've been back with Time Warner since 2013 and it is still the most reliable in my area. Recently I upgraded to 100Mbps which changed my payment from $44.99 to $64.99 a month. Since this is a pretty big jump for someone on a limited income, I just want to know how to make sure I am getting the 100Mbps I am paying for.  Thanks again. Be blessed! Amanda

[tallcr]

Amanda,  you're so lucky to have Internet choices. The sole choice in my area of Rancho Cucamonga is HughesNet. *sigh* Hate AT&T for selling their Internet, or DSL, out of this area (but keeping DirecTV),    leaving one choice if you want to have Internet: HughesNet.    I envy you all over the place!  ?  Chuck

[miraclemandi]

Thank you Chuck for your reply. I have to say, I thought the choices here in Goldsboro, NC were slim to none. I feel for you. That is pretty raw of AT&T for not keeping internet your area. I'm not familiar with your area but I just did a google search for internet providers in Rancho Cucamonga and it shows there are 7 residential providers according to broadbandnow dot com. According to this you will be able to get Spectrum 100Mbps for the $44.99 I was paying! Here is the link: https://broadbandnow.com/California/Rancho-Cucamonga Hopefully you'll be able to take advantage of a better offer. Be blessed! Amanda

Edited April 20, 2018 by miraclemandi
forgot to mention price of Spectrum 100Mbps

[zzzwabbit]

1) are you on wireless?
2) what is the brand and model number of your router?

[miraclemandi]

On 4/20/2018 at 6:50 PM, zzzwabbit said:

1) are you on wireless?
2) what is the brand and model number of your router?

Hello zzzwabbit. I do have wifi for my mom & brother who live next door but I wired all of my devices for use with my laptop also wired. My router is a WD MyNet N900 (Not the CENTRAL version). Thank you. Be blessed! Amanda

[zzzwabbit]

This wd mynet n900 doesn't appear to be very powerful and it's advertised as using traffic shaping. Most likely 60mbps is its max throughput. You can try to turn off the traffic shaping and other unnecessary software on the device and see if that allows you to reach 100mbps. If you're happy with everything otherwise, just downgrade your package to match your max throughput.

[miraclemandi]

5 hours ago, zzzwabbit said:

This wd mynet n900 doesn't appear to be very powerful and it's advertised as using traffic shaping. Most likely 60mbps is its max throughput. You can try to turn off the traffic shaping and other unnecessary software on the device and see if that allows you to reach 100mbps. If you're happy with everything otherwise, just downgrade your package to match your max throughput.

Thank you for your reply zzzwabbit. According to the router documentation I can theoretically get up to 450Mbps wired (my area doesn't have those speeds available yet and even when they do I'll proly stick to the 100Mbps plan til prices drop.)  I don't know too much about testing for throughput but pcmag said they ran tests on this specific router from a 15ft distance and got 90Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band and 132Mbps on the 5Ghz band.

 

My thing is I'm not concerned about wireless speeds. I wired everything when I found out I was maxed at 72Mbps with the wireless adapters available on my devices. The speedtest I just did here on the site gave me 109.2Mbps Down & 7.8 Up so that isn't as bad as I was only getting half that download speed when I first posted about the issue, I've always had upload speeds from 7-12Mpbs.

 

Can you tell me how to test to determine my maximum throughput? I'd appreciate it. 

 

Thank you again. Be blessed! Amanda

 

 

[zzzwabbit]

You just got 109mbps? Maybe the discrepancy in speed can be attributed to your computer or Netflix streaming or traffic shaping on the router then.

[miraclemandi]

1 hour ago, zzzwabbit said:

You just got 109mbps? Maybe the discrepancy in speed can be attributed to your computer or Netflix streaming or traffic shaping on the router then.

Thanks for reponding. I suppose any and/or all of these things come into play when it comes to speed tests. 

 

As I stated earlier, since I posted my plea for help with this issue, I used a program to optimize TCP/IP connections and while it initially seemed to work it shortly seemed to cause me to continuously lose connection (wired at that) so I reverted back to default config then did all the normal restart pc, modem, router etc and ever since then my speedtests have been mostly really good; at least in the sense that I seem to be getting what I am paying for. 

 

I guess I was still hoping there was some formula or app that isn't too complicated that I could use to troubleshoot what I am getting at any given time should I have issues in the future. 

 

Thanks again. Blessings to you and yours! Amanda