How to Maximize Internet Speed with Better Connections

Hello all, thanks in advance for your help and time. When I’m home alone, gaming on my Xbox series X with an Ethernet cable plugged in, it usually works perfectly. But when my wife is watching Hulu, my step daughter is watching Netflix, and my step son is listening to YouTube while he plays his Xbox on the WiFi, I am consistently lagging during my gaming. Some games are completely unplayable if I want to be competitive. What can I do to improve my gaming experience?

Edit: I currently pay for the highest speed internet that is available in my area. $110/month. There is literally only one internet company in my city.

Cheapest option is to run a cable

A mesh works a lot better than an extender. This is from personal experience.

I just used a cable to put it in the middle of the house, it was way cheaper.

Wifi = your problem (ie it’s the hardware, you can change that

Raw speed = ISPs problem. The only way to test what actual speed you’re getting is an Ethernet (cat5e or higher) cable from your router to a computer. That’ll tell you the speed coming into your house -> your router -> a device.

You can’t trust wifi speed tests for finding out that specific benchmark, there’s too many variables to go through and it’d be a waste of your time.

Assuming your ISP supplied the router, my guess is your likely solution would be a much better router.

But again, before doing that - hardwire test to confirm

I don't have any technical experience when it comes to this so please bear with me. Happy to provide additional info.

Equipment:

• Panoramic Wifi Gateway - TECHNICOLOR Model CGM4331COM
• Windows 11 PC on wired ethernet connection
• Multiple game consoles on wifi connection, Steam Deck used the most

I'm curious if there's anything I can do on my end to maximize my internet speeds on both ethernet and wifi connections, as the speeds typically range from kB/s to ~100 MB/s on a 1 GB connection.

This has been an issue regardless of the provider, who always come check things out after I report slow speeds. Streaming games is nearly impossible and downloading anything large typically stays in the kB/s range.

I was in a similar boat as you. I pay for a 1Gbps connection and was capping at about 300ish.

Turns out it was my router. I upgraded my Asus WiFi6 router to a TP-Link Wifi 7 BE9300 router. I get about 930ish Mbps in speed tests now.

To clarify, the reason I`m specifying the Wifi version is because I cant remember the model number. Just wanna show that it wasn`t an old cheap router. Yet, it was limited in Ethernet speed, which I didn`t even consider for a while, thinking that a $250 router surely wouldn`t be the bottleneck. Turns out, it was.

I went from an older (6-8 years old) single device D-Link to a TP Link mesh setup. Its been a night and day change.

Router sits in the garage - Would you recommend using a Wi-Fi extender or a mesh system like tplink , google etc... to extend the coverage ? how has your experience been if you have used it? Is there a extender or Mesh brand you'd recommend?

The obvious first step is to try and run a CAT6 cable down to your PC/Console.

If that’s not possible, do you have any Coax ports in your walls? If so MOCA might work well.

Last resort would be power line. But this can depend on how your house is wired. For what it’s worth I’ve found them to be pretty good *in my home* capable of around 125Mbps.

A few things:

1Gbps = 1000 Mbps = 125 MBps. Capital B means it's working correctly, your download manager is displaying wrong, otherwise it could be something else.

That modem has a 2.5Gbps wan port so it supports the full speed.

Are the speed tests 100 Mbps or less always? Could be either the Ethernet, network card in device, or router are negotiating at 100Mbps. Easiest way to check this: Ethernet speeds above 100Mbps will blink orange/amber with a steady green light on the other side when online and working. Yellow flashing is 100Mbps or less.

If the cable is yellow, your router internet port is only giving 100Mbps and needs to be replaced, maybe that router only supports a 100Mbps internet/wan port. Or the network adapter is only negotiating at 100Mbps. Or Ethernet cable is cat5 and needs to be replaced with a cat6 cable. (Cat5e technically works but modems are over provisioned so spend $5 more on cat 6). Solutions are sorted most expensive to least expensive; most likely bad Ethernet cable or routers internet port is bad.

WiFi is never guaranteed speeds from any provider or any router, this is for the wired connection.

People are recommending that you run a cable, which is the answer if WiFi is your problem.

What's the speed of the broadband connection to your house?

I have a be3600 and want to know the best settings in anyone’s opinion for speed and performance in mind, preferably on the app but the website is fine

Hello, the problem is the following: how to have a good wifi everywhere in my house and with a good speed? Indeed, I live in a two-story house, once upstairs or even in the living room, the speed drops (I'm on a fiber at 2 GB up and down), but at the top it drops to 0.20 GB, or divided by 10, and this with the repeater of my ISP, so here, I'm looking for advice.

We need more information to help diagnose or help .

•How many access points do you have, are the extra access points wired or wireless.

•How big is your house, how many stories, thin or thick walls.

• Is this measured near or far from your access point

I also have 1000mb down/up. Because my house is
120 (square meters) /1 291.66925 square feet , 2 stories and thick walls. I have a wired mesh network with 3 mesh points, those should cover 200 square meters. Near the acces points I reach speeds of 900 down and 200 up. My extra access points come from my internet provider.

To get the best speed I would advise to expand your home network with wired mesh points that give you enough coverage.

In the process of moving, we are upgrading from a 60 Mbps connection to a 1 Gbps plan at our new place (and it's almost half the cost of our previous plan, amazingly).

The installation tech got everything connected within 15 minutes, but when I tested the speed on my laptop I got disappointing results when connecting to both the modem directly and via the router (both Cat6a ethernet cables). The huge discrepancy between the router and the modem tells me there are some key settings I need to adjust on the router, which I expected.

I've outlined information below that I collected. Sorry in advance for length- I wanted to follow the sub submission rules and be as thorough as possible to make it easier for anyone who tries to help (thank you in advance!)

Key details

• Connection type to wall: cable (coaxial)
• Modem: Motorola MB8600 (brand new)
• Router: ASUS RT-68W (same as the U model, just white)- had this since 2015, no problems ever, on the latest firmware (updated two days ago to 3.0.0.4.386_43129)- not really interested in custom firmware like Merlin
• Devices connected: two new phones (Google Pixel 4a 5g, iPhone 12 mini), two laptops (ASUS laptop from 2015, MacBook from 2019), a desktop PC I built in early 2020. We both work from home and the 1 Gbps plan was cheaper with no data caps, so it was a no-brainer even if it is overkill.
• How devices are connected: desktop PC and my work laptop via ethernet cable directly to router; all others via WiFi. I keep both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks on since one of the laptops only detects 2.4 GHz channels.

Speed test results:

• Ethernet cable from router to laptop (QoS enabled, NAT forwarding disabled, Jumbo Frames disabled): 113 Mbps, 51.07 ms ping, .51% loss, 24.80 ms jitter
• Ethernet cable from router to laptop (QoS disabled, NAT forwarding disabled, Jumbo Frames disabled): 339 Mbps, 7.31 ms ping, 0% loss, .23 ms jitter
• Ethernet cable from modem to laptop (router disconnected): ~758 Mbps, 8 ms ping, 0% loss, .20 ms jitter
• WiFi speed: not tested
• Tech confirmed that I should be seeing speeds in the 925 Mbps- 950 Mbps range consistently. If modem speeds don't climb the next time I test things (within a few days, since we're still moving boxes to the new place) I would call the ISP since that's on them to resolve that.

​

What I've figured out needs to change, according to my research:

1. Obviously the router will introduce some latency, so I wouldn't expect to see the exact same speed as if I'm going to the modem directly (but it should be pretty close)
2. Disable QoS, since it's just not needed with such high bandwidth and so few devices.
3. Turn on NAT acceleration.
4. Turn on Jumbo Frames in both the router config and on the PCs (they all have the appropriate setting in their network adapters which means it's supported) (eliminated this idea- thank you for the suggestion!)
5. Some comments say that doing a factory reset on the router is helpful. However, I'd just be recreating the vast majority of settings (even after comparing it to the modem's admin console to Doing a configuration reset (using latest firmware which is already installed) on the router may be helpful, instead of tweaking the existing configuration profile? (This one I'm confused about because if most settings would stay the same, why would a reset be necessary?)

​

Lastly, I went through my current router config profile. Here are some key features I already have set up which I expect would carry over to the new setup:

• Security: WPA2-Personal
• WPS turned off
• No traffic/history monitoring enabled
• No parental controls
• Open NAT + port forwarding enabled (for gaming)
• Tx power adjustment: set to max performance
• AC, universal beamforming: both enabled
• DHCP enabled, with no manual assignments set
• UPnP enabled
• Custom DNS servers: Cloudflare (1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1)
• Dual WAN disabled
• IPv6 disabled
• Firewall, DoS protection enabled, no packet logging, no network services/URL/keyword filters
• Router reboots every weekend on a schedule (every Sunday at 5am)

I know how to read the modem diagnostics page to identify issues with signal-to-noise ratio, up/downstream power, etc. which I can talk to the ISP about, but that's beyond the scope of this thread. My current (60 Mbps) security configuration is also such that any security tests I have run all come back totally clean, with no exposed ports or anything like that.

All that said, what key settings should I be looking at/adjusting on the router to get the most of my plan? Thank you for reading and thanks in advance!

Basically the internet on my phone works well but on pc is garbage even with ethernet cable. It takes 7 hours to update fortnite thats how bad. I know exactly why thats why im asking you guys if there are some ways to get better wifi.
I bought a router and that router is connected wireless to the main router of the house because Im renting this place and I cant have cables and all that mess to my room so I figure out how to have internet like that. However is extremely slow if someone has anything to say IM here to listen.

Are you using the browser for speedtest? It sometimes carries a lot of overhead and gets cpu limited. The standalone application works much better.

Also just make sure you are connected to server nearby and that you have tried alternate servers. Sometimes the isp peering routing is a bit wonky and stuff goes to strange places.

I had an older asus router that I was still able to pull a full symmetric gigabit through so your should handle it fine.

Obviously the router will introduce some latency, so I wouldn't expect to see the exact same speed as if I'm going to the modem directly (but it should be pretty close)

If the router can handle the speeds, you shouldn't see any difference between directly connected to modem and connected to router. You should see full speed there.

Turn on NAT forwarding.

This doesn't do anything for your speed. At all.

Turn on Jumbo Frames in both the router config and on the PCs (they all have the appropriate setting in their network adapters which means it's supported)

Uh. No. You don't want jumbo frames...jumbo frames are a VERY specific use case, and yours is not one of them.

The RT68 can't handle gigabit speeds. I had the RT68U and it started to buckle at around 300 Mbit give or take, exactly like you're seeing. It's CPU would cap out and even the status page would become unresponsive. It uses a fairly old ARM series of processor and is only dual core, so it's kinda to be expected. Every time I tried to download a game from Steam it'd practically take down anything connected to the router, even if it was only accessing the LAN and not the WAN. The RT68 series is still sold today as a budget router, but it's definitely using pretty old hardware.

I got a newer Asus that could handle the speeds, but it was pretty flaky, so I caved and got a Protectlli Vault with OpnSense and TPLink Omada access points.

I also have an MB6800 and haven't had any problems at all with the modem and the Vault/Omada setup.

1. Don't change any settings that you are not sure about
2. Do not enable QoS
3. Do not enable AiProtection
4. Use DNS Speed Test to determine the fastest DNS for you: and then change it in your router from WAN > Internet Connection > WAN DNS Setting
5. Use AdGuard Extension in your browser to block ads

I like to game a lot,but i have a problem,whenever im downloading a big game i have to wait 12 hours for it to download since my internet speed is 10mbps.

My room is at the bottom of a stairwell,the rest of the house is quite large and the router is very far away from my room.I use an internet extender but my download speed is still bad,i would really aprecciate help finding the cheapest solution to make my internet faster.

If you know anything please help.

Hey guys, I know a lot of people usually face a sluggish or spotty internet connection at home and somehow most people don't know about the easy fixes that you can do to improve your internet signals. So I thought, why not take it upon myself to give you a couple of easy pointers that can help you improve your internet signals. Though this is generic information, but I was talking to a friend recently and figured that not many people know about it, especially the elderly and the not-so-tech-savvy folks. So, the more you know, the more you can help yourself. So here's a small, public service from me to you.

1. Try repositioning your router
   If you have your router behind your TV or stuffed in a corner of your house, you're losing a lot of Wi-Fi coverage.
   Fix: Just try placing your router in a central position in your house instead and try keeping it elevated, away from thick walls and metals. This will allow the signals to travel in all directions.

2. Reduce Signal Interference
   Sometimes we mistakenly install our routers near cordless phones or microwaves, and this causes disruptions in the signal transmission.
   Fix: Keep the router away from those devices. Also, try switching devices to the 5GHz band if your router supports dual-band.

3. Try Changing Your Wi-Fi Channel
   Routers nearby may be on the same channel, causing congestion of signals.
   Fix: Log into your router and manually switch to a less crowded channel (1, 6, or 11 are good ideas). Apps like WiFi Analyzer (Android) or NetSpot (Windows/macOS) help find the best one.

4. Disconnect Unused Devices
   I hope you guys know what bandwidth is and how every individual device connected to your internet connection hogs up the bandwidth, slowing down your internet speed. This includes devices like unused PCs, laptops, tablets, old phones and smart TVs.
   Fix: Open the router's user portal and take a look at all the connected devices. Then, disconnect the devices that you dont need or dont recognize.

5. Update Your Router's Firmware
   Manufacturers often release updates that improve performance and fix bugs.
   Fix: Log into your router’s settings and look for a firmware update option, then update your router if there are any updates available.

All of these methods are effortless and should help you amp up your internet speed by a bit. If it does work, y'all can thank me later 💕

I pay for 1000 Mbps but I’m only getting

I have a 100 Mbps internet connection from my ISP, connected to a Tenda AC6 Wi-Fi 5 router. The router broadcasts both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks.

On LAN and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, I get the full 100 Mbps.

On my mini PC, which uses a Mercusys MW300UM Wi-Fi adapter (advertised max speed: 300 Mbps, 2.4 GHz only), I only get about 40 Mbps.

I’m wondering if there are ways to optimize this setup on 2.4Ghz and squeeze more bandwidth out for the mini PC.