Slow Internet - Router/Modem problems?

[MonsieurFish]

Not much of a internet/computer expert... Signed up for 10mbps internet through shaw a couple months ago and things are going much slower than I was expecting. For example, nhl gamecentre generally can't stream on any video quality higher than the lowest one, and often has to buffer for 30 seconds at a time even then. The network status often seems to need to buffer when playing online poker as well (resulting in unwanted folded hands quite a bit). Signal strength generally seems to be very strong, and I have gone on speedtest.net and my download speed usually does indeed turn out to be 10mbps. I just tested this three times and got results of 3.5 mpbs, 22 mbps, and 9 mbps for download speeds.

Is it possible that my router/modem (don't know the difference between them) is the problem? I currently just have tge free one that Shaw gave us... Cisco DPC3825, and have been thinking about buying another, hoping that would solve the problem... but i don't actually know anything about these things? Or maybe should i upgrade to 20mbps internet speed from Shaw? Any other troubleshooting techniques i should try?

[keratosis]

Get them to put in bridged mode for you and buy your own router.

[sclitheroe]

It's probably not the router, there isn't a router out there, ISP provided or not, that will have a hard time handling 10mbps throughput.

First thing I'd do is open a command prompt and run ping 8.8.8.8 -t , and let it run for a full hour before pressing ctrl-c to terminate the continuous ping. Take a look at the packet statistics and see what kind of packet loss you are experiencing.

The other thing you should be doing is testing throughput using Shaw's speed test at speedtest.shaw.ca , and see what numbers you get there - reason being, you want to investigate the throughput of the Shaw portion of the network, rather than some random site selected by speedtest.net on the internet - many of the sites available on speedtest have low(ish) bandwidth connections themselves, and aren't going to give you accurate results. Run the test a good 5 or 10 times to come up with a true average.

If you are getting consistently low speeds or significant (more than a few %) packet loss on the ping test, you need to call Shaw first, and worry about a possible router replacement later.

Edit: You should also be doing all of this testing wired via ethernet cable first, to eliminate Shaw, and then on wifi, to see where the actual performance issue exists.

[pylon]

That Cisco router is a massive lump of crap. I upgraded my services, and the upgrade required that router, and it just made everything slower. I went back to the Shaw building, gave it back, and just said I would use my old hardware which was a million times faster. My personal opinion is they are using this particular router to throttle people. Every single person I know that has got the router, says it sucks. Mine was to the point it seemed like dial up. Shaw sucks.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by pylon

That Cisco router is a massive lump of crap. I upgraded my services, and the upgrade required that router, and it just made everything slower. I went back to the Shaw building, gave it back, and just said I would use my old hardware which was a million times faster. My personal opinion is they are using this particular router to throttle people. Every single person I know that has got the router, says it sucks. Mine was to the point it seemed like dial up. Shaw sucks.

Not debating your experience, since you experienced it.

I just wanted to add I find it funny that when DOCSIS 3 started rolling out on Shaw it was the SMC router that was widely regarded as the lump of crap, and everyone on dslreports.com was clamoring to get the Cisco because it was a million times better. Now its the other way around.

Maybe both suck, I dunno

[keratosis]

Just checked the speed on my SII.
Using the Cisco modem in bridged mode and a Netgear R6200. I average 23000Kbps down and 4300Kbps up. Average ping 70ms. ShawBB50.
So I think with a better router he should be able to improve his Wifi performance.

[Tyler12]

The Cisco is a good modem, But a POS router. Didn't take long before I asked Shaw to bridge my modem/router and added my own wireless router.

[MonsieurFish]

I ran some more speed tests through http://speedtest.shaw.ca and I came up with an average download speed of 18 mbps, upload speed of 0.4 mbps, and ping of 35. Is the upload speed anything i should be concerned about?

And apologies... I am not very knowledgeable about this stuff, what is the difference between a modem and router? Right now, all I have is that Cisco DPC3825 router, so I don't have a modem? And what is bridged mode?

[Rathji]

The upload for 10mbs connection is 512kb, so that seems about right.

Your Cisco device is a modem and router all in one. Essentially, putting it in bridge mode makes it into just a modem, which allows you to use your own, typically less crappy, router with it.