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Speed tests

jjjjy7
I'm a reliable contributor

I recently got 1.5gb internet but when I speed test with my iPad or iPhone the best speeds I can get are around 600. I was told that in order to reach faster speeds I need high end devices. Should I be getting better speeds or is this true. 

 

 

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Re: Speed tests

-G-
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@jjjjy7 wrote:

I recently got 1.5gb internet but when I speed test with my iPad or iPhone the best speeds I can get are around 600. I was told that in order to reach faster speeds I need high end devices. Should I be getting better speeds or is this true. 


That depends on the hardware capabilities of the device.  If it is a Wi-Fi 5 device, your maximum TxRate on the link will be 866 Mbps.  Expect to attain 75% of that, which about 650 Mbps.  If you are getting 600 Mbps, that's pretty good.

 

Your speed test results will also depend on the performance of the device's processor and other internal electronics.  For example, my Ignite Xi6 set-top boxes have an 866 Mbps connection to my access point but their internal electronics cannot move data anywhere near those speeds, so a Netflix speed test will top out at around 120 Mbps.

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Re: Speed tests

-G-
Resident Expert
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@jjjjy7 wrote:

I recently got 1.5gb internet but when I speed test with my iPad or iPhone the best speeds I can get are around 600. I was told that in order to reach faster speeds I need high end devices. Should I be getting better speeds or is this true. 


That depends on the hardware capabilities of the device.  If it is a Wi-Fi 5 device, your maximum TxRate on the link will be 866 Mbps.  Expect to attain 75% of that, which about 650 Mbps.  If you are getting 600 Mbps, that's pretty good.

 

Your speed test results will also depend on the performance of the device's processor and other internal electronics.  For example, my Ignite Xi6 set-top boxes have an 866 Mbps connection to my access point but their internal electronics cannot move data anywhere near those speeds, so a Netflix speed test will top out at around 120 Mbps.

Re: Speed tests

jjjjy7
I'm a reliable contributor

@-G-   Thank you for your response.  Interesting when I had Internet 500, my devices where getting a top speed of around 500-550.  My top speed with 1.5 GB internet is around 600.  So if my devices can't get 1.5gb, is it worth paying for the extra speed? 

Re: Speed tests

-G-
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@jjjjy7 wrote:

@-G-   Thank you for your response.  Interesting when I had Internet 500, my devices where getting a top speed of around 500-550.  My top speed with 1.5 GB internet is around 600.  So if my devices can't get 1.5gb, is it worth paying for the extra speed? 


That depends.  There are a lot of people here who upgrade to higher speed plans wanting to improve their network performance and then get upset when they don't get their desired results.  In many of my posts, I have mentioned terms like bandwidth, latency, throughput, jitter and packet loss.

 

If you picture your Internet connection as a pipe:

  • Bandwidth represents the size/diameter of the pipe and essentially measures network capacity and the maximum amount of data that you can transmit in a given period of time
  • Throughput is the actual amount of data that you can transmit in a given period of time.  (Over Wi-Fi, you may have a high TxRate but if there is a lot of contention on the channel/frequency, you will have plenty of bandwidth but poor throughput.)
  • Latency measures how long it takes for water entering the pipe to exit at the other end, or how long it takes for a network packet to reach its destination
  • Jitter measures variation in the flow rate, or variation in latency
  • Packet loss is the perceived leak in the pipe

 

When you upgrade your Internet plan, you are increasing the amount of Bandwidth that is available.  If you have many heavy Internet users in your home or transfer massive amounts of data, it's worth upgrading.

 

If you don't care whether a download takes 30 seconds or 90 seconds, it's not worth upgrading.

 

Upgrading to a higher speed plan won't do anything to improve Latency or Jitter, and if you are not using all of the bandwidth that is available, you will not notice any difference in throughput.

 

There are also some weird cases where increasing bandwidth may actually lead to a perceived decrease in network performance.

 

I currently have the 1.5 Gigabit plan and have the hardware where I can attain more than 1.8 Gbps on actual data transfers and speed tests.  However, my old 500u plan is also more than good enough for my needs.

Re: Speed tests

jjjjy7
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@-G-   So if I understand correctly, with a 'standard' set up, standing beside the modem an Iphone 11 wont be able to reach wireless speeds of 1.5?  And 600 would be acceptable?  Just trying to ensure my installation is good, as I can't get close to 1.5 on any wireless device.

Re: Speed tests

-G-
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@jjjjy7 wrote:

@-G-   So if I understand correctly, with a 'standard' set up, standing beside the modem an Iphone 11 wont be able to reach wireless speeds of 1.5?  And 600 would be acceptable?  Just trying to ensure my installation is good, as I can't get close to 1.5 on any wireless device.


Yes, that's pretty much it.

 

With most speed tests, you need to test with a configuration where the slowest leg on the network path is your Internet connection.  The only way to do that is with a fast-enough computer with a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet card that can actually drive more that 2 Gbps of network traffic.  (If you had an XB8 gateway, you could also do this with a fast computer with a Wi-Fi 6E card.  The challenge is that you would also need a Wi-Fi 6E card with good device drivers that also plays nicely with the XB8's Wi-Fi chipset.)

 

If you have multiple Gigabit Ethernet-connected computers, you could also perform large file downloads in parallel and add up the download speeds to see how close you get to saturating your Internet connection.

 

If you have a modern computer with USB C ports, you can purchase a good 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet adapter for around $50.  (I found that this one works well.)

 

There are also test tools out there that can interpolate the apparent network speed between two network endpoints without actually saturating the network path.  However, these are specialized tools, not a free app that just anyone can download.

 

Until you can come close to using all of the available bandwidth that your service provides, you will have to trust that Rogers is delivering the service that you are paying for.

Re: Speed tests

wayner92
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IMO getting faster than 1Gbps internet is not worth it.  There is very little additional utility, especially if you are primarily using Wireless devices.  And even if your home is wired with ethernet you need to ensure that all of your networking hardware is capable of 2.5Gbps or faster.  In many instances networking hardware maxes out at 1Gbps.

 

Note that with 1Gbps you could watch about 40 simultaneous 4K feeds from a streaming service like Netflix.

 

I would also argue that for the vast majority of people they wouldn't get much benefit with anything faster than 500 Mbps.  But at times the incremental cost is only a few dollars per month so people pay up.

Re: Speed tests

-G-
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Of course, the other motivation for subscribing to a the Gigabit+ speed tiers is to get more upload bandwidth.

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