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How Fast is your Internet?
- Thread starter Christopher11
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Friday:
Today:
I had mentioned this in another thread, but I think something was wrong with the wiring in my house, having the cable modem and wifi router upstairs was causing a lot of issues - it wasn't always like this, not sure what happened but moving the router and router to the first floor fixed it, and I'm getting near what I'm paying for
The slow performance was a slow degradation where a couple of months ago, I was in the low 700Mbs range, then 500, then slower and slower. Not sure the cause but moving things downstairs seemed to have fixed it. I also made some other changes not worth mentioning here
Today:
I had mentioned this in another thread, but I think something was wrong with the wiring in my house, having the cable modem and wifi router upstairs was causing a lot of issues - it wasn't always like this, not sure what happened but moving the router and router to the first floor fixed it, and I'm getting near what I'm paying for
The slow performance was a slow degradation where a couple of months ago, I was in the low 700Mbs range, then 500, then slower and slower. Not sure the cause but moving things downstairs seemed to have fixed it. I also made some other changes not worth mentioning here
Just tested using Speedtest and got:
939 down
939 up
(over ethernet, old cat 5 cable, long run 75' plus, through an old TRENDnet switch to my m4 Mini)
This is with Frontier fiber, 1,000 service.
My house isn't large, two stories 1,400+ square feet.
I'm using the Arris router that came with the setup, works quite well, can deliver 500+ to my 2021 MacBook Pro 14 via wifi downstairs. Upstairs is a little slower, 300+, but still ok.
939 down
939 up
(over ethernet, old cat 5 cable, long run 75' plus, through an old TRENDnet switch to my m4 Mini)
This is with Frontier fiber, 1,000 service.
My house isn't large, two stories 1,400+ square feet.
I'm using the Arris router that came with the setup, works quite well, can deliver 500+ to my 2021 MacBook Pro 14 via wifi downstairs. Upstairs is a little slower, 300+, but still ok.
974 down
942 up
Over wifi, I have a simultaneous 1Gbps connection provided by my apartment running on a TP Link Archer AX1800 and a Zyxel NWA130BE Wifi 7 AP, this is also in an insanely congested area where at any point I can see 40-70 SSIDs. I get similar speeds over ethernet too but rarely ever need to connect to it since upgrading the AP.
942 up
Over wifi, I have a simultaneous 1Gbps connection provided by my apartment running on a TP Link Archer AX1800 and a Zyxel NWA130BE Wifi 7 AP, this is also in an insanely congested area where at any point I can see 40-70 SSIDs. I get similar speeds over ethernet too but rarely ever need to connect to it since upgrading the AP.
We have Ting in our neighborhood. Our HOA worked out a deal - if a certain number of houses signed a 2-yr contract, it would be only $58/month for 1Gbps symmetric service. It’s the only good thing our HOA has done. I know many people don’t like contracts, but I was fine with it. So far, the Ting service has been super fast with very low latency.
I also kept my Comcast service, but dropped down to a cheaper/slower plan. It’s supposed to be 500Mbit/30Mbit (at least that’s all I’m paying for), but I still get 900+Mbit/45Mbit, probably because most of my neighborhood is now on Ting.
Since I work from home frequently, I need connectivity to be as bullet-proof as I can make it. I do not want to have to drive to the hospital in in the middle of the night when I’m on-call should my ISP go down, so redundant service is a welcomed luxury. I have a Firewalla Gold SE that will automatically fail-over from Ting to Comcast if necessary, and I set some rules to always route certain low priority traffic to the slower Comcast connection (may as well use it since it’s there). The fail-over has happened a couple times in the last year and it’s been like magic. Things just keep working.
I also kept my Comcast service, but dropped down to a cheaper/slower plan. It’s supposed to be 500Mbit/30Mbit (at least that’s all I’m paying for), but I still get 900+Mbit/45Mbit, probably because most of my neighborhood is now on Ting.
Since I work from home frequently, I need connectivity to be as bullet-proof as I can make it. I do not want to have to drive to the hospital in in the middle of the night when I’m on-call should my ISP go down, so redundant service is a welcomed luxury. I have a Firewalla Gold SE that will automatically fail-over from Ting to Comcast if necessary, and I set some rules to always route certain low priority traffic to the slower Comcast connection (may as well use it since it’s there). The fail-over has happened a couple times in the last year and it’s been like magic. Things just keep working.
I'm guessing you live in an area that was served by GTE before it became part of Verizon, which was then followed by Verizon unloading most of the GTE landlines into Frontier. What's funny is that Verizon apparently is in the process of buying Frontier, now that fiber optic internet and streaming is largely replacing cable TV the Frontier franchises are worth something.
This is somewhat related to the way Cable TV companies would deal with new developments - put a CC&R prohibiting outside antennas or no deal on wiring the development for cable TV. Since you already had a high speed internet service, that meant Ting had to use more of the carrot and less of the stick. The majority of the capital cost in providing fiber optic service is getting the fibers to the curbside, so a higher percentage of subscribers would translate to a lower cost per subscriber - good on your HOA taking advantage of that.
When I got the initial Ting mailing back in late 2020 or early 2021, Ting was explicit about prioritizing neighborhoods based on the number of residents that put money down (IIRC $9) for a deposit. My service was turned on in summer of 2022 and have been happy with it since then. The recent no cost increase to 2.2G down and 2.1G up was icing on the cake.
Last edited:
ivy wrote:
"I'm guessing you live in an area that was served by GTE before it became part of Verizon"
Nope.
I live in Connecticut, which in times past had its own telephone company (Southern New England Telephone).
That was eventually bought by SBC Global...
... and that eventually became ATT...
... who eventually sold out service in CT to Frontier.
I was on "dialup" service until April 2000, when ATT first offered "Uverse" DSL in this area. Seemed "fast", at the time (about 3mbps), heh.
That eventually became "Frontier Uverse", and the bills grew and grew so in late 2018 I switched to Comcast cable, which was much faster (seems to me around 450 when I first got it). They eventually increased speeds to 1,000, BUT, again the bills went up there, too.
In the early 2020's Frontier finished installing fiber to-the-home in this area, and they offered a better rate than did Comcast, so in November 2023 I "cut the cable" and switched over to Frontier fiber.
I've pretty much given up on the tv, all I'll watch now is "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune". Since those two syndicated shows aren't available here on "cheap" streaming, I dropped "pay for" tv service entirely and built a homemade, hillbilly antenna out of wood and an old mic stand.
It actually works (can be a little touchy in the summer with the extra leaves).
Each night I set it up, watch the two shows, and then take it down again.
A little work on my part.
But... IT'S FREE.
Aside:
I also have a Roku Ultra attached to the tv, but don't use it much...
"I'm guessing you live in an area that was served by GTE before it became part of Verizon"
Nope.
I live in Connecticut, which in times past had its own telephone company (Southern New England Telephone).
That was eventually bought by SBC Global...
... and that eventually became ATT...
... who eventually sold out service in CT to Frontier.
I was on "dialup" service until April 2000, when ATT first offered "Uverse" DSL in this area. Seemed "fast", at the time (about 3mbps), heh.
That eventually became "Frontier Uverse", and the bills grew and grew so in late 2018 I switched to Comcast cable, which was much faster (seems to me around 450 when I first got it). They eventually increased speeds to 1,000, BUT, again the bills went up there, too.
In the early 2020's Frontier finished installing fiber to-the-home in this area, and they offered a better rate than did Comcast, so in November 2023 I "cut the cable" and switched over to Frontier fiber.
I've pretty much given up on the tv, all I'll watch now is "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune". Since those two syndicated shows aren't available here on "cheap" streaming, I dropped "pay for" tv service entirely and built a homemade, hillbilly antenna out of wood and an old mic stand.
It actually works (can be a little touchy in the summer with the extra leaves).
Each night I set it up, watch the two shows, and then take it down again.
A little work on my part.
But... IT'S FREE.
Aside:
I also have a Roku Ultra attached to the tv, but don't use it much...
Looks like SBC Global and Verizon were on the same page offloading small POTS assets to Frontier. I've been in PacTel/SBC/ATT for most of my life, with a 7.5 year stretch in GTE territory way back when.
I moved in to my current house 29 years ago - a few days after getting back from the honeymoon with online access through CTS.com dial-up. The local cable provider had a half-assed high speed service - 2.5M down with a 2.5GB/month cap and dial-up for up, so stayed on dial-up until CTS had DSL available in 2000. That lasted three years due to problems with Northpoint and Covad, spent a year on TFB, then switched to Speakeasy. Speakeasy morphed into Megapath which then offered a 8M/768k cable service in 2011, which then became the clusterf of GCC/GTT - ditched that for a 240M/10M cable modem from Spectrum in 2019, then jumped at Ting when they offered a fiber connection. My wife cut the cord to Spectrum cable TV service when we got the 240/10 internet (BTW, she's from Connecticut).
The upgrade to Ting brought almost a factor of 4 increase in download speed and a wopping factor of 90 in upload speed - which was noticeable when sending photos on iMessage. As mentioned in a previous post, Ting upped the connection speed to 2.2G down and 2.1G up. My first on-line experience was dial-up to Compuserve at 2400 baud.
I moved in to my current house 29 years ago - a few days after getting back from the honeymoon with online access through CTS.com dial-up. The local cable provider had a half-assed high speed service - 2.5M down with a 2.5GB/month cap and dial-up for up, so stayed on dial-up until CTS had DSL available in 2000. That lasted three years due to problems with Northpoint and Covad, spent a year on TFB, then switched to Speakeasy. Speakeasy morphed into Megapath which then offered a 8M/768k cable service in 2011, which then became the clusterf of GCC/GTT - ditched that for a 240M/10M cable modem from Spectrum in 2019, then jumped at Ting when they offered a fiber connection. My wife cut the cord to Spectrum cable TV service when we got the 240/10 internet (BTW, she's from Connecticut).
The upgrade to Ting brought almost a factor of 4 increase in download speed and a wopping factor of 90 in upload speed - which was noticeable when sending photos on iMessage. As mentioned in a previous post, Ting upped the connection speed to 2.2G down and 2.1G up. My first on-line experience was dial-up to Compuserve at 2400 baud.