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20mbps download speed or lower when I should be getting 40-50! 2 or lower upload speed.
I have been having issues with my wifi for a few months now (since we moved into a new house) and I feel like I have tried everything and i’m out of ideas now so ANY help would be great! So around about June, after we moved in the wifi seemed okay at first. I would get about 45 mbps download speed while playing video games (around 30-40 ping depending on the servers). Keep in mind, I have a 50 mbps download speed plan, non-fibre. About a week or two later, I would start having lag spikes or drops in the download speed. I’m talking it would drop down to around 5-10 mbps download speed (around 600 ping). I would have these drops every few seconds/minutes and they would last for maybe 10-30 seconds. So we called telus, and they sent a technician. The technician tested the speed via ethernet. He tested our router at the time and also a new one he had brought. The new one had faster speeds (around 50) so he just gave us that one. He also moved the boosters further from the router so it wouldn’t cause conjunction. So this had fixed the problem for about a few days, and then I started getting speed drops again. I ended up trying many things. Putting a fan on the router, restarting the router, etc... I ended up dealing with it till about mid-August until it became even slower. Instead of only having drops in the speed, it would STAY at a slower speed. It would just stay at a steady 10-20 mbps download speed and go up to 35-45 for a few seconds or minutes and then drop back down. (keep in mind this is when i’m the ONLY one on the wifi). So I called telus again, and they sent a technician. This time, the technician said it was switching from 2.4G and 5G, so he made it two different networks for me instead of it just being automatic. He also gave me a “secondary router” to help with the amount of devices that could be causing conjunction. So it worked for probably two days, but I was still getting miniature speed drops. (20-30) mbps. A few days ago, it has gone back to normal, even before the second time the technician came. The speeds are staying at around 15 and only going up to 40-45 for a few minutes or seconds. Even after I restart my router, It’s fast for maybe half an hour, with 45 mbps then all of a sudden it drops to around 20 mbps. Keep in mind this even happens when i’m not playing video games. Just on my phone, being the ONLY one using the wifi. I use speedtest by Ookla to test my speeds. Please, help me find a solution, anything will help!
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- NFtoBC
Community Power User
What happens if you connect your computer to the router with an Ethernet cable?
- I’m less concerned about getting good speeds on ethernet. I seriously think there’s something wrong with my wifi and idk what. The thing is, even when none of my family is home, TVs are off, playstation is shut down, my phone’s wifi is off, I’d expect the wifi to be good without ethernet right? Because there’s literally no devices on the wifi. Yet when I do the speedtest (on wifi, not ethernet) it may start off at 40mbps for a few seconds then drop straight down to 10-20. I just can’t seem to figure out what is causing that. So my goal is to figure out what’s happening. Because just because i’m getting good wifi for one device using ethernet doesn’t mean the rest if my family is too.
If you are consistently getting good Ethernet speeds then your Internet speed is not the issue. As you suspected it's your WiFi.
What model phone you have?
Do you have other WiFi devices and if so are you able to do speed tests on them to cmpare?
How many other WiFi SSIDs do you see from your phone? Could be a channel congestion problem.
- The speed with ethernet is usually fast (45-50) mbps but sometimes I do not have access to it (PS4/phone)
You mention a few things that happened but you didn't provide any details which might shed some light on the problem.
1) You said the technician tested the speed using Ethernet. What was the result? Was the speed the same as what you were getting on WiFi?
2) You said you now have smart steering turned off and have 2 separate SSID's (one each for 2.4 and 5 GHz) Which one are you connectect to when you do your speed tests?
3) You say "gave me a “secondary router” to help with the amount of devices" and then you say "Just on my phone, being the ONLY one using the wifi". This is contradictory. Do you have a lot of devices on the WiFi or not?
- Yes, my bad I did not mention the fact that the technician only tested with ethernet the FIRST time he came. The speeds were fast, 45-50 mbps so we kept that router. Ethernet speeds with the old router was around 35-40. I run tests on 5G while I am standing literally right besides my router. I have tried on my phone and computer. I live with my family and we do have around 12 devices (excluding TVs) but when I am home alone, usually everyone else’s computers are shut down i’m basically the only one using the wifi at times. I’d literally take any advice at this point :). I appreciate the response, as you can see I am not very good at explaining these things.
