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Considering switching back to shaw.... need some advice

Brian9
Organizer

We were long time Shaw subscribers and were happy with the service until we moved last year.  In our new neighbourhood, the shaw internet was not very good and would really bog down during peak hours.  Fortunately (I thought) Telus pulled fiber to our house shortly after we moved in.


Made the switch to pure fibre last month.  Install went OK considering the tech couldn't come in the house.  Here is how it was setup (aplogies for the laymen terminology):

 

- fibre optic reciving box is mounted in garage (white box)

- Modem is next to it connected with a cat 5 (or 6, haven't looked too close) cable

- Modem is tied into the house through existing coax cables

- Router is in the living room.  Coax cable comes out of the wall, goes into some sort of converter.  Cat 5 cable comes out of the converter and goes to the router.

 

No issues with the TV or home phone.

Internet speed is appalling.  Routinely get 30 to 40 Mbps download.  I thought maybe it was an issue with the wifi, but when I plug in to a router in the living room with a network cable I get the same speeds.

I'm getting decent strength throughout the house.  Doesn't seem to matter if I'm standing directly over the router or on the other side of the house, speeds are the same.

I thought maybe it was due to the coax wiring in the house.  So i ran a 50' cat 5 cable from the modem in my garage to the router.  No improvement in speed, even when I connected various laptops to the router.  If I'm hardwired to the router, which is hardwired to the modem, I should be getting better than 40 Mbps?

When I log into the modem and run a speed test it shows 400+ Mbps.  So it appears it's something downstream of the modem.

In addition, devices are frequently kicked off the wifi.  We have to power off the router at least once a day in order for devices to reconnect.

Internet frequently drops out mid zoom meeting (kids are schooling from home, and I periodically work from home).  It's embarrassing when you're hosting an online meeting and spend more time connecting to it than participating. 

My smart devices either can't connect, or have trouble maintaining a connection with the wifi.

 

My wife and kids are begging me to switch back to shaw.  Does anyone have any advice?  I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel, but if I can't resolve in the next week or two, I'll be switching back to shaw.

 

Thank you.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

So it looks like your Internet speed at the modem is fine. It still would be good to confirm with a device having a gigabit Ethernet adapter. I have a couple of USB Ethernet dongles I use that I use when I need gigabit rates like during backups to my NAS. They're useful to have around.

The next test would be to move the extender to the garage and connect it by Ethernet. Do a speed test from your laptop both by Ethernet to the extender and WiFi to the extender. This will tell you if wiring to the house is the problem.

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20 REPLIES 20

Scotto
Just Moved In
What did you get with Shaw for speed tests? I’ve never seen 400 on Shaw or Telus fibre. 40-50 seemed pretty normal but it seemed to keep up with multiple kids/adults streaming simultaneously.

I was getting 60 on a good day and 10 to 15 during peak hours.

Interesting. Maybe my expectations are too high? My son said one night he had a speed test of 180 Mbps. I assumed if the modem was reporting 400+ I should be getting close to that if I was hardwired in.

In my old house in vancouver we were getting 150 Mbps with shaw.

NFtoBC
Community Power User
Community Power User

Have you contacted your installer to describe your experience? They should have left a business card.

You should be seeing better speeds, and no or rare dropouts.

 

NFtoBC
If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Kudo"

Hmmm, good question.  I wasn't home when he was there.  I'll ask my wife if she has his card.  Thank you.

You say

  1. Modem is tied into the house through existing coax cables
  2. When I log into the modem and run a speed test it shows 400+ Mbp

That points to an issue between the modem and your house which you also mentioned.
"So it appears it's something downstream of the modem."

 

You tested via Ethernet from your living room router but did you test via Ethernet directly at the modem? If the issue is between the modem and your house going directly to the modem would bypass that and you would see the results.

 

Thanks.  I will check tonight and let you know what I find.  

Hi @xray 

i plugged my laptop into the modem in the garage and got 85 down and 90 upload, while the modem gave me a speed test of 384 down and 282 up.  If I'm plugged directly into the modem should I not be getting better speeds than this?

 

My current challenge is nothing will stay connected to the network.  For the third night in a row I've had to come home and try and get all my google and Sonos gear to connect.  Now my daughter's iphone won't connect either.  It keeps saying incorrect password for the wifi.  I got my google hub and minis to reconnect, and now the Sonos is working, but my nest cameras are basically dead.  I'll have to figure out tomorrow why they can't connect.

@Brian9 yes you should be getting close to the same speed as the test done by the modem. Only caveat is it may depend on the speed test program you are using and the sever it's going to. It also depends on the Ethernet port capabilities of your laptop. Some older laptop and cheap Ethernet dongles can only do 100 Mbps. I would need details on all of the above to say for sure.

You say you have a router in your living room. It's that what your wireless devices are connected to? If so then your connection issues are not related to any Telus supplied equipment. You haven't provided any info on how your WiFi and LAN network is configured

@xray I'm using my dell insprion 5770 laptop.  It's about 2 years old, but I checked the specs and I believe it has a 100 Mbps ethernet card.  I thought I had a gigabyte card.  So that explains why I'm not able to get over 100 while plugged in.

 

Last night, I plugged into the modem in my garage.  I ran a speed test through the modem and got 381 Mbps down, 240 Mbps up.  I had my laptop plugged in   I was able to get 92 Mbps down and up, which is probably due to the capability of the card.

Brian9_0-1592797594712.png

 

 

In my living room, I'm running the web6000Q device (network extender I think?) that telus provided.  I keep calling it a router and I think because it's an extender, it's not really a router?  And yes, this is what everyone is connected to.  I did switch it to my netgear just to try it (didn't put the modem in bridge mode) and it provided faster connections.  My preference is to try and get the telus provided equipment to work, but may put the modem in bridge mode and rely on my netgear.  I have not changed any settings in the network extender.  I did turn off the smart steering for a while hoping it would help me connect some of my smart devices to it, but have since reset the extender so smart steering is running again.

So it looks like your Internet speed at the modem is fine. It still would be good to confirm with a device having a gigabit Ethernet adapter. I have a couple of USB Ethernet dongles I use that I use when I need gigabit rates like during backups to my NAS. They're useful to have around.

The next test would be to move the extender to the garage and connect it by Ethernet. Do a speed test from your laptop both by Ethernet to the extender and WiFi to the extender. This will tell you if wiring to the house is the problem.

OK, after a few weeks of tinkering, and many hours in the attic, I think I've fixed it:

- Ran cat6 cable from the telus T3200M modem in my garage to my living room

- Installed Asus zen wifi mesh system.  Put the router in the living room with the cat 6 cable between the telus modem and the Asus router.

- Have another cat6 cable running to the basement where I put a second Asus zen wifi (mesh mode)

- Put the telus T3200M in bridge mode.

 

The dropouts have stopped.  I've been consistently getting 300+ Mbps download on my phone and 150+ Mbps download on my laptop.

 

Still only getting between 300 and 400 Mbps at the modem, but for now, everyone in the house is happy and are able to get through their classes without buffering or completely losing the signal.  It was suggested that perhaps I move the modem from the garage to my living room but I'm not convinced that is worth the effort.

 

Thanks all for your help.

@Brian9   Looks like all the work you did has had good outcome for you. Keeping the home system as simple as possible means less problems for you. Glad it works for you. Polecat

I've never had good luck with extenders....I find a mesh network is the best.  Glad it appears to be resolved.

polecat
All-Star

@Brian9  The use of coax from modem to router. Who knows what condition the coax is was there a previous owner? Sometimes someone may have put a spliter in  the line to get somewhere else and it got covered up and hidden. You would have to test the coax. Use ohmmeter a 100 foot extension cord (disconnect all ends of coax  ).. Connect ground on cord to center of coax at modem  use ohmmeter between ground and coax at other end of the coax outlets. If you have a complete circuit on that coax GOOD.. But do not disconnect modem end from cord  Now test all the other coax ends if you find another circuit YOU HAVE FOUND THE TROUBLE. Test the other coax cables the same way you might be surprised what you find. If this is and older house could be thing could be weird. Other way buy a 50 or 100 foot cate 5 cable and do modem to router and see if it clears up not that expensive. Polecat

Hi @polecat .  That's one of the reasons I tried running a network cable from the modem to the router.  in my mechanical room there is literally a rats nest of coax cables.  I counted 14 various coax connections in my house.  They all come out of the mechanical room and it's literally splitter upon splitter.  So I know the coax system is a mess and is likely unreliable.  What surprised me was when I moved the network cable, nothing seemed to improve.  If anything, it's gotten worse.

polecat
All-Star

@Brian9  That explains a lot a bad mess corroded copper coax life span is over.  If you have access to attic try to go that route.  Here is what i do at site for internet outlet cut hole in wall for easy box  (clamps to sheet rock) At ceiling drill 1/8 hole and shove white metal close hanger up hole crawl in and measure over from hanger and drill 1 inch hole in 2/4 plate shove cate cable down to  wall hole. Get cate up to attic in garage push wires up and use a long stick with hook to pull wire to you. Run 2 cables to each location you want maybe another outlet on other side of wall in next room. It is slow work work but what what else can you do. Good luck Polecat

THanks @polecat I am going to try that.

I plugged my laptop into the modem in the garage.  Was able to get 85 Mbps down and 90 Mbps upload.  Not sure if that's good or not.  Modem speed test reported 384 down and 282 up.

Brian

polecat
All-Star

@Brian9   We have 25/25 (no optic tel sate) 29dn/29up rare 20up. What is your internet package. I use a wifi analyzer by Matt Hafner and have  -52db to  -65db  34 feet from t3200m router -------- 15 feet from router -39db to - 48. This does vary on some occasions -- most of time laptop is using 5ghz.   I can see 30 plus wifi sites with signal strengths - 75 to 89 and what ghz they are using. The telus guy set the wii to channel 6 and i have no one else nearby  using that channel. In one room  i get -79 but the fridge -stove and old cast iron bathtub are in direct line to the router in basement. The installer found this and i tell him the angle through the appliances to the router. Wife uses netflick and music sites i use news and youtube but we are not heavy users. The  speed is fast enough for us. Get a teck when? Polecat

@polecat good suggestion.  I like that Matt Hafner app better than the one i was using.

I get about -25 to -30db standing over the router, and i'm at -50db around 20' away.

I did find one thing last night.  For whatever reason, the wifi out of the modem in my garage was not working.  I rebooted the modem and now it's working again.  I think this is the reason a lot of my cameras would not reconnect (they're closer to the modem than the router thing in the house).

I also tried disconnecting my web6000Q and plugging in an older netgear router.  Signal strength is about 10db higher than the web6000q, and speeds are much faster.  I think what I may do is run the network cables as you suggest, and rather than using the web6000q, use my netgear and bridge the T3200m.  I really, really liked the netgear router when I was using it in the past as the signal was very strong.  Based on signal strength, it should support the cameras outside.  I don't think I'll need to run any extenders.

polecat
All-Star

@Brian9  I am not tecky when it comes internal workings of equipment. My setup works well for me. Have cate5 beside my chair in living room but have never used it. Grand kids use it when here to support their games. I have helped friends snake cables into hard to reach areas without opening up sheet rock as last resort (going to paint room in fall) Then fill and paint. Used the attic and also cold heating duct it goes to every room. Legal ? only a 5 volt cable should not hurt anything. The dust in there would be more dangerous. Polecat