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Slow FIOS internet

Had Fios for a few weeks now and the speed is rarely near the stated 15 / 5 Mb/s promised. Initially it was but it has become incresingly slow - especially a night (current readins are ping 31 ms, download 7.52 and upload a pathetic 0.72. Now I know of theinternet congestion etc but why bother offering the speed if it is not a reality for when I actually want to use it? I was on fibre optic in the UK and that at least ran at more than 25Mbs when I paid for 30.

If it actually delivered 15Mbs that would be more than adequate!

Comments

smith6612

Are you on a Wireless or Wired connection to the router? You need to double check your speeds on an Ethernet connection if you are on Wireless, first to see what the deal is. It might also be worthwhile to point out your area, in case we can correlate it with a particular problem area.

salmotrutta

I take it all back - on trying it on the ethernet it is up to speed although still very slow on the wireless. Must be something new interfering with the wireless. Apologies to Verizon!

salmotrutta

Checked the channel allocation on INSSider and realised that most people have the default channel of 1 so changed it to 9 on mine - bingo! Back up to speed.Hurrah!

smith6612

It isn't a problem 🙂 You're one step ahead of me.

What you need to do now is using your computer, scan for nearby networks using a tool such as InSSIDer and see where your network stands relative to other networks with the channels that are available. The best channels to run a Wireless Network on are 1, 6, and 11 since they are non-overlapping channels. Overlapping channels can be used in some special cases, where your throughput and stability is better due to a weaker signal curve from other networks.

Once you find which channel is the best to use based on the signals you pick up using a tool such as InSSIDer, log into the router using your web browser at http://192.168.1.1/ and adjust your Wireless settings. The default login for the FiOS router is often one of the following:

admin/Router Serial Number (found on the bottom sticker of the router)

admin/password

admin/password1

admin/admin

admin/admin1

Once logged in, visit the Wireless Settings. Change the Wireless Channel to the channel of your choice, disabling channel auto-scan. Set the router to maintain that setting through reboots, then save your settings. While you're at it, I would suggest switching the Wireless Security from WEP to WPA2, for security purpose for as long as all of your devices support WPA2, and in the process, setting the Wireless radio to only operate using Wireless G mode, not B/G Mixed mode. Those two settings can be found under the Advanced Wireless settings page.

So speed, stability, reliability, and security is what we're aiming for here 🙂 Just keep in mind, once your speeds go past the 15Mbps/5Mbps speeds, all bets are off on how well Wireless G will handle. Wireless G will often max out at 20Mbps total throughput and if you're lucky, 25Mbps. This is a half duplex connection, so you can transmit OR receive at any given time across the entire wireless network. The Wireless network also works like a hub; all devices on the network that wish to transmit or receive data need to wait their turn to eat the pie.

Just some info I figured I'd toss your way . If what you're experiencing isn't radio-related noise, but just traffic from other networks, that would be the "Carrier Busy" form of congestion.

salmotrutta

Thanks for your help - I'll try disabling B as all my stuff is at least g and mostly n anyways. Cheers!

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