Why is my wireless speed so slow?

I currently have Verizon Fios 35/35 plan for internet. While I get great speed from my one hardwired connection, my wireless connections in the house are typically in the 3-5 Mbps upload and download, even if I am standing next to the router. My signal strength at any wireless connection is typically good - great, but still my speed stinks.

We have 4 desktops/laptops on this network, along with an Ipad, but those connections would rarely ever be making much of a request on my network at the same time. My router is model MI424WR. I would really like to see if there is something I could do to increase the wireless speed in my home. Any thoughts?

Accepted answers

griz21

I have finally been able to get my wireless speed in the 20Mbps arena, which is great. Went through a series of activities last night so not totally sure just exactly what caused my issue, but in case anyone else has similar issues:

I did discover that my wireless extender did seem to have something to do with my speed issue - if I were to unplug it before, I would see my speed go from around 5Mpbs to 8-9.
Last night, after having a VZ technical support chat go very wrong - ended up in a scenario where I only had a wireless signal and no internet, I finally contacted VZ tech support on the phone.
We did a lot of things, but in the end we reset the Router to standard factory settings and changed my Channel to 10. Without having the wireless extender connected, I suddenly started getting download speed around 20Mbps. As I have a 35/35 plan, this isn't too shabby, especially after months of having 5Mbps.
I then played around with trying to get my wireless extender back in play without cannibalizing my speed. After many iterations and attempts, I was finally able to do so. I am still not totally sure how I got the extender to work with compromising speed, but very happy it now works as it should.
The only thing I find interesting now when I view my VZ router's connections:
When the extender was causing me to lose speed, I would find the exact IP address of the extender in my list. This is the same IP address I used to login to that extender.
However, now that I have gotten the extender to work without speed issues, if I look at the list of connections on my VZ router I no longer find that same IP in the list. I see the same device name show up, but now it has a last node of 12, when before the last node was 5.

So at least for now, things are finally working as they should. Hopefully they stay that way.

All comments

Hubrisnxs

What do your speedtest results when wired say at http://speedtest.verizon.net

and also what do your speedtest results when wireless say at http://speedtest.verizon.net

After it's done, click on analysis and copy and paste those results here.

The problem most likely is just wireless interference, the best thing to do in your router, is to change the wireless signal. you can change that in the router. open a browser, and go to http://192.168.1.1

user name is admin. and the password is most likely the serial number found on the service tag of your VZ router unless you changed it. Once you login succesfully, go to the top and hit wireless, then on the left basic security. then go to option 3 which is channel 1, 6 and 11 and are the only channels you should try.

So it will likely be set to auto, change it to 11 and put the check for keep settings even after reboot (Directly under the channel) and then hit apply. after you hit apply, test your connection out, if you notice a difference, leave it like that until the problem happens again, and if it happens again, go back into the router, and try channel 6, test it out. and then finally 1 if the first two don't work.

Also take a look at page 2 of Actiontec's Wireless PDF File. It gives you some idea's with regards to position and orientation of where the router sits and how it can best be positioned for maximum coverage.

http://support.actiontec.com/doc_files/MI424WR_Rev(all)_Wireless_Networking_Guide.pdf

griz21

Not home right now but will give that a try. I am pretty sure I had previously changed my channel and removed the Auto setting. Possible it may have been changed via reboot after. From the hardwired connection, I oftne get speeds in the 40-45 Mbps, so my incoming signal appears to be good. Wirelessly, though, it is only 3-5. I will give this a try and see if it helps. Will also perfomr the analysis and post once I have the results. Thanks.

griz21

Here are the results from my wireless speedtest:

Broadband Speed Test

Analysis information:

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
SendBufferSize set to [8192]
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 4.62Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 5.32Mb/s
Packet size is preserved End-to-End
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Information: Network Address Translation (NAT) box is modifying the Client's IP address
Server says [{edited for privacy}] but Client says [192.168.1.9]

griz21

here are the saem results from a macbook sitting 2 feet from the router:

Broadband Speed Test

Analysis information:

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
SendBufferSize set to [66608]
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 13.24Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 19.47Mb/s

------ Client System Details ------
OS data: Name = Mac OS X, Architecture = x86_64, Version = 10.7.4
Java data: Vendor = Apple Inc., Version = 1.6.0_33

------ Web100 Detailed Analysis ------
Client Receive Window detected at 66608 bytes.
45 Mbps T3/DS3 link found.
Link set to Full Duplex mode
No network congestion discovered.
Good network cable(s) found
Normal duplex operation found.

Web100 reports the Round trip time = 25.5 msec; the Packet size = 1448 Bytes; and
No packet loss was observed.
This connection is receiver limited 29.73% of the time.
Increasing the the client's receive buffer (65.0 KB) will improve performance
This connection is sender limited 69.94% of the time.

Web100 reports TCP negotiated the optional Performance Settings to:
RFC 2018 Selective Acknowledgment: ON
RFC 896 Nagle Algorithm: ON
RFC 3168 Explicit Congestion Notification: OFF
RFC 1323 Time Stamping: ON
RFC 1323 Window Scaling: ON
Information: Network Middlebox is modifying MSS variable
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Information: Network Address Translation (NAT) box is modifying the Client's IP address
Server says [71.164.224.97] but Client says [192.168.1.13]

For some reason I am having difficulty getting speedtest to work on the wired desktop. When I launch the test, it just sits at the beginning and never progresses.

griz21

I have tried this on channels 11, 6 and 1. My router was already set at channel 11 before I started and was set to keep that channel during reboot. My results have all been about the same as the initial test. Here are the results from Channel 1:

Broadband Speed Test

Analysis information:

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
SendBufferSize set to [8192]
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 3.57Mb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 4.82Mb/s
Packet size is preserved End-to-End
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Information: Network Address Translation (NAT) box is modifying the Client's IP address
Server says [71.164.224.97] but Client says [192.168.1.9]

I do find it interesting that I don't seem to get a complete analysis when I request those results..