Internet Speeds

[namarino]

Hey guys, I have a question about internet speeds. I'm really confused about it. So my first question is about the network cards. For example, why would I need a gigabit network card if my ISF only transmits at 300 Mbps? I don't know if I'm looking at this wrong, but I would really appreciate any clarification. Thanks so much!

[Jade]

Internal network. Just because your ISP only connects you to the internet at 300Mbps doesn't mean your internal network (devices on the same network) can't take advantage of the Gigabit speeds.

[MisterZero]

Internal network. Just because your ISP only connects you to the internet at 300Mbps doesn't mean your internal network (devices on the same network) can't take advantage of the Gigabit speeds.

^ This is a good point

But also the only step down of Gigabit is 100Mbits so... choose a third of your speed or full speed + some extra bandwidth for your home network

[Si3Rra_7]

^Yes but all parts of the network havr to support gigabit . Cat 6 cables , network cards,router , switch

[Jade]

^Yes but all parts of the network havr to support gigabit . Cat 6 cables , network cards,router , switch

Cat6? No. Cat5 can support Gigabit.

[Ssoele]

cat5e if u wanna be more exact cat5 technically isnt gigabet iirc

 

@OP Like everyone else said, internal networking. An example would be Linus Tech Tip videos. They are large files and there's a good chance he puts them on his computer than onto their internal server so Edzel can edit it. Linus is paying Edzel decent money and he can't be sitting there waiting for a file to be uploaded.

 

It is, Cat5 is rated for 55m on 1Gbps, Cat5e is rated for 100m on 1Gbps.

[namarino]

cat5e if u wanna be more exact cat5 technically isnt gigabet iirc

 

@OP Like everyone else said, internal networking. An example would be Linus Tech Tip videos. They are large files and there's a good chance he puts them on his computer than onto their internal server so Edzel can edit it. Linus is paying Edzel decent money and he can't be sitting there waiting for a file to be uploaded.

 

Internal network. Just because your ISP only connects you to the internet at 300Mbps doesn't mean your internal network (devices on the same network) can't take advantage of the Gigabit speeds.

Sorry I'm still not quite understanding. So a hypothetical modem provides me with 300 Mbps and is routed into the computer's gigabit network card by way of a gigabit cable. Isn't the modem bottle necking the network card because there isn't a gigabit of information being transmitted? Maybe I just don't understand exactly what these speeds actually mean. Thanks guys!

[Jade]

Sorry I'm still not quite understanding. So a hypothetical modem provides me with 300 Mbps and is routed into the computer's gigabit network card by way of a gigabit cable. Isn't the modem bottle necking the network card because there isn't a gigabit of information being transmitted? Maybe I just don't understand exactly what these speeds actually mean. Thanks guys!

Your connection outside of your house would be 300Mbps. If you were to try to download $GAME, you could download it, in theory, at a speed of 300Mbps (roughly, you don't usually get the exact speed advertised, but most of the time is near advertised.)

 

Your connection within your network and house would potentially hit gigabit speeds. If you would transfer a file across your network, eg. $DESKTOP>$LAPTOP, both connected to the same network via Ethernet, it could, in theory, transfer at a gigabit speed.

[namarino]

Your connection outside of your house would be 300Mbps. If you were to try to download $GAME, you could download it, in theory, at a speed of 300Mbps (roughly, you don't usually get the exact speed advertised, but most of the time is near advertised.)

 

Your connection within your network and house would potentially hit gigabit speeds. If you would transfer a file across your network, eg. $DESKTOP>$LAPTOP, both connected to the same network via Ethernet, it could, in theory, transfer at a gigabit speed.

Oh ok I'm getting it now. So I have a few more questions. 1) If my network card is only at 10/100 but I still have a gigabit ethernet, the speed would be reduced to 10/100 right?  2) I'm not entirely sure what speed we get from our ISP but when I do a speed test, I'm getting 60Mbps. I'm thinking we pay for 300Mbps. What would cause that inefficiency?? The modem is connected to the router and then the computer is connected to the router by ethernet.

[Jade]

Oh ok I'm getting it now. So I have a few more questions. 1) If my network card is only at 10/100 but I still have a gigabit ethernet, the speed would be reduced to 10/100 right?  2) I'm not entirely sure what speed we get from our ISP but when I do a speed test, I'm getting 60Mbps. I'm thinking we pay for 300Mbps. What would cause that inefficiency?? The modem is connected to the router and then the computer is connected to the router by ethernet.

1. Yep.
2. Where do you live? Most places in the US don't offer 300Mbps. Also, why not just ask whoever for a bill to see what speeds you're actually paying for. Until you know that, there's not much saying you're actually suffering from any issues.

[tmlhalo]

On the side note if you do have 300 Mbps internet then while downloading a Steam game should be hitting ~37.5 MBps. 8 bits in a byte. ISPs sell by the bit. Divide by 8 to see what your expected megabyte per second speed would be.

[EmeraldFlame]

On the side note if you do have 300 Mbps internet then while downloading a Steam game should be hitting ~37.5 MBps. 8 bits in a byte. ISPs sell by the bit. Divide by 8 to see what your expected megabyte per second speed would be.

 

When estimating expected speeds you actually better off dividing by 10. While there are only 8 bits in 1 byte transmission protocols take and additional 10-20% bandwidth depending on exactly what protocol is being used. This means that for every 8 bytes of data transferred you normally have 1 or 2 encapsulation bytes. 

[namarino]

 

1. Yep.
2. Where do you live? Most places in the US don't offer 300Mbps. Also, why not just ask whoever for a bill to see what speeds you're actually paying for. Until you know that, there's not much saying you're actually suffering from any issues.

 

Haha yeah the problem is that the person laying the bill (my dad) doesn't know anything... Oh and I have one final question! I'm sorry to keep bothering you. As far as routers go, I've noticed that I'm getting about 28Mbps on the floor where the router is located, but upstairs, I'm getting about 5Mbps. This obviously has something to do with the signal strength. How can I improve that? I don't know too much about routers but the one that I have has 2 channels, G and N and it is dualband, (which I think means that it can transmit at both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz). Thanks so much!!!

[tmlhalo]

Haha yeah the problem is that the person laying the bill (my dad) doesn't know anything... Oh and I have one final question! I'm sorry to keep bothering you. As far as routers go, I've noticed that I'm getting about 28Mbps on the floor where the router is located, but upstairs, I'm getting about 5Mbps. This obviously has something to do with the signal strength. How can I improve that? I don't know too much about routers but the one that I have has 2 channels, G and N and it is dualband, (which I think means that it can transmit at both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz). Thanks so much!!!

I would check how many bars your devices say they are getting upstairs first. If it is 3 or 4 flickering on 3 bars you might need a stronger dBi antenna for the router (if it has external antennas).

[namarino]

Your connection outside of your house would be 300Mbps. If you were to try to download $GAME, you could download it, in theory, at a speed of 300Mbps (roughly, you don't usually get the exact speed advertised, but most of the time is near advertised.)

 

Your connection within your network and house would potentially hit gigabit speeds. If you would transfer a file across your network, eg. $DESKTOP>$LAPTOP, both connected to the same network via Ethernet, it could, in theory, transfer at a gigabit speed.

So it appears that we have 100Mbps. But when I do a speed test, I'm only getting 60. Could the explanation for that be that I only have a 10/100 network card instead of gigabit?

[tmlhalo]

So it appears that we have 100Mbps. But when I do a speed test, I'm only getting 60. Could the explanation for that be that I only have a 10/100 network card instead of gigabit?

Do any devices get more than 60?

[skywake]

The speed you will get will only be as fast as the slowest link in the chain. Take for example my setup (as it was when I posted this in the other thread): 

 

It's a relatively complex setup for a "regular home user" so if I can explain it to you you'll understand most setups. Those dark black lines are wired 1Gbps connections, the thinner lines are 100Mbps wired connections and all the dotted lines are non-wired connections that typically run at under 100Mbps. So for example if I moved a file between my NAS and my PC it would run at something around 1Gbps because there is nothing slowing it down. If I want to move something from my NAS to my WDTV media player then I'll be limited to 100Mbps. If however I'm copying a file from my NAS to a laptop or phone on WiFi or I'm streaming to the BluRay player that's stuck on powerline? Then I'll get anything from a bit over 100Mbps all the way down to sub 5Mbps depending on the conditions.

And none of that has anything to do with my pretty average Australian internets. Infact because my internets are pretty average my internal network will only be a bottleneck in pretty extreme scenarios. If I had 300Mbps nets? Only my PC, NAS and my wireless Access point (although not the individual devices) would get the full 300Mbps in that diagram. Everything else will be anything from 5Mbps upto around 100Mbps. However even though that's the case I would still be able to, for example, pull 300Mbps collectively from multiple devices that are getting 100Mbps or less.

[namarino]

Do any devices get more than 60?

Well the only device that we have on ethernet is that one computer so yep, that's the only one. The other devices run on wifi.

[namarino]

The speed you will get will only be as fast as the slowest link in the chain. Take for example my setup (as it was when I posted this in the other thread): 

 

It's a relatively complex setup for a "regular home user" so if I can explain it to you you'll understand most setups. Those dark black lines are wired 1Gbps connections, the thinner lines are 100Mbps wired connections and all the dotted lines are non-wired connections that typically run at under 100Mbps. So for example if I moved a file between my NAS and my PC it would run at something around 1Gbps because there is nothing slowing it down. If I want to move something from my NAS to my WDTV media player then I'll be limited to 100Mbps. If however I'm copying a file from my NAS to a laptop or phone on WiFi or I'm streaming to the BluRay player that's stuck on powerline? Then I'll get anything from a bit over 100Mbps all the way down to sub 5Mbps depending on the conditions.

And none of that has anything to do with my pretty average Australian internets. Infact because my internets are pretty average my internal network will only be a bottleneck in pretty extreme scenarios. If I had 300Mbps nets? Only my PC, NAS and my wireless Access point (although not the individual devices) would get the full 300Mbps in that diagram. Everything else will be anything from 5Mbps upto around 100Mbps. However even though that's the case I would still be able to, for example, pull 300Mbps collectively from multiple devices that are getting 100Mbps or less.

This was really helpful! Thanks so much....but I also have some other questions now...haha So let me see if I have this right. I pay for 100Mbps from my ISP. They give me a modem. The modem is then hooked into the computer's 10/100 network card by way of a gigabit ethernet cord. The modem is also hooked into a 300Mbps router. In this particular situation, if I transfer a file from the 10/100 computer into another computer with gigabit, the file will transfer at 10/100 because that is the slowest connection. I think I have this down. But about my router, if I pay for 100 Mbps and my router is 300Mbps, is the modem bottlenecking the router?? What good is a 300Mbps router if you don't have a 300Mbps connection in the first place? And am I getting only 28Mbps on wifi because of the interference that happens with wifi?

[skywake]

This was really helpful! Thanks so much....but I also have some other questions now...haha So let me see if I have this right. I pay for 100Mbps from my ISP. They give me a modem. The modem is then hooked into the computer's 10/100 network card by way of a gigabit ethernet cord. The modem is also hooked into a 300Mbps router. In this particular situation, if I transfer a file from the 10/100 computer into another computer with gigabit, the file will transfer at 10/100 because that is the slowest connection. I think I have this down. But about my router, if I pay for 100 Mbps and my router is 300Mbps, is the modem bottlenecking the router?? What good is a 300Mbps router if you don't have a 300Mbps connection in the first place? And am I getting only 28Mbps on wifi because of the interference that happens with wifi?

I'm pretty much 100% certain that when your "router" says "300Mbps" it means N300 WiFi. That's not actually 300Mbps, that's a theoretical speed and it only concerns the wireless speed. What speed you get wired depends on whether the ports on it are 1Gbps or 100Mbps, what speed you get for wireless depends on a number of factors but for N300 it'll be anything upto ~70Mbps.

 

So with that in mind the answer to your questions would be:

"if I pay for 100 Mbps and my router is 300Mbps, is the modem bottlenecking the router?"

The only bottleneck I'd worry about is if your 'nets are faster. In this case "300Mbps" likely means ~100Mbps wired and ~30-70Mbps wireless

 

"What good is a 300Mbps router if you don't have a 300Mbps connection in the first place?"

Your 'nets have nothing to do with what internal hardware you have. As long as it can at deliver close to the speed you're paying for overall it's perfectly fine

 

"And am I getting only 28Mbps on wifi because of the interference that happens with wifi?"

For wireless N this is actually fairly typical. It may be "interference" but it could just as likely be range and it's more likely just the limit of your adapter

[namarino]

I'm pretty much 100% certain that when your "router" says "300Mbps" it means N300 WiFi. That's not actually 300Mbps, that's a theoretical speed and it only concerns the wireless speed. What speed you get wired depends on whether the ports on it are 1Gbps or 100Mbps, what speed you get for wireless depends on a number of factors but for N300 it'll be anything upto ~70Mbps.

 

So with that in mind the answer to your questions would be:

"if I pay for 100 Mbps and my router is 300Mbps, is the modem bottlenecking the router?"

The only bottleneck I'd worry about is if your 'nets are faster. In this case "300Mbps" likely means ~100Mbps wired and ~30-70Mbps wireless

 

"What good is a 300Mbps router if you don't have a 300Mbps connection in the first place?"

Your 'nets have nothing to do with what internal hardware you have. As long as it can at deliver close to the speed you're paying for overall it's perfectly fine

 

"And am I getting only 28Mbps on wifi because of the interference that happens with wifi?"

For wireless N this is actually fairly typical. It may be "interference" but it could just as likely be range and it's more likely just the limit of your adapter

So I did a bit of research on my internet plan and router. So I'm currently paying for 50 Mbps (I'm getting 60 but hey, that's good right). My network card is 10/100 and the ports in my router is are also 10/100. My router is N300, as you said. So my very last couple of questions are as follows! 1) Could I benefit at all from upgrading to a network card and router with gigabit ethernet ports? 2) What could I do to improve the signal strength of my router? Could I add another access point in the places where I need more signal? Thanks so much for all your help!!!

[skywake]

So I did a bit of research on my internet plan and router. So I'm currently paying for 50 Mbps (I'm getting 60 but hey, that's good right). My network card is 10/100 and the ports in my router is are also 10/100. My router is N300, as you said. So my very last couple of questions are as follows! 1) Could I benefit at all from upgrading to a network card and router with gigabit ethernet ports? 2) What could I do to improve the signal strength of my router? 3) Could I add another access point in the places where I need more signal? Thanks so much for all your help!!!

1. Yes, internal network traffic will run faster. Moving files from PC to PC, Game streaming etc

2. Moving it to a higher and more central location is the main thing

3. Yes, especially if it's wired. Although personally I've had nothing problems doing such a setup when moving between the APs