Network wont hit Gig Speeds

djlerner

Junior Member
Jul 24, 2017
2
0
1
Hello Everyone!

I currently am signed up with Comcast to get 1 gig internet speeds. My current setup is a Netgear CM1000 Docsis 3.1 cable modem, a Netgear nighthawk r7300DST router, and a network switch that allows 10/100/1000. So all in all this system should be able to support 1 gig speeds. I am currently getting the following speeds through speed test. 443 Mbps download and 43 Mbps upload. Upload speeds are not fast with Comcast and my target for upload is 35 so I am doing good there, but I cannot get above 500 Mbps download when I pay for 1000 Mbps. I am also running Cat6 cabling throughout the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. When I directly connect to the modem I hit 900+ Mbps download.

Thank you ALL!
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
If you connect directly to the modem and get 900mbps+ then next try directly to the router. If that's slower then it's likely your router that is having issues, or a bad cable in between, however if it's still 900mbps, then test your switch or there is potentially a damaged cable in between.

If it is your router you can try updating firmware. From the smallnetbuilder review of your router it only hits ~700-800mbps WAN-LAN throughput anyway, so no matter what you'd probably max out around that point.
 

djlerner

Junior Member
Jul 24, 2017
2
0
1
If you connect directly to the modem and get 900mbps+ then next try directly to the router. If that's slower then it's likely your router that is having issues, or a bad cable in between, however if it's still 900mbps, then test your switch or there is potentially a damaged cable in between.

If it is your router you can try updating firmware. From the smallnetbuilder review of your router it only hits ~700-800mbps WAN-LAN throughput anyway, so no matter what you'd probably max out around that point.

Ah thank you. I did try connecting directly to the router and same speeds of 450. I will still play around with the cabling and maybe I have bad cable, but its worth a shot.
 

leonman

Junior Member
Jul 11, 2017
6
0
6
If you connect directly to the modem and get 900mbps+ then next try directly to the router. If that's slower then it's likely your router that is having issues, or a bad cable in between, however if it's still 900mbps, then test your switch or there is potentially a damaged cable in between.

It is practical to try this method at the first step to check your home networking problem.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
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https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/179-wan-to-lan-tcp/31

I've got the same problem, I can't seem to hit 940Mbit/sec down on an internet speedtest.

I've got a FIOS Quantum Gateway router, connected to my ONT via ethernet, and then I've got a secondary router, an Asus AC68R, which is the same hardware as the AC68U. As you can see from that chart, it is capable of 934.0Mbit/sec WAN-to-LAN.

I've gotten ~940Mbit/sec uploads on a speedtest, so it seems that the router is actually capable, just that the speedtest site doesn't quite have enough bandwidth for me.

Edit: Forgot to add, there is an option on one of the Verizon speedtest sites, to do a "router speedtest", which, presuably, uses the backdoor interface that VZ has on their routers, to run the speedtest from your CPE router, to VZ's speedtest server, and not using a host PC.

With that router speedtest, I got above 900Mbit/sec in both directions. (Though, not quite 940Mbit/sec, something like 915Mbit/sec. Pretty close, though, all things considered.)

Edit: Did another router speedtest, I guess I was "feeling lucky", or perhaps my internet congestion was over, and I scored 949Mbit/sec down and 948Mbit/sec up. That's supposedly a test between my FIOS router, and VZ's servers. Not including my Asus AC68R router.
 
Last edited:

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,201
12,029
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www.anyf.ca
It's rare to hit gigabit dead on, the conditions have to be perfect. On my internal network I tend to hit around 950mbps or so and that's by tweaking the bench mark until I get the highest speed.

Things like buffer size (for whatever protocol you are using) all play a factor. With a benchmark it tends to be a fairly solid stream of data so you can get pretty close but with any other protocol it will have it's own overhead etc that will prevent it from hitting gig dead on.

ISPs should really not sell gig as gig, because even if their own equipment can do a little higher to make up for the overhead, 99% of customer's equipment won't be able to.
 
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mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
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ISPs should really not sell gig as gig, because even if their own equipment can do a little higher to make up for the overhead, 99% of customer's equipment won't be able to.
That's usually why those that do have 1gbps speed tiers will generally have warnings all over their troubleshooter and other guides explaining that only high end devices connected via ethernet can achieve full speeds.

But considering the speeds offered by NG-PON2, I expect we'll see more and more 1gbps+ options out there. NG-PON2 OLTs can push 40-80gbps (depends if you use 4 or 8 light channels) on a single fiber strand. Even split among 64 customers, that's easily 1/1gbps per customer. My ISP currently uses 8:1 or 16:1 splits on their GPON nodes to offer 1gbps speeds, if they kept the same split configuration but moved to NG-PON2 they could offer 10gbps per customer if they felt like there was a reason to.

Though I expect NG-PON2 to primarily be used by medium/large businesses and enterprise customers for the next ~2-3 years. The ONT's are currently too expensive to bother for residential service. And with filters i've heard you can run NG-PON2 and GPON on the same link anyway so no need to update residential equipment until there is demand.