Question UPDATED: Question on what this speed test means...

[JWMiddleton]

UPDATED AT THE END OF THE THREAD...

On Dec 24th we had freeing weather for a few days here in Metro Atlanta. I noticed that my AT&T internet speed was much slower. It was so bad that I couldn't watch Netflix without constant buffering. There was a lot of water damage in the area from burst pipes, thus I gave AT&T some time to work it out. Then, on Jan 12th, we had 3 tornadoes come through our area. There was a lot more damage piled on top of the water damage. So, I again waited as we could use the internet on our PC's, although we were getting speeds that were 25% of our 500mbps service.

I had been using speedtest.net to test the speed. Well, yesterday I found a test on AT&T that gave me the results below. So, I want to be sure I am reading this correctly before I contact AT&T. It looks like the test results on the left shows the speed out to a site on the internet, while the right side in just between my PC and the AT&T router. This tells me that the problem in not the equipment inside our home. Am I reading this correctly?

My AT&T router is BGW210-700.

John

 

[JackMDS]

You have to connect Desktop/Laptop via cable directly to a port on the Router and measure the speed.

If the speed is as ATT claims, then the problem is with your LAN

If it is not correct it is their Duty to come and fix their system that provides the service to you Router.

 

[ch33zw1z]

What does Speedtest.net say

 

[JWMiddleton]

You have to connect Desktop/Laptop via cable directly to a port on the Router and measure the speed.

If the speed is as ATT claims, then the problem is with your LAN

If it is not correct it is their Duty to come and fix their system that provides the service to you Router.

Connecting a laptop with CAT-5 cable gave great results as you can see.



The same laptop using WiFi close to the router gave the following results...



When I tested the Samsung TV just now the results was horrible...



This is similar to what I was seeing since late Dec. Before this slow down I was seeing 80+ Mbps. Over the weekend it was up to 25Mbps.

So, is the problem the TV? It is a Samsung 65" Class Q60R QLED Smart 4K UHD TV (2019). Or, am I getting interference?

What does Speedtest.net say

The info above answers your question.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Looks like the TV is the weak spot here. Have you tried connecting a cable to the tv and retesting?

 

[JWMiddleton]

Looks like the TV is the weak spot here. Have you tried connecting a cable to the tv and retesting?

Not yet as I have to go into the attic to get a cable that is long enough.

If it is a problem with the Wi-Fi module on the TV, I was thinking of getting an AT&T AirTies Air 4920 Wi-Fi Extender as I use one with a CAT 5 cable on my main PC as it doesn't have Wi-Fi. Still, the Wi-Fi speed isn't as good as it has been. I was consistently getting >500Mbps on my desktop until Dec.

John

 

[JackMDS]

Take the Laptop walk with it to the TV and measure the signal at the TV location with the Laptop

 

[JWMiddleton]

Take the Laptop walk with it to the TV and measure the signal at the TV location with the Laptop

The laptop I used is on my wife's desk, that is 20 feet past the TV and behind a wall. It just measured 372.55/479.59 Mbps. Which is weird as those results are better than it did only a few feet from the router yesterday.

John

 

[mxnerd]

WiFi speed fluctuate all day long, nothing special. Can be different every minute.

It looks like your Samsung TV's WiFi module degrades quite a bit.

Get a Wifi extender that you can return if it doesn't work.

TP-Link got many extenders that should be within your budget.

Amazon.com : wifi extender tp link

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=tp-link+wifi+extender

 

[In2Photos]

Have you restarted the TV? And I don't mean turn it off and back on. An actual software reboot?

 

[Shmee]

I would use Cat5E minimum, if not Cat6. The cables better cables are pretty cheap these days. And yeah, Wifi is typically going to be more limited / varying in speeds.

 

[JWMiddleton]

I would use Cat5E minimum, if not Cat6. The cables better cables are pretty cheap these days. And yeah, Wifi is typically going to be more limited / varying in speeds.

All cables are Cat5E

 

[JWMiddleton]

I don't have a Cat5E cable that is long enough to connect the TV to the AT&T router. So, I used a 1Gbps switch and 2 cables. Here are pics of the setup and test results.




The TV has a 100Mbps Ethernet port, so these results are fine and more than enough to display Netflix movies at 4K.

I have my dual band router setup with a separate SSID for 2.4 and 5 GHz. Using WiFi Analyzer app on my phone, I noticed that the TV was on the 2.4 GHz net. So, I moved it and got much better results as you can see below.


I figure something must be causing issues with the 2.4 band. We live in an active adult community and the houses are very close together. Thus, the interference could be coming from a neighbor.

Thanks for all your help!

John

 

[ch33zw1z]

Good troubleshooting, iirc 2.4 has channels, if you want to mess around more with it, you can try a different channel

 

[JWMiddleton]

I was still having issues with the WiFi in the house, so I spoke to an AT&T service tech I saw in our neighborhood. He suggested I request a new router. I had the BWG-210, an 802.11AC router. His suggestion was for a BWG-320, an 802.11AX (WiFI 6) router. I called, they agreed and shipped it overnight. Had a little trouble getting it to work as the line/circuit had to be reset. Once that was done I am getting much better results.

Here is the TV test:

On the PC in my sig, I'm getting much better results than I was getting using the AT&T 4920 extender. For that PC I bought a $30 AX1800 USB adapter.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Good to hear that the new equipment fixed the issue. It could still have been a congestion issue, but I have seen radio transmitters/receivers degrade before as well. The newer router should supposedly do a scan and pick the less used channels automatically, which might have been the real fix for you in the first place, but since you were eligable for newer equipment (you are already paying for that as part of your service/subscription fee), it is best to put that in use.