Lets discuss QoS settings
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
Not really. If you are configured correctly you should not be able to see any real time difference, unless you are moving very large amounts of data. Not that I don't trust comcast, but I prefer to use a non-ISP speed test site such as http://www.speedtest.net/ or http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest
My wireless test results, I have a 25Mbps plan;
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Assuming you are a Windows system; try doing the Network Adapter troubleshoot in the Network Center. You can select from Local(E'net), wireless or all.
A pretty good thread on a similar problem. Its pretty common.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23753212-Cable-Wired-Ethernet-Slower-Than-Wireless
I also always use 3rd party testers.
As for wired versus wireless, if you live out in the wilderness, you won't have much of a difference. But once your neighbors start showing up on your equipment, all bets are off. In Buena, I never picked up an outside network. In Brigantine, I have about 5~10 neighbors showing up depending on the season and its just enough to make the router performance dip a touch. In Brooklyn, I have the fastest, fanciest router money will buy, but neighbor interference is insane... I've had to wire up anything that I want reliable.
Speaking of QOS, anything consumer-level is awful. If I needed such a feature, I'd have to set up a Linux router or pick up a real router used.
BKNJ
I may be wrong but I believe he is saying that in the wilderness you don't see many networks showing up in the wireless list which means you are the only one on the line. If you are in the city you may see 20 or more names which means they are taking up bandwidth slowing things down. I have 11 right now showing.
But they do not affect your wireless connection with the proper configuration, i.e. security settings.
Sure they do. In the 2.4 spectrum, for example, there are only 11 channels, 3 of which don't interfere. While its true that in theory, the Wifi looks for the most powerful signal, when the neighbors (noise) signal get close enough to your good signal, it seriously affects your speed. A well tuned microwave or baby monitor can stop some Wifi speed dead (thankfully, the 5 Ghz band is not a dirty as the 2.4GHz.).
Before I upgraded the Brooklyn Wifi router, I had an old Netgear 802.11b unit... at times I had 15~20 other Wifi sources ON MY CHANNEL... plus a handful using the channels that interfered (luckily, most Wifi seem to avoid this)... worse, when I use the Wifi from the bedroom, my Wifi router was not the most powerful signal. The new Wifi router, however, has 4 antennas and 802.11ac exploits more bandwidth more efficiently than the old 802.11b could put ever. However, I know its only a matter of time before quality 802.11ac setups find themselves in every computer, phone, TV and microwave to swamp the new Wifi router.
The security settings are a totally different... but you want to be using WPA2 and turn off that Wifi Protected Setup/Wifi Simple Config PIN feature.
BKNJ
Not sure what context you mean...
I use a ~12 year old Netgear 2.4g Wifi router in Buena, since it runs at speeds faster than cable, with virtually no interference.
In Brigantine, my OTHER ~12 year old Netgear 2.4g recently died... so I'm now using a Netgear 802.11n router that was shelved after it was unstable when I first bought it... but better firmware in the years since has turned it into a serviceable replacement. Turned out this merciful retirement was good timing, as the old Wifi couldn't keep up with the newly installed media server. The new setup works steaming video in a moderately noisy radio area.
In Brooklyn, I use a Linksys WRT1900AC, a 802.11ac router, one of the most fancy consumer level Wifi routers when I got it a year ago. I got it for its open source features (which STILL have not been delivered) and its overall throughput in a high radio noise area. Unfortunately, it was a bit bleeding edge, and not as stable as would be desired until a couple firmware upgrades. Things are pretty good now, as it tramples the other signals.
If I was needed true QOS, I would buy a used Cisco 3600, 3700 or 3800 level router (no Wifi), as it is wire-speed and has lots of CPU/memory to meaningfully track and sort multiple network flows into different service levels.
BKNJ
I doubt the average user needs to worry about all that. 90+% of wireless router users never change the channel from the default #6. I think most folks here know this, it is definitely not Brooklyn.
All it takes is using some free software, I like Vistumbler, which will show you channel usage and who is using it. Upgrading of any 2.4GHz wireless landline phones to 5GHz will help, as will ensuring other wireless devices one uses are the same standard. Something as simple as moving the router can help, stuff inside walls, behind walls can have big adverse impact. And always using security so no one actually does piggyback. 
Well, I use Brooklyn to contrast with Brigantine and Buena... but the point remains, interference hurts your speed. It also seems to flake-out marginal equipment... i.e., makes them need to be rebooted more often. Interference in Brigantine is not as bad as Brooklyn, but you could feel the difference between day/evening/middle of night and the difference during tourist season versus winter. I would imagine anyone living in an apartment complex or in downtown Southjerseyland would see similar hits if they cared about it... but in a lot of cases, they just buy faster and more greedy (bandwidth-wise) equipment.
As far as defaults, in my experience most routers do not default to channel 6, they default to 'auto'... so they jump around from 1 to 6 to 11 trying to pick the one with the best signal to noise ratio. I just use iwlist to do a site survey, but back in the "old" days we used to do site surveys using a combination of propriety and free tools. The problem is that when you have lots of radio sources, the channels are constantly moving. I swear that whenever I used to manually change channels, it seemed like many other radios would also hop on them.
Of course, in newer routers 'auto' means ALL the bandwidth. That's how 802.11ac gets its most optimistic speed ratings... it hogs up virtually all of the bandwidth in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Sure, its supposed to 'play nice' with older equipment and back off channels it detects others are using, but I question what kind of signal levels trigger this.
Oh, and trying to get a client to upgrade their 2.4Ghz wireless phone is a no-go when they are dead set that our wireless is screwed up.
My original point however, is that if you want speed and have interference, go wired, if you can help it. Most of what I have setup in Brooklyn is hardwired for speed... (at work everything is double wired and bonded for reliability) but its still a PITA when the GF complains about the $250 Wifi router being slow. I need to get serious and figure out how to upgrade her Dell's internal Wifi.
BKNJ
As far as defaults, in my experience most routers do not default to channel 6, they default to 'auto'... so they jump around from 1 to 6 to 11 trying to pick the one with the best signal to noise ratio. I just use iwlist to do a site survey, but back in the "old" days we used to do site surveys using a combination of propriety and free tools. The problem is that when you have lots of radio sources, the channels are constantly moving. I swear that whenever I used to manually change channels, it seemed like many other radios would also hop on them.
Of course, in newer routers 'auto' means ALL the bandwidth. That's how 802.11ac gets its most optimistic speed ratings... it hogs up virtually all of the bandwidth in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Sure, its supposed to 'play nice' with older equipment and back off channels it detects others are using, but I question what kind of signal levels trigger this.
Oh, and trying to get a client to upgrade their 2.4Ghz wireless phone is a no-go when they are dead set that our wireless is screwed up.
My original point however, is that if you want speed and have interference, go wired, if you can help it. Most of what I have setup in Brooklyn is hardwired for speed... (at work everything is double wired and bonded for reliability) but its still a PITA when the GF complains about the $250 Wifi router being slow. I need to get serious and figure out how to upgrade her Dell's internal Wifi.
BKNJ