Verizon FIOS speed

I am having a dropoff in my wireles speed which I cannot figure out.

I have Verizoin FIOS service 20/5, just upgraded to 25/25.
When wired, I get full up and down speed.

When wireless I only get 10-15 down and it is variable. Doesn't matter whether it is my desktop PC two floors up or a wireless laptop sitting on a table next to the router.

I tried changing the router broadcast channel from "Automatic" to only 11 or 6 or 8, etc without a difference. I changed it to be only 802.11G instead of B/G. No difference.

Verizon sent me a new router which made no difference. It is the Actiontec MI424WR router. I cannot buy an aftermarket router because I am using a MoCa connection direct from Verizon.

Why is this signal degradation happening and it seems so variable each time I run a speed test? Internet works fine, but I want the speed I am paying for.

 

First of all maximum throughput of wireless G is 20-23mbps and that's with perfect signal strength.
Second thing is security settings- current routers are optimized for AES so you need to use WPA2 to get maximum throughput- using WEP or WPA-TKIP can reduce speed significantly.
Third thing is signal quality- there may be some king of electromagnetic interference including wireless phones, Bluetooth and neighbouring wireless networks.
Whatever you do you are not going to achieve 25mbps with wireless "G" standard but you could and should be able to achieve at least 15-18mbps of stable download speed.
Run inSSIDer(freeware) to see what's the situation with neighbouring networks and see how does the signal quality look like.

 

Very helpful info, will run that utility when I get home tonight.

If I change WEP to WPA2 (which I have never done before), how complicated is it, and do I need to reset all my peripheral devices (Tivo, etc) to make sure they don't lose the signal?

How can I tell what is interfering (e.g. bluetooth from cell or printer, neighobring networks). We have a 5.8G phone but a 2.5G baby monitor, but these things were running as is before this interference started?

The speed is variable. E.g. each time I run speakeast speed test I can get 15,6,9, etc as down speeds each time I click.

 

Hopefully all your WiFi devices (including TIVO) support WPA2.
You need to change the setting on the router. After you press "apply" button all devices should be disconnected automatically and then all should reconnect on their own (as long as you don't change the password)
Security should be set to WPA2 Personal with AES.
As for Bluetooth- disable all devices temporarily and then re-test speed.
Same goes for baby monitor.
Maybe inSSIDer will solve the mystery, although since you've already changed channels to no avail it's probably sth else.

 

Being another FIOS user I can state that G itself is barely able to handle its capacity and thats under ideal cases. Any neighbors or range beyond the first wall in the way is pushing your luck and cramping the signal. Toss in the fact that the actiontech is a somewhat hobbled device and it makes you wonder why they hand it out. Ok, I actually don't wonder why ($) but it is a shame.

You can hang another wifi router/ap off the actiontech however and have it serve up better wifi.

Its also possible to run gigabit ethernet (cat5e) from your ONT to a non-actiontech router and turn that into your primary. Sometimes doable without an actual visit by verizon, though a phonecall to them to activate port is still a must last I checked.

You then only have to link the actiontech to the primary router for the moca lan to serve the tv/STBs. Its a bit of a hassle but if you have many demanding users in the household its worth looking into.

 

As everyone else has said, if you want the FiOS speed, ditch the wireless - that, imho, is where all of your signal degradation is occuring and that, obviously enough, has very little to do with the FiOS service itself. It's possible that the actiontec wireless itself is not as good as it might be, in which case it might be simplest to plug another wireless router into one of the 4 wired ports on the back of the actiontec, and use that new router as your wireless connection. Beyond that, make sure that the wireless NICs in your computers are up to snuff as well - the NIC itself can frequently be the source of a lot of problems. Finally, check the wireless neighborhood for signal congestion (that is, at the very least, how many SSIDs does your system see floating around when it's looking for networks to connect to, and what channel(s) are those other networks broadcasting on). In addition, check for interference from cordless phones (they broadcast on the same frequencies) as well as from other radio signal sources, such as microwave ovens.

 

The Actiontec router does not preform well under multiple connections, I do not think it has enough ram to handle a lot of traffic, with all of the other crap it has to do. They have no reason to replace them because it works as a choke on most all, save there bandwidth. On my FIOS I run full speed (25/10) but the Actiontec is not my main router, it's a sub of my Netgear FVS338. I use a Buffalo router setup with dd-wrt for my wireless.

 

Changed encryption from WEP to WPA (no WPA2 available) and speeds are now 12+ instead of 8-10, but it still varies.

Only about 3-4 other SSIDs in the neighborhood and they are all on channel 1 or 3 or 11 so I tried 8 or 9 to get the best independent speed.

I am using the verizon Actiontec router because I do not have an ethernet connection at the spot in the wall, so I am getting info from the ONT through a MoCa connection. Can I add a wireless N router piggybacked onto the main Actiontec MoCa connection and up speeds of the multiple connected devices? If so, how do I begin setting up a connection like that?

 

Um FIOS is Download up to 25 Mbps/
Upload up to 25 Mbps

Even if you use the FULL network speed your only at 50Mb, Wireless G maxes out at 54Mb. You have 4MB over head on G. Being Wireless will NOT limit you. Your hard drive maxing at probably 30Mb/s will.

 

When you say maxes out, that means both up and downsteam bandwith combined, yes? How come I am getting about 12 down and 8 up, which is not nearly close to 54 max?

How do I know if my hard drive is maxing out?

 

Because 54Mbps is the theoretical maximum that g "could" reach in the best of all possible worlds where you were the only wireless user on the entire planet and there wasn't a single source of any interference whatsoever, and ..... It is not possible in a real-world situation to "max out" a wireless connection at its theoretical maximum limit.

 

So how do I check if my hard drive is maxing out?

Will the G Actiontec or my hard drive still function as a bottleneck on speed, even if I piggyback an N wireless point?

 

If the hard drive is the limiting factor, then it's going to be the limiting factor regardless of the connection. If the Actiontec is the limiting factor, then using a faster/better router should indicate that.

 

The hard drive probably is not going to be the limiting factor. I do not know where that came from...

 

Sorry but everything is wrong with this post. First of all you don't seem to know that 54mbps is theoretical max while in practice you can't go over 23mbps.
You don't have to take my words for granted- either go to smallnetbuilder and check it or transfer file via wireless yourself. I maxed out at 2,5MB/s (20Mb/s).
The second thing is the slight difference between "Mb" and "MB"- no hard drive can max out at 30Mb/s as it is equal to 3,75MB/s. You clearly meant 30MB/s but that is roughly equal to 240Mb/s so it cannot limit a connection that is barely 25Mb/s

 

I would seriously recommend upgrading to Wireless N if possible.

 

Too bad you can't swap out the Actiontec if you use the TV service.

 

And why would that be?

 

The television and internet use different devices connected to the cable after a split, not the same one.

 

I upgraded to a dual-band wireless N router. Now I have some devices (laptop, TiVo, webcam) on the 2.4 band, and my PC on wireless N 5.0 band.

The PC is two floors up from the wireless router, located in the basement, transmitting through floors, pipes, insulation, etc. I am getting 25Mbps downstream as ordered from Verizon.

Other devices have a little dropout or decrease in 25 to 8-12 Mbps.

It is clearly interference on the 2.4 GHz band from baby monitor, neighboring wireless networks, and other devices.

 

Glad to hear going to N worked out for you. ^^

 

I need to better leverage my FIOS as well, what router are you now using & did you connect LAN-to-LAN to the Actiontec as described at: http://text.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/3.0_Networking#12506

I'm looking at: http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-E3000-High-Performance-Wireless-N-Router/dp/B003B48UQ8/

To get an ethernet connection in a room with only coax I'm also considering: http://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Ethernet-over-Coax-Adapter/dp/B001XUQOHE

To position the new wireless router's antenna where it will best cover the layout was planning on trying: http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-50-Feet-UltraFlat-Patch/dp/B0007QQJX4/

I'd appreciate feedback (including less expensive network leverage solutions) for the goal of obtaining the best experience from my FIOS investment, -Thanks all

Other Refs:
http://text.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/3.0_Networking
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=468029

 

So I ordered the Actiontec Ethernet over Coax MoCA Adapter - should get here Friday, hope it works as reviewed but I still would like feedback on Wi-Fi N router (which would be amazing if I could set up on the other end of this MoCA Adapter but otherwise will connect via ethernet cable into Actiontec)..

 

I just bought this router:
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-...0757950&sr=1-1

I use the Verizon Actiontec as a primary router, including DHCP. It is connected as MoCa connection from my ONT. Then I plugged this router's WAN port into the LAN port of the Actiontec and use it as a secondary router for wireless.

It is a simulaneous dual-band router, meaning it broadcasts two networks: a 2.5GHz b/g/n and a 5.0GHz n. I have a Linksys dual-band PCI wireless card I put in my PC two floors up from the basement (where the router is located) and I get full 25Mbps downstream speeds. The 2.4 is variable as everything else in my hosue (baby monitor, microwave, neighbor's wireless network) seem to present intermittent interference.

You want N to get range, 5.0 to avoid interference, and this does both.

The Actiontec needs to remain as primary because it uses the coax to distribute info the the cable boxes for TV info and firmware updates. It is a perfectly good and capable router, it just doesn't do stable or consistent enough wireless.

Hope this helps

 

I've heard a lot of bad news regarding baby monitors and wireless frequencies, whether it's cordless phones or wireless routers. Baby monitors are supposedly to lock into a single channel, but they tend to blast out a huge signal that will coast over half a block and knock out one or two nearby channels as well, just like old low-quality cordless phones from the 90's. I can attest to this because I used to pick up my neighbor's monitors and phone calls down the block and on the other side of the block on my cordless phones all the time (it sucks when 5 of 11 channels available to your phone are wiped out per device. Worse when it's 10 of 11). Baby monitors tend to guarantee a connection to the receiver, but I suspect it's at the cost of stable connections for all your other devices at the same frequency.

 

Just plugged a wireless N router into my FIOS router as an AP and this is what I got...

Download Speed: 35329 kbps (4416.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 31369 kbps (3921.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

I should have done this from day one.