Wireless brain picking
Cliff_Forster
Icrontian
I have a Comcast Xfinity gateway, model TC8305C. I think they nerf the software to keep users from breaking it too badly. For the life of me I can't seem to get faster than a 65mbps link rate on any of my wireless N devices that support 150 or higher. Any clue as to what I might be missing? I know a little bit about wireless network, certainly enough to be dangerous but it just seems like I'm overlooking something here. Maybe an Icrontic mind will see a simple solution I'm not? Anyone have this Xfinity gateway? Care to check your wireless N link rates with me?
0
Comments
They probably provided you with a router that has shit for wifi performance. The router only supports 2.4GHz, so you'll pretty much never see that 150mbps rate that's advertised, though I'll admit to not knowing for certain whether that guarantees it or not. Experience with my own devices leads me to believe 5GHz devices are capable of better performance - I get about 64-72Mbps on 2.4GHz and about 104Mbps on 5GHz using this router. Again, anecdotal evidence, YMMV.
If you have the ability to do so, you might see if switching your wifi channels has any positive effect.
Also, when did Technicolor get into the router business?
2.4GHz should be capable of giving you those speeds, but there's a problem with that. The reason 5GHz is able to give better performance is because the 2.4GHz bands are severely cluttered these days. Just so completely saturated, unless you're in an extreme rural area with very little population, 2.4GHz is going to be that way everywhere.
Yes, I think it is router side too. I think what might be happening is the client wifi adapter I have requires a dedicated 40MHz wide band at 2.4GHz. I think the router from Comcast only does it by banding channels together and that does not get it done. I called Comcast tech support, it was kind of hilarious. You two have been infinitely more helpful already.
I don't know if this will help, but at least it might give you another informational perspective. I have the exact same Xfinity modem as you. I run both a hardwired and wireless network from it. Hardwired, I get 84 Mbps dn; 23 Mbps up. When I connect to Xfinity's modem through their wireless using my wireless notebook, I get 10 Mbps dn; 2 Mbps up. However, when I bypass their wireless network and go Xfinity modem hardwired--->my Trendnet hardwired router--->my Zonet wireless router, I get 33 Mbps dn; 23 Mbps up wireless on our notebook. So basically, I get ~3 X's the speed of Xfinity's built-in wireless by converting their hardwire connection to my own wireless connection. Needless to say, I don't use Xfinity's wireless network for our wireless devices.
Unless you're using VoIP, I think the option of getting your own modem and router should be considered. No more rental and more flexibility. Dozens of routers available that are a lot better than what Comcast provides.
Or, since the gateway the provided you already has router functionality built in, you could just purchase a WiFi Access Point. No need to double up on your routing, as that only makes things unnecessarily complicated. Even something like this should outperform the built-in WiFi.
The only wireless networks I have set up have been very basic. Just a single access point. Is it possible to disable to wireless broadcast from the Comcast router and simply but a WAP with the specs required to make the most out of my client side adapters? I'm a little concerned about how two different 2.4 Ghz bands are going to perform together. I am using VOIP so I'd like to keep the Comcast modem but the wireless access from them, meh....
I use my own modem and router with comcast, so I can't advise you there, but some googling indicated that if it wasn't available to you, it should be available to comcast support. You'd then setup your own wireless router to just be in access point mode and plug it's WAN port into a LAN port on the Comcast device.
Also: Ubiquity PicoStation. 1000mW. No worries about spectrum anywhere within 300 ft of the AP.
I was going for something more reasonably priced. I like the look of the PicoStation, but I'd want something with a GigE port and a regular power supply instead of PoE.
I found no way to disable the wireless signal from the Comcast box. I just password protected it as my way of opting out their new effort to create "open" wireless access throughout their national network. At least that allows me to keep my Comcast wireless signal private even though I don't use it. Also, I was not advocating dual routers and such. I just have a very basic home wireless network setup using equipment I had on hand. What I have is what Tushon said. I use Comcast's hard wire modem/router circuitry to create my own hardwired and home wireless network to serve 4 desktops, one notebook and 2 e-readers. When I add a new wireless device, I just log in to our secured wireless home network with a pass phrase after finding it in the list of available wireless network connections in our area.
The point of my first post was to show how even very basic home wireless equipment surpasses Comcast's own internal wireless signal. I think the throughput results I posted tell the story.
The PicoStation is an AP only, so you really don't need those things. Those are for those of us who's goals are to drown out everyone around because the SNR is so crappy otherwise.
It matters in that 802.11n can (theoretically) transfer up to 600Mbit/s! What if I want to grab something from my fileserver at faster than 100Mbit/s?
Like I said:
I am with another provider and had them run a second line, swap the all in one unit they had and replace it with a basic voip modem. Then I used my own modem and router for the rest on the other line. It gave me the best of all worlds with the best cost.
EDIT:
I am not talking about 2 separate lines from the street but splitting my one and only cable line from the street from 1 data to 2 data lines to my office (plus all my TV runs). Doing this eliminated the pitfalls of splitting the line out of the wall (ie; speed loss, jitter). I am paying for 60x5 service and receiving all of it after wi-fi to my client machines. I paired up a Cisco doxis 3 modem with an Asus RT-AC66U and couldn't be happier.
Mom and I have three phone line pairs, one for internet, one for TV, and one for Traditional land-line phone. I use the all-in-one gateway the vendor provided, but have only 19.2 Mbps down and 1.88 Mbps up internet out of a rated 20 down/2 up Internet provision. Not needing lots of speed for internet for our humble needs. We use wireless and wired part of our gateway.
You could also just buy a compatible modem with voip on board such as some of the ones from Cisco or Motorola.
Thanks guys, this has lead me to do some serious research and learn a good deal about 802.11. I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to resolve my problem but I'll post back when I discover a good solution.