Wifi via cell phone really slow

[jnelsoninjax]

So here is the speed test result while on Wi-Fi: https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/10055702202

And this is on 5G:https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/10055704004

Crazy difference. I have no idea what could be causing this, can anybody offer some ideas?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

The first one on 2.5 or 5? What is the speed (wired) from your router? (To see the difference)

If you have good 5G, you must be near a cell tower.

@BudManmight know more about wifi, but that's my 2 cents.

[WITHOUT-ME]

run wifi analyzer and see overloaded chanels

[+BudMan MVC]

5G can beat some home wifi setups or even internet connection speeds..

What is your home internet plan, maybe its 30/10 and then that speed would be right inline with what I would expect.

Here is my wifi vs 5G

I am on 500/50, and see that with no problem on my wifi.

But without some details of your internet speed, what speeds do you get testing with a wire? What your using for wifi, etc.. Then yeah its quite possible depending where your at and what 5G network your at, 5G can be very speedy..  Not for me currently it seems.. Just sitting here at my desk in my office. When I am out and about have seen some screaming 5G connections though.

 

[jnelsoninjax]

On 19/04/2024 at 17:46, WITHOUT-ME said:

run wifi analyzer and see overloaded chanels

Unfortunately, I can not access the router (it's a gateway) and the password on the bottom of the modem is not working, even the technician had to call because he couldn't get in. So even if the channel I'm on is overloaded, I'm not able to change it. This is 2.4, we have smart bulbs and a camera that only operate on 2.4, so I just as a habit keep my phone connected to the 2.4

Edited April 20 by jnelsoninjax

[+BudMan MVC]

On 20/04/2024 at 08:23, jnelsoninjax said:

even the technician had to call because he couldn't get in

So did he get in? What are details of your isp plan (speeds) and what does a wire test show?  If he got in, did he not share the password to the isp device with you.  You would hope they would let the user at least change the ssid of their wifi, or the psk on the wifi, etc. Get your own device, put their gateway into modem mode, turn off its wifi and run your own.  Or worse case just double nat.. etc..

But without details of the isp plan and what your wire test shows.  Those first number might be completely normal for the plan your paying for, or your connection speed currently if not getting the speeds your paying for.

[jnelsoninjax]

On 20/04/2024 at 07:37, BudMan said:

So did he get in? What are details of your isp plan (speeds) and what does a wire test show?  If he got in, did he not share the password to the isp device with you.  You would hope they would let the user at least change the ssid of their wifi, or the psk on the wifi, etc. Get your own device, put their gateway into modem mode, turn off its wifi and run your own.  Or worse case just double nat.. etc..

But without details of the isp plan and what your wire test shows.  Those first number might be completely normal for the plan your paying for, or your connection speed currently if not getting the speeds your paying for.

Yes the tech got in but did not share the password with us.

The plan we are on says it is a 200, but I can not get any detail for the up speed, this ISP is rather bad, but it's the only choice unless you want DSL...

Here is the wired test:

Edited April 20 by jnelsoninjax

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Do you have the same wifi connection speeds when you connect to a different wifi?

[jnelsoninjax]

On 20/04/2024 at 08:45, Nick H. said:

Do you have the same wifi connection speeds when you connect to a different wifi?

I don't have any other WiFi to connect to

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 20/04/2024 at 15:49, jnelsoninjax said:

I don't have any other WiFi to connect to

Are there no public wifi's in the places you go to? My bar has a guest wifi, for example...

[jnelsoninjax]

On 20/04/2024 at 09:20, Nick H. said:

Are there no public wifi's in the places you go to? My bar has a guest wifi, for example...

Walmart does, I might be heading there later and I'll check.

[+BudMan MVC]

You have no buddies house you can go to? Mcdonalds or Starbucks with free wifi?

If was me, I would run my own wifi - be it either with buying your own modem and router.. Or just putting your own router behind their device that you either get put into bridge/modem mode where your router gets a public IP on its wan, or just double nat.  If they will not give you the login to the device to atleast change ssid and psk of the wifi, and channel then don't use their device. 

You could prob pick up a wifi router for like 20 or 40 bucks that can handle 200mbps a connection.

I picked this up while on vac couple weeks back via amazon, delivered the next day to my son's house we were out visiting because the hotel wifi was pissing me off having to auth multiple devices to their captive portal ever 24 hours.. 2 phones, 2 tablets and work laptop and roku stick plugged into the hotel tv..

And their wifi sucked.. Plugged the things wan into one of the rooms AP lan ports and was getting great speeds for a hotel connection.

Went from this to that..

Should now that I am home plug it into my network and see if it can do the 500 I get down...

edit: not too shabby for a little less than 40 dollar travel router.. The thing is tiny, sits in the palm of your hand.. Going to make a nice little addition to my work/travel bag.

 

 

 

 

[jnelsoninjax]

I was just talking to my wife about that very thing, I pointed out that we are paying $8 a month for the modem, which, according to her, they just recently started doing. She has a router (Netgear AC1000), but when it was running the speeds were very slow which prompted a tech call out and the discovery that the router was the issue, when the PC was directly plugged into the modem, the speeds were back to where they should be. I don't know why that was an issue since the AC1000 can handle up to 1000mbs and we are only getting 200, but when the modem was in bridge mode and the router was handling the WiFi the speeds were around 1/4 of what we are getting now, and sites like YouTube were buffering allot.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I'd say get a new router..

But not knowing BudMan's giberish, I'm not sure.

[+BudMan MVC]

On 20/04/2024 at 11:37, jnelsoninjax said:

I pointed out that we are paying $8 a month for the modem

If your getting charged, then yeah buying your own modem pay for itself pretty quickly..  Lets say 2 years 12x$8 gives you can get a pretty nice modem and router for that.. Which should last at least say 3 years if not 5 or more.. So clearly saving money and paying for itself fairly quickly.

I have a ARRIS S33 myself that I got last year, but been reading good things about the CODA56, show it on amazon right now for 140..

I would prob get something other than the old netgear AC1000, you have this? AC1000 WiFi Router (R6080)?

https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/routers/r6080/

It only has fast ethernet connections.. So best you could ever get is about 95ish Mbps to the internet or to any of your wired devices..  Get something current.. My 40 little travel router has gig interfaces even That old netgear is pretty much just junk these days.

It says 300+700 not 1000, So the best phy you could get would be 300mbps on 2.4 - so say half of that for real world or about 150, but since it only has 100mbps interfaces your going to be limited to that so about 95Mbps real world.

edit:

habit keep my phone connected to the 2.4

So to be honest the 30mbps your seeing is prob about right, 1 stream with a 20mhz vht of 2.4 is like 65 PHY or 72.2 with a guard interval of 400 ns... Lets cut that to real world rule of thumb say 50% of the phy and your right in line with what your seeing in the 30Mbps download..  What are you testing with, can it even do 2 streams? What phone are you using?  Test it using 5ghz.. 2.4 is never going to get close to 200mbps real world..

AC (5ghz) with 2 streams and even only 40mhz vht can do 400 PHY, so about 200mbps real world.  With 80mhz vht and a 867 PHY connection, and say you get good connection and router and client say 60% of phy puts you at 500ish.. See my above speedtest as example of decent working wifi where you see 511mbps

Here is wired speed that I can see with my 500/50 plan

[jnelsoninjax]

I use Ookla speedtest app to test via cell phone, I also use Wi-Fi analyzer to get an overview of the network. Our network consists of 2 cell phones, 4 smart bulbs, a camera and a tablet which is not used much. Then the only thing plugged in via ethernet is the desktop.

This screenshot is from Wifi Analyser's speedtest and it's on the 5 ghz band

Edited April 21 by jnelsoninjax

[+BudMan MVC]

Well that latency is insanely HIGH.. 269 ms, are you testing to server on the other side of the planet? And your jitter is horrible as well.  But that other info shows your yup on 5ghz and with 80 VHT and a 866 PHY.. Which is only possible with at least 2 channels..   Could your camera be sucking up the bandwidth? That might explain the high latency and jitter if your pipe like pretty much saturated?  I would turn off all your other wifi devices while you test with the 1 wifi device..

With a 866 PHY, you should easy be able to do like 400Mbps..

I just took a look at your first test.. I thought you were in FL?  (from your signature) Why is your test showing that your test server in Rupert, ID ?? That is pretty long way from FL

And it also shows really high latency while your downloading... While sure it can go up, while you saturate your pipe.. 382ms is pretty freaking high for only pulling 30mbps on a 200mbps line.

 

I would change servers to make sure your testing to something closer to you..  And make sure there is nothing else using the wifi.. I can't believe lights would be doing much, but a camera or camera's maybe? I just put in 3 4k cameras, and even viewing feeds off 3 of them at same time they only pull like 8Mbps

But then again I am on a wire, and the camera network is completely isolated from my normal networks and their traffic is just between them and the NVR.. And nothing of it goes to the internet..

But shared wifi could be a problem, but your 2.4 and 5ghz wouldn't be shared.. So maybe something is uploading your camera data to the internet while your testing - which could explain the high latency and jitter.

Also if your testing to some server on the far end of Timbuktu your isp peering could be horrible and or saturated.. You really should test to a server close to you as possible.

edit: yeah I was pulling those feeds just via rstp on display feed, so lower - I just called up the 4k main feed off NVR interface, and it now pulling 30Mbps - but and I have the recording bitrate set lower than normal, and using H265.. But then again if your camera is uploading to the internet, your upload is only say 20mbps.. If that is loaded, it could have a real effect on your overall download speed.. when your upload is saturated.

[jnelsoninjax]

I've moved to Idaho, but still Rupert is not close, they do have a server here in the city but for some reason it doesn't default to it.

The camera might be the culprit, it's screwed into a light socket watching the back patio, I might turn off the switch and then run speed test again.

[+BudMan MVC]

Yeah I would make sure all other wifi stuff is off, and do the testing. That latency is crazy high for a connection that is not heavy loaded. 

[nekrosoft13]

On 20/04/2024 at 09:18, jnelsoninjax said:

Yes the tech got in but did not share the password with us.

The plan we are on says it is a 200, but I can not get any detail for the up speed, this ISP is rather bad, but it's the only choice unless you want DSL...

Here is the wired test:

I would work on getting my own router if ISP won't share the password.

ATT tried that crap with me, I put the ATT fiber (router/modem) in passthough mode and have my own setup.

[jnelsoninjax]

On 21/04/2024 at 09:15, nekrosoft13 said:

I would work on getting my own router if ISP won't share the password.

ATT tried that crap with me, I put the ATT fiber (router/modem) in passthough mode and have my own setup.

Did some checking and found a list of approved modems that our ISP will allow, and found a Hison on eBay for ~$60, just need to get a decent router now. Any suggestions?

[+BudMan MVC]

On 21/04/2024 at 10:42, jnelsoninjax said:

Hison on eBay for ~$60

You mean the Hitron CODA56 ? Any 40 dollar ish would prob be better than that old netgear with 100mbps interfaces you have.. The blatant marking nonsense ticks me off to no end.. How can you freaking label the thing as AC1000 even if in the small print if you say 300+700 when the thing only has 100mbps interfaces.. There is no freaking way to even get 50% even of that 300 PHY speed.. 

I haven't been in the market for any soho wifi router stuff for years and years.. I run unifi APs with a 700$ pfsense router..

If you want my rec.. I would get something like the netgate sg2100 for router for $350 and then a decent AP - they selling the U6 lite for like $99, or you could look at say the omada line - they have some decent AP for cheaper than unifi, and the new stuff has 2.5ge interfaces.. You prob have little use of that currently, but what about couple years from now.

[jnelsoninjax]

Here is the speed test with the camera off https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/10061219092

That is on 2.4, this is on the 5, and I changed it to the test server here in town https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/10061217388

[+BudMan MVC]

Well that one on 5 looks right in line with your 200mbps plan.. So remind me - when you did the test on 5 with your camera on the results are in the dirt.. With camera off, you see speed you would expect.

[jnelsoninjax]

OK, the camera is not the issue, it has been off and I am still lagging on WiFi and lately the wired network has been really slow, I am attaching a wireshark trace, if someone could look at it and see if something seems off.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/x0of4wtqheewi5djvvtxa/AEgwZYC69FoySieEiULJJE8?rlkey=3v8oax3wgekhx3an32cxilj9d&st=14yxa2f0&dl=0