Finally updated my Internet connectivity

[LVSteve]

Our ancient cable modem/router started showing signs of distress a week or so back. Called the cable company who said, "What! You have one of those and it still works? And your plan is years out of date. Who can survive with only 25 Mbps in 2026?" Guess I haven't been streaming enough cat videos or porn to be concerned.

Turns out the BASIC plan (unless you are on welfare) is 300 Mbps. When I told them that would be fine, they said "Really?? I guess you don't have kids." Correct. Got the thing installed and found that the WiFi system is dual band, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and our modern gadgets immediately moved onto the 5 GHz system. Hmm, does that work? According to Ookla Speedtest, yes. I am seeing download speeds exceeding my 300 Mbps plan on the newer devices. Bonus

Then I decided to see how the legacy devices on 2.4 GHz were coping. Results were mixed. One ancient Win 7 laptop was able to get 65 Mbps or more downloads over the WiFi, which was pretty pleasing. A newer laptop running Win 10 was not doing so well. A root around the Web suggested that the WiFi device in that computer did not play nice with Win 10, and it was likely clinging to operation using a Win 8.1 driver. Best I could get out of it was 33 Mbps. There may be an updated driver but getting my wife to clear down any of her computers for maintenance is a battle long lost.

Time for Plan B. This week has been Prime Day on Amazon, so I scored two USB dongle type WiFi adapters, one with USB 2 for the Win 7 machine, and a USB 3 device for the newer laptop. Total cost about $26. After getting the drivers loaded, the Win 7 box will now receive at ~120 Mbps, possibly limited by some bandwidth sharing arrangement in the chipset. With the Win 10 machine I saw anything from 220 Mbps to 270 Mbps. I'm calling this a successful exercise.

 

[quikdraw67]

Alrighty then!

You may have well written this in Sanskrit, as far as my comprehension goes.

Chromebook goes on, internet works. YouTube videos play. I can order online. Post here. Send and read e-mails.

The rest is above my pay grade,

 

[jeffrefrig]

I have DOS. Or should I say, my brain is in DOS.
I think we're on Verizon. I have a MAC computer. Safari net. And Microsoft has killed my email with some stupid ad to buy stuff. And I don't know my stupid password to try to sign on...to which I never signed off. I can't find a stupid X out to save my life!
Okay...I'm better for now.
No, I'm not! I tried to do all the stupid stuff to get a stupid password renewal and it wants another stupid email address in case I ever need to retrieve my stupid gilliwads or whatever stupid things they're talking about! I don't have another stupid email!!!
Destroy All Monsters is on Svengoulie tonight. Mother wants me to go back down the cellar and pray for MSN email to come back.......

 

[jeffrefrig]

Thinking about that old router for a minute reminds me of stories you hear about someone's dear great Aunt Millie who is still paying Bell Telephone for phone rental.

 

[The Big D]

Alrighty then!

You may have well written this in Sanskrit, as far as my comprehension goes.

Chromebook goes on, internet works. YouTube videos play. I can order online. Post here. Send and read e-mails.

The rest is above my pay grade,

Spot on!

Be safe.

 

[LOADER]

DOS 2.0 w/5 1/4" floppy. The OS was non resident, running on a hyped 286 with math co-processor !

 

[Rpg]

I don’t know why I read this thread. I understand none of it.

 

[pawngal]

I suppose I should update at the pawnshop, DOS program running on XP, print to a dot matrix printer. But.......It still works.

 

[biku324]

My current wireless provider is going belly-up next week, so I got the lowest speed new wireless - 100 mbps. Same price as my old provider at 10 mbps.

 

[LVSteve]

I must revise my WiFi connection speed for the Win 7 machine. Seems that running Speedtest while you also have a channel analysis program on the go that accesses the WiFi adapter is a bad plan. DUH! With that fixed, I can see download speed of over 165 Mbps.

 

[hkcavalier]

On the fiber modem at home, network is older and capped at 100Mbps; I typically see ~80Mbps which is "enough" --- most of the time. Most of my neighbors are jumping to Starlink and tripling (or more) their speed, and I probably will too before long. Bonus that it works even if line power is out as long as you have local power (generator/battery backup). Fiber network doesn't work that way, unfortunately.

 

[jasonfreeland]

2Gbs Fiber for $75 here, but you have to have the backhaul to use it. My internal network runs at 10Gbs. Why? Let's just say I'm not patient when it comes to technology

 

[375hh1973]

I don’t know why I read this thread. I understand none of it.

Now you know how I feel when I mistakenly open a political thread

 

[Imissedagain]

Some of the wireless video alarm devices, work best at 2.4GHz, for going thru walls etc.
Check with your company.

 

[375hh1973]

Some of the wireless video alarm devices, work best at 2.4GHz, for going thru walls etc.
Check with your company.

This is true.

And I have one Samsung tv that absolutely likes 2.4 better than 5.0 and its about 10 feet from my gateway. Sometimes ya gotta play around with stuff

 

[grover99]

Because I'm living in small town, the only Internet available was 12 MBPS. And it cost about triple with the same speed would be in the city. It took only 16 years before fiber made it here. I now have 100 MBPS with is fine for me and I am paying less for it than I did for the old internet. When I called to cancel my old Internet, which was Southwestern Bell they were shocked that I would want to switch after all this time.

 

[bullmack]

Many wireless devices, particularly smart home devices, will only work on 2.4 Ghz. I seldom use the 5 Ghz band because it has very limited penetration walls, etc. See how I did that - I almost brought this discussion back to gun talk!

 

[Pete99004]

I can attest that what you did improved your internet. I can see your post much clearer now.

Pete99004

 

[biku324]

When I called to cancel my old Internet, which was Southwestern Bell they were shocked that I would want to switch after all this time.

I dumped my Wells Fargo bank accounts after 30 years and they could not have cared less.

 

[Hilldweller]

Living in farm country with HughsNet at what amounts to DSL speed internet sucks. No streaming, FaceTime, etc. It’s my only choice. The cable company wants $35 per foot to run a cable to our place. We’re a quarter mile from the road where the connection is made. Starlink is “available” but if you want it now it’ll cost $1,000 + all other fees/costs for “early” service.

 

[LVSteve]

This is true.

And I have one Samsung tv that absolutely likes 2.4 better than 5.0 and its about 10 feet from my gateway. Sometimes ya gotta play around with stuff

My TV is hard wired to the gateway.

It is interesting that all the modern devices jumped onto 5 GHz without any intervention from me.

 

[biku324]

Living in farm country with HughsNet at what amounts to DSL speed internet sucks. No streaming, FaceTime, etc. It’s my only choice. The cable company wants $35 per foot to run a cable to our place. We’re a quarter mile from the road where the connection is made. Starlink is “available” but if you want it now it’ll cost $1,000 + all other fees/costs for “early” service.

You need to check Starlink. It's $55 monthly plus $10 monthly equipment rental all over New Mexico. Having them install is $199.

 

[Bevo84]

I went from AT&T DSL at the speed of garbage to T-Mobile 5G wireless internet at more than 230 Mbps

 

[Onomea]

Per fast.com, this is what I am getting with my iPad and a T-Mobile 5G wireless terminal:



Speeds seem to vary when I rerun the test.

We have two cell phones and the 5G terminal for $125 a month.

 

[Bevo84]

Per fast.com, this is what I am getting with my iPad and a T-Mobile 5G wireless terminal:

I'm getting 45 Mbps for Upload

 

[biku324]

Where I am neither AT&T nor T-Mobile offer useful 5G data wireless because of poor coverage. We have no landline and won't.

 

[Bevo84]

Where I am neither AT&T nor T-Mobile offer useful 5G data wireless because of poor coverage. We have no landline and won't.

There has to be a 5G tower nearby. What about Verizon?

 

[biku324]

There has to be a 5G tower nearby. What about Verizon?

We have 5G towers but coverage is spotty. We use a signal booster to get fairly reliable voice comms.

Big mountains and small market.

 

[LVSteve]

There has to be a 5G tower nearby. What about Verizon?

Cell coverage is not as universal as many think, especially when you get out West. Heck, when I visited southern Iowa in 2010, they had zero AT&T coverage.

 

[jasonfreeland]

Look for independent fiber providers if you can find them. They usually have cheaper prices and not as many people on them, so you get faster speeds. This is mine with 2Gbps as the contracted speed. Also if you can, look into starlink for remote areas. This reminds me, I should be getting my bill soon .