Quick question about Networking and Bandwidth

[Kwesi]

Ok, I'd like to think myself a pretty tech savvy guy. Of course the are people out there around my age that know loads more than I do but I can work my way around a computer pretty well.

I came for winter break this past Tuesday and I noticed that our internet was ridiculously slow. Like, taking nearly a minute to load page on Talkbass slow. We have the Verison FiOS 15/2 (15MB download/2MB upload) so it should never be that slow. My Dad said it had been like this on and off for about 3 weeks and I wondered why he hadn't called tech support. So the next day we do and the guy on the line basically tells us that we have too many devices on actively connected too our network and that if we turn a few off and/or sever they're connection to the net, things should speed up. Considering bandwidth limitations and such it makes sense to me so I turn off 3 of the 8 devices we had going at the time and the internet is back up to speed.

I tell my Dad this and he gets angry because he says 14 devices is tiny for a home network and regardless of how many we have connected we should still be getting close to 15/2. We go back and forth on this for maybe a half hour, and being the stubborn people that we are refuse to see the others point of view. I don't know exactly what my Dads job is but I know his title has "Chief of Technology" in it and he calls himself and IT expert so I'd say he does have some weight but his argument just didn't make sense to me. So I'm wondering who is right here, me or him? Should we be talking to the FiOS people because they're causing our network to suffer or should we just monitor the number of devices we have connected?

 

[TrooperFarva]

It's more related to what the current devices are doing, rather than the sheer number of devices.

I know that if I'm uploading some torrents at a serious speed, it'll slow down my internet connection. You'll need to check all your devices, to see what they're up to, and put in any bandwidth limits. You could also set up your QoS, if your router has that functionality.

 

[Kwesi]

It's more related to what the current devices are doing, rather than the sheer number of devices.

I know that if I'm uploading some torrents at a serious speed, it'll slow down my internet connection. You'll need to check all your devices, to see what they're up to, and put in any bandwidth limits. You could also set up your QoS, if your router has that functionality.

That makes sense. I don't know what my dad has running on startup for our home computers but he has a habit of bogging down systems with lots of programs, some of which are constantly communicating with the network. But, none of them are download/upload intensive, at least not by themselves.

I'll check into it. Thanks.

 

[Georynn]

Make sure you have a good reputable antivirus and make sure it's up to date and working correctly on all those devices. Scan them all for malware. They could be taking up all of your available bandwidth.

Also, if your dad has tons of applications running in the background on multiple PCs, that could be where all your bandwidth is going. I have about 12 various devices on my network, and I rarely have bandwidth issues. I also have my network locked down pretty tight, and keep my PCs free of malware and junkware.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Wasn't a benefit of Fios not getting bogged down? I don't blame your dad for being annoued, his experience is going against what the expectations they're setting.

I just had a Fios salesperson call a couple of weeks ago. Good intentioned, she blew all sorts of smoke up my butt about what an improvement Fios would be and how much money I'd save over my current company. The amazing speed that wouldn't degrade, etc. After she had agreed to provide me with seven HDTV boxes (one being a DVR) and agreed to do that for a final monthly cost for phone, internet and TV at $175 I was just about ready to make the switch. I asked about cablecards for my TivoHDs and I might as well been talking Vulcan. After a few minutes of talking straight up nonsense she went to check with someone who might know more (never heard of cable cards, didn't think Tivo would work with Fios, why would anyone want Tivo anyway, etc.) I heard her explaining the proposed pricing to someone else and the phone went immediately dead.


D

I guess I could look at her pitch as "inaccurate"... that would be the kind thing to do.

 

[Absentia]

If you turn other devices off and the bandwidth improves you found the problem. I don;t think it's with your internet connection but more on your internal network especially if all of them are wireless. To many devices running over an itty bitty internal network to a larger external network causes a bottle neck.

It also depends what services are running on the devices, ISPs are notorious for throttling internet on certain ports I notice it all the time as soon as I fire up bittorrent.

Also realize that it's xmas break for alot of people in your neighborhood and connections come in on a single line the spread out to all the other connections in your neighborhood which can also cause problems, weather is another factor if the lines are run on poles.

 

[CrashClint]

What I normally do is disconnect my router from the cable modem and plug it directly into my laptop. This takes everything off-line except for one computer. Run your speed test now to see if you are getting 80% of the advertised speed.

I am not sure which router you are using at home, but there are not too many for under $179 that perform really well with gaming and handling multiple connections.

There are some apps out there you can download that actually test the speed on open ports to allow you to see if the ISP is gating you back.

I use different Roadrunner cities for speed testing and I use the one below as a comparison because you can check different parts of the country from one website.

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/