Maybe not quite 0-100. More like 0-95. Actually when all is said and done it is more like 120MB!
I’m talking about my very frustrating morning fighting with Comcast and fighting with my router to get a decent internet connection. Comcast is completely useless. Not that I expect anything different from them, but today they were particularly frustrating.
I have been paying for a super highspeed line for quite some time now, but the most I ever got out of it was about 20mb download. The weird thing is that on upload I would get something equivalent. That right there is a telltale sign of something gone wrong.
Every single time I’ve tried to get Comast on the line for some troubleshooting I have ended up in the same ridiculous circle where no one helps me and everyone passes me onto Tier 2. Ohhhh, tier 2. The mythical tier 2 is actually a sales channel where they promise to solve all of your issues for the low low cost of $80 or a recurring subscription. Um. I was so desperate today for some attention that I actually opted to pay $80 for technical support. Seriously. It was that bad. I was getting DL speeds of 0.78mbps.
Once I paid my money (begrudgingly) I was passed onto the super tech support who promptly informed me that I have no issue that they could fix and refunded my money. So that was good.
My next step was to for the millionth time check my router settings to see if there was anything I could tweak. Nothing seemed to work and I changed channels which took me offline again and cause me to hard reset the router.
I ended up ordering an ethernet cable, an ethernet to lighting adapter and a few Linksys powerlines to try to bypass shitty wifi.
Now imagine my surprise when I hard plugged into the ethernet switch and ran Speedtest. From 0 – 95. Holy SHIT. I nearly passed out. What have I been missing for months with this wifi interference? I have been missing out on the entire internet clearly!
Sadly, my ethernet cable was not long enough to reach a comfortable place to sit and work so I plugged in the powerline. It took my speeds down considerably to about 35mbps. Which is still a damned sight faster than I have ever gotten before.
My next step is to order a 25 foot ethernet cable and run it from the switch to my desk. Woot.
For the record, in a congested ass area such as mine it is probably best to hardwire your main connection. There has to be some massive wifi interference with the neighbors. Check out how many connections I can see with conflicting channels. I use an app from the App Store called inSSIDer.
Well, all of this was great, but I really didn’t want to be tethered to a wired connection, so I started investigating other possible fixes. I decided the next step was to replace the router (although the existing one was fairly new – it was only a 2.4ghz). I bought the D-Link Wireless AC Smartbeam 1750 Mbps Home Cloud App-Enabled Dual-Band Gigabit Router (DIR-868L) from my favorite place on Earth, Amazon.
Received the router the next day, plugged it in and set up a 2.4GHZ network. BOOM. 120mbs speed on wireless. No shite. Amazeballs.
So if you are having shitty wifi connection speeds on Comcast and are in a congested area I’d highly recommend first checking your speed on ethernet and then upgrading your existing router.
My current setup with Comcast is the following – along with the fact that I pay about $90 for internet because I have a boosted line:
- Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem – I purchased this so I don’t have to pay Comcast’s stupid fee of $7 a month rental
- D-Link Wireless AC Smartbeam 1750 Mbps Home Cloud App-Enabled Dual-Band Gigabit Route – AMAZING!
- NETGEAR ProSAFE 5-Port Fast Ethernet Desktop Switch – Yes, I need an ethernet switch because I have the Tivo, Sonos, MacMini, Camera, SmartThings, etc… which took up all my ports
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