What's going on with the internet stuff?
What's going on with the internet stuff?
Recently, I've been having trouble with my internet connection. I pay Xfinity for a speed of 400 mbps, but I'm not getting that much even though I'm plugged directly into my router using an Ethernet cable. For years, my internet was fast, but two days ago it was slow. On one day at noon, my test showed 134.6 mbps. Later, today at night around 11:30, my test showed 134.3 mbps. This problem has been going on for about two weeks. At first, I thought a gamer might have hacked me because it made quizzes fail and images not load. When I called them up, they said no, even though there isn't really a way to check who is using my IP address anyway. So far, the only thing I know is that my router is two years old. This speed issue is very bad for me because it's making me lose points on online quizzes for college classes. The quizzes won't load images or drop them, and once the timer starts, you can't stop it, so every time something goes wrong, I lose a bunch of time. I'm open to suggestions, but even Xfinity said their end isn't the problem because sometimes my speed was actually 400 mbps when I tested on one day.
You have trouble getting dropped, right? That problem is totally different than just how fast things happen sometimes. If you lose a lot of data, it can make the speedtest numbers go slower. But often, you still get good results or even worse, the test just stops working. It's pretty normal stuff to deal with. When using a cable modem, check inside and look at the signal levels. The ISP should already have checked this for you. The specific numbers might change depending on what type of device you use, but if you search online, you'll find tables that help explain it too. Also, look at your logs to see if anything pops up. You will always get some errors, but if you see a lot happening in a very short time, it usually means something is broken inside the system. Next, try the standard ping test. Open a command window and keep pinging 8.8.8.8 all the way. If you don't lose any packets at all, then you have this really weird problem on your end. If you do lose them, run tracert to 8.8.8.8. It probably won't show anything interesting because it doesn't wait long enough. Basically, what you are doing is finding out which routers are in the way. Now you want to open several command windows and keep pinging hop one (your router) all the way. Most often, the first ISP router will be involved here too. You hope to see no loss on your own router but losing packets when you hit the second router. Also, check 8.8.8.8 while doing this just to make sure the second router has problems at the same time as the last one. By now, you should be able to call your ISP and tell them that there is a loss in your connection coming into your house. But you know for sure your router and PC aren't causing it because hop number one was fine.
After calling my internet provider, they upgraded me to an 800 mbps plan. But for a while after that upgrade, my router only works at speeds between 90 and 200 mbps when I run speed tests. The only way I can get close to the real speed is by unplugging the power cord and plugging it back in, but this never lasts long enough to work. My guess is that something is wrong with the router or the coaxial cable it uses because I don't know any other reason for this problem. In my computer (CMD), when I typed the command "ping 8.8.8.8 -t", it kept saying "General Failure" all over again and I'm not sure what that means here is a screenshot of those ping test results: https://imgur.com/a/PkQcBhN You can see them too at this link: https://imgur.com/a/PkQcBhN
The internet service provider should be able to see how strong the signal is. If speed drops and slows down sometimes, it means the router or modem isn't talking well on a higher frequency level. It's hard to know exactly which levels work on what networks because different companies use different gear, so details vary greatly between ISPs even in the same city. There should be messages in the logs if there is a problem causing speed drops and lower encoding. Maybe the coax wires are bad? You can check if it works better when you connect as close to where the cable goes into the house as possible. Even though this might not seem obvious, there likely is a loose connection near the wall outlet. You could disconnect the main cable going into the house and plug in a short piece of coax directly to the modem. Be very careful with these plugs; they are waterproof but need to be tight. It might also be the modem or router itself, which leads to your next problem. First I will guess that the box you have plugged into the coax is both a router and a modem? Most often it has Wi-Fi if it is also a router. If it is just a modem, network issues can cause strange ping problems. Do you have another device to test with so we don't need to look at the PC end of things? General failure usually means some issue with cables or the computer. It could be the router if that is actually failing but not likely. Most solutions you will find on the internet are written by people who know nothing about tech. They talk about DNS, and even the examples they show use numbers instead of IP addresses, so DNS isn't really involved. This makes most their other tips seem wrong. So I would first check if there is a newer driver for the ethernet port. Some 2.5G ports had bad drivers in the past and Microsoft sometimes loads generic ones with updates. Try getting the driver directly from the chip vendor's website instead. It could be DHCP, but it is not likely. You can do this by putting a static IP on the machine. A quick way to do this is type IPCONFIG /all into the command line. Then go to the IPv4 settings and put those values in there. This isn't the best way since the router might give another device the same IP, but it works for testing. Change it back to DHCP after you are done or assign a new IP address that is outside the normal range of the router's DHCP pool if you want to keep it static.
I plugged in a LAN card using USB on my laptop, and my internet speed was way too fast. Is it possible there is a problem with the ethernet port on my computer? I know people mentioned needing drivers but I don't know how to update them could you send me a link for a tutorial?
Maybe try a different USB adapter on your desktop and see what happens. That could be the fix if the port itself is broken. Bad ports might happen but they are not that common. I would search YouTube and look for videos showing how to update drivers. You don't need exactly the same hardware, things work pretty much alike. It's mostly just downloading the driver from either the motherboard maker or the ethernet chip vendor and telling Windows to install it.
I got a new router and things still don't work. It doesn't matter if I plug it into USB with a lan adapter or just straight ethernet, right? What is the maximum speed my coaxial cable can go at? Is there one specific thing I can buy that can handle 800 mbps?
So what is your actual problem? Getting disconnected is something else than slow speeds. You probably don't need 800 or even 400mbps for most stuff. Games use way less than 1mbps. Maybe Netflix at 4k uses about 25mbps. As long as you have enough for the app, having more won't make it run faster. The only thing that needs a lot of bandwidth is like downloading a big file, which most people do maybe once or twice a week. So does your laptop with the USB ethernet work without disconnects and give okay speed tests? If yes, then you don't need to replace the router or change your internet cable. The problem is likely on your main computer. Most coax cables can handle speeds well over 1gbit depending on what they connect to. To a point I am pretty lost here because most people know how replacing a driver works so I'm not sure if you'll be able to do an advanced test yourself. In any case, the thing I usually suggest is to make a USB stick with a linux bootable image. This lets you run your machine on a different OS without hurting your windows install. If it runs fine there, then something is wrong with windows. If not, then it's probably a hardware problem.
I was able to update the drivers but I would like a speed of 800 mbps because thats the plan I am paying Xfinity for so if they can't give me what I am paying for then thats frustrating. I don't think the issue is my "machine" (computer) because the issue persists on a desktop or a laptop via lan adapter. I updated windows 10 and the drivers so I can't imagine it is an OS system issue eithier but I suppose its possible. The total disconnects have seemingly stopped the issue now is getting me to a speed of 800mbps which is my current plan or even just 600 I'd be happy with instead of being stuck at 200. Here is a image of the driver information I can provide more information if needed but I would still like help if you are able to help me solve the issue https://imgur.com/a/YK7se60 View: https://imgur.com/a/YK7se60
It might not be the problem at all. That looks like a generic microsoft driver. So maybe search for intel driver support assistant. Make sure you only download it directly from intel site. This is a program that will scan for any intel things on your machine and give you the option to install new drivers. Don't be temped to install anything other than the ethernet driver. You can install other stuff later if you get temped, prevents getting new problems and knowing what driver caused it.