Hardware I have even more reason to hate Comcast, possible ISP throttling

[the_randomizer]

So, my parents recently installed home security to save on their bill after we got rid of the landline (which we never used), and as a result, the techs swapped out our old router with a new one. Well, technically, it's a new modem with the home security router attached to it. Not sure why it's not an all-on-one unit, but that's not the issue I'm getting, rather, we kept the same SSID, password, etc and it all configured fine, but there is one major issue that's really pissing me off. See, we have the Blast! package, which is 250 mbps, and before we got this upgrade, I was getting 105-110 mbps on average over a 5 GHz band, and now? Still 5 GHz, but only getting 54 mbps, despite using the same channel, band, USB WiFi, etc, and it's like we're getting throttled. Apparently, the router combined both 2.4 and 5 GHz in the same SSID, with no way to change networks, it's apparently dynamic and "changes according to the best settings" or some half-assed thing. Why should that determine what band to use? Why can't I choose the band it uses and the channel and get the 100 mbps we used to get?

So I'm at an impasse, it's either this, or I somehow miraculously hook up an Ethernet cable from the room where the router is up to my bedroom. Well, that's a problem, because I'm on the upper floor, and the router is approx. six or so meters away from where I am in the room below. The last router was in that same room and gave us the faster speeds, but now, it feels like as customers, we're getting gypped, and there is no technical reason for this to happen, if the router/modem are the newest model from Comcast, and if the WiFi adapter hasn't changed. It's not a limitation of my adapter, as it supports up to gigabit speeds, that I know. I don't know what to do, I've tried Ethernet over powerline, and that was a waste of time, my house was built in 1979 and the electric work isn't top notch, I got serious degradation with that too, only getting 50 mbps over that. What's also weird, is the day they installed all this, I did get 100 mbps initially, but now, I can't. AFAIK, they haven't downgraded our speed (nor should they), what are my solutions, I'm just..trying to figure out what can be done about this.

 

[CallmeBerto]

"changes according to the best settings"

My router has this same setting, however, I was able to disable it via its menu. Since you set up the SSID for it I'm assuming you know how to get into its settings and take a look at it?

 

[the_randomizer]

"changes according to the best settings"

My router has this same setting, however, I was able to disable it via its menu. Since you set up the SSID for it I'm assuming you know how to get into its settings and take a look at it?

Yes, I know how to, but the problem is I don't know what exactly to look for, and I don't want to change something that will screw up the entire network. I'd have to show a screenshot.

Edit: Here's what I see under the WiFi settings, two networks, same names, but 2.4 and 5 GHz, now, when I go into each one, I see the option to disable/enable them:

Couldn't I force-disable 2.4 and only have the 5 GHz network available?

 

[slaphappygamer]

You can have the ssids different from each other. Example, home and home5. Keep the same password though.

 

[the_randomizer]

You can have the ssids different from each other. Example, home and home5. Keep the same password though.

Yeah, finally configured it to be that way, no idea why it was set up to have both bands' SSIDs to be set up with the same name. As a result, my WiFi adapter freaked out and always switched between the 2.4 and 5 GHz modes. Now that I'm exclusively using 5 GHz, this is the result I get

Much better than when it was first set up.

 

[Chary]

Yeah, Comcast’s stuff is an utter pain to set up, but you can do it. I have Home1234-1 and Home1234-5 to represent the two different bands.

I’d recommend getting your own router, at some point, however.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah, Comcast’s stuff is an utter pain to set up, but you can do it. I have Home1234-1 and Home1234-5 to represent the two different bands.

I’d recommend getting your own router, at some point, however.

Yeah, I'll definitely look into getting a new router at some point, as for now, I managed to get it to where it's back to where it was, no idea why both SSIDs shared the same name

 

[slaphappygamer]

Having the ssids is the new default. I usually change it to whatever the old SSID was. Less work for the customer. I don’t work for Comcast, though.

 

[the_randomizer]

Having the ssids is the new default. I usually change it to whatever the old SSID was. Less work for the customer. I don’t work for Comcast, though.

Yeah, it was entirely my fault for not thinking it through, could've saved myself a lot of trouble, blarg >.>

 

[6adget]

I pay $40 (or around that much) a year for a VPN through PIA. not only can I download torrents without prying eyes watching what im doing, but my ISP no longer throttles my connection because they have no idea what im downloading, or streaming. between my wife and I we have a ton of connected devices. 11 computers, a Plex server in the basement that I allow friends and family remotely access, 4 TVs that stream sling TV, Hulu, Amazon prime, Youtube, etc, tablets, phones, and way to many game systems to list. after we dumped comcrap for consolidated communications fiber optic things got better, but we found out we were still being throttled. Then we got PIA (private Internet Access) all that shit stopped. Plus PIA has a server side ad blocking. Im sure there are also a lot of other great VPN services too. $40 a year is kinda average for a VPN. most allow you to run it on 5 or 6 devices at once. yes you can set it up to run on the router so all devices connected to it would be using it, but for us that doesn't work. sometimes you dont want to use it. like when you are using netflix. they wont let you stream when using a vpn. anyways, thats my thoughts and experience on the subject.

 

[the_randomizer]

I pay $40 (or around that much) a year for a VPN through PIA. not only can I download torrents without prying eyes watching what im doing, but my ISP no longer throttles my connection because they have no idea what im downloading, or streaming. between my wife and I we have a ton of connected devices. 11 computers, a Plex server in the basement that I allow friends and family remotely access, 4 TVs that stream sling TV, Hulu, Amazon prime, Youtube, etc, tablets, phones, and way to many game systems to list. after we dumped comcrap for consolidated communications fiber optic things got better, but we found out we were still being throttled. Then we got PIA (private Internet Access) all that shit stopped. Plus PIA has a server side ad blocking. Im sure there are also a lot of other great VPN services too. $40 a year is kinda average for a VPN. most allow you to run it on 5 or 6 devices at once. yes you can set it up to run on the router so all devices connected to it would be using it, but for us that doesn't work. sometimes you dont want to use it. like when you are using netflix. they wont let you stream when using a vpn. anyways, thats my thoughts and experience on the subject.

Luckily, it hasn't gotten to the point on where I need to resort to VPNs, and Comcast does have an "unlimited" data plan but costs an extra 50 dollars on top of the internet cost. Otherwise, the cap is 1 TB a month, supposedly. Right now, it's surprisingly stable (much to my shock) on 5 GHz, I'll keep monitoring it.

 

[Originality]

I keep my home network with the same SSID name to allow it to use whichever is stronger between 2.4 and 5Ghz range. If you’re close to the AP, you get the fast 5Ghz connection. If you’re further away, it automatically shifts you to the more stable 2.4Ghz range. It’s seemless compared to having the end device constantly flicking between two different SSIDs as it has to renegotiate the connection as it thinks they’re two different networks.

 

[tbb043]

A while back my router got messed up so started just using the comcast gateway's built in router. whenever someone would connect to the 5ghz connection it would slow the f out of my 2.4 connection and cause drops and such. Eventually I just disabled the 5ghz one on the gateway, and things have been fine since.