AT&T U-verse?

[Brad Johnson]

It will likely test 18mbps at the modem but expect 85-90% of that as an actual speed on your computer.  Also, if you go wireless you should expect roughly half that at the wireless-linked terminals.

In the end it's more an issue of bandwidth than speed.  You can have an extremely fast connection with no bandwidth that will get the crap kicked out of it by a slower/high-bandwidth connection.  An analogy would be a 2 lane road at 75 mph vs a 6 lane at 40 mph.  The 6-lane road, though slower, will allow more people in a given amount of time.  Substitute information packets for people and you get the drift.  Your web browser doesn't care how fast the data gets there, rather how much data gets there in a given amount of time.

I have the 12Mbps uverse service.  It speed tests out at around 10Mbps on wired connections and about 5 on wireless.  The connection is brick-stable with no delays even when I have multiple devices running.  I even tried bogging it down by running an HD movie on Netflix while simultaneously viewing a Youtube vid and gaming on xBox.  No problem at all.

Brad

[GigaBuist]

It will likely test 18mbps at the modem but expect 85-90% of that as an actual speed on your computer.  Also, if you go wireless you should expect roughly half that at the wireless-linked terminals.
...snip...
I have the 12Mbps uverse service.  It speed tests out at around 10Mbps on wired connections and about 5 on wireless.

This shouldn't be the case.  Your LAN, even wireless, shouldn't be the bottleneck.  The 10Mbit wired networking stuff was pretty much dead by 2000, everything having gone to 100Mbit.  Gigabit is getting pretty common now.  Even my cheap $95 register computers came with gigabit cards.

Heck, even wireless started out at 11Mbit back with 802.11b.  Today you can't find WiFi routers that are any less than 802.11g which is 54Mbit.  Granted, those numbers assume no interference, but I've run internet speed tests over a wireless link repeatedly and gotten my agreed upon 18Mbit result from it.  Of course, right now I'm only seeing 6Mbit, but that's Charter for you.

[AJ Dual]

This is off my WiFi at the ass-end of the house.

[Monkeyleg]

And this is from my hard-wired computer right at the modem:



I can't wait for AT&T.

[Brad Johnson]

This shouldn't be the case.  Your LAN, even wireless, shouldn't be the bottleneck.  The 10Mbit wired networking stuff was pretty much dead by 2000, everything having gone to 100Mbit.  Gigabit is getting pretty common now.  Even my cheap $95 register computers came with gigabit cards.

Heck, even wireless started out at 11Mbit back with 802.11b.  Today you can't find WiFi routers that are any less than 802.11g which is 54Mbit.  Granted, those numbers assume no interference, but I've run internet speed tests over a wireless link repeatedly and gotten my agreed upon 18Mbit result from it.  Of course, right now I'm only seeing 6Mbit, but that's Charter for you.

It's not my wireless LAN.  That's full signal and solid as a rock.  It's my u-verse service package.  I have the 12Mbps package.  I just tested it cabled to the computer and got 10.28Mbps down, 2.86 up.  Wireless it's 4.94 down, 1.22 up.  I suppose that's the nature of the simplexed wireless connection.

Also, 100Mb and full gigabit connections may be commonplace in your area but here the majority of homes in this area still run on copper and are doing good to support a 25-30Mbps uverse setup.  Around here only homes built within the last 7-10 years have fiber to the house, though some older neighborhoods with overhead electric/phone/cable utilities have been upgraded to fiber in the alley.  Neighborhoods like mine with buried utilities have been wired fiber to the area servicing boxes but running it into the neighborhood proper would require digging up alleys and replacing pretty much everything.  Local cable service is a different critter as they have packages that top the 100Mbps mark, but A) it's expensive and B) I ain't on cable.

Brad

[GigaBuist]

It's not my wireless LAN.  That's full signal and solid as a rock.  It's my u-verse service package.  I have the 12Mbps package.  I just tested it cabled to the computer and got 10.28Mbps down, 2.86 up.  Wireless it's 4.94 down, 1.22 up.  I suppose that's the nature of the simplexed wireless connection.

Perhaps I'm confused about what U-verse really offers.  I thought it was just a drop into your house which ran into their provided wireless/wired router.  If your wireless LAN is rock solid then you should be getting the same speeds as you get when wired into the router as 11Mbps isn't hard for even the old school stuff.

Now, if they provide some kind of wireless only access for you, that doesn't touch the physical drop into your house, then I think the 5-ishMbps down is acceptable.

But if you're getting that kind of speed connected to your local router which is wired into their drop that gives you 10-ishMbps down something is wrong with the wireless LAN or the router's ability to interact with it.

[Brad Johnson]

A bit of Google-fu shows that half the speed of hard wired is about average for wireless connection.  I've tried changing channels, shutting down apps, and disabling firewalls and malware programs to see if it changes anything.  No difference.  The wireless connection has never tested out any higher than roughly half the speed of the hard-wired connection.

Brad

[AJ Dual]

A bit of Google-fu shows that half the speed of hard wired is about average for wireless connection.  I've tried changing channels, shutting down apps, and disabling firewalls and malware programs to see if it changes anything.  No difference.  The wireless connection has never tested out any higher than roughly half the speed of the hard-wired connection.

Brad

Structural interference in the home, other neighboring WiFi signals on the same channel (even if below the threshold to be seen as an access point) other sources of 2.4ghz RF interference, like some cordless phones, microwaves etc.

And of course the number of other devices on WiFi in the house, like your smartphone, gaming consoles etc. even if not actively transferring large amounts of data, they are checking and pinging the base etc.

These can all slow you down.

[Brad Johnson]

One wireless device (desktop computer) with a remote high-gain antenna mounted above desk level for a line-of-sight shot between the antenna and the router.  Total distance about 12 feet.

As I mentioned above I've tried changing channels, security protocols, the works.  The connection always tests out no higher than about half the hard-wired test speed.  It did it with the Linksys wifi router I used when I had DSL.  It does it now with the  AT&T router I have for uverse.  I even went so far as to borrow a wifi router from a buddy and try it just to see if there was any diff.  None.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.

At any rate it's not hurting anything.  I have no trouble with my web access, either in speed or capacity.  It's just one of those things that bugs me simply because it exhists.  Kinda like Fistful. 

Brad