Internet Connection Speed
 

Had a chat with Shaw on a few issues today. Generally resolved but the internet connection speed situation I don't quite follow...

- Laptop connected to the modem/router wirelessly (approx 3 feet away) - speed approx 20 Mbps. Changing channels on the router (1, 6 or 11) makes no difference.

- Laptop connected using ethernet cable instead speed 59 Mbps ie good as the service is Internet 60

- Shaw say that the modem and computer are ok and that the Shaw network is saturated locally causing drop in speed when using wireless connection. They say they are improving the network but the supplied speed is correct ads it works with the ethernet cable and the speed drop using wireless is sacrificing speed for convenience.

Does this sound reasonable. I don;t follow how inproving the network outside of my house will improve the wireless network connection inside the house?

(Afterwards I checked that the wireless connection speed between the laptop and modem is 54Mbps.)

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Whoever told you this is more talented at telling believable stories than resolving issues (whether it's their issue or yours)... Your internet service is good, sounds like you're getting what you're paying for.

What happens if you wirelessly connect your laptop elsewhere, do you get >20Mbps from a reliable server?

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

We have had some issues with Shaw lately, mostly with wireless connection issues with their modem, nothing resolved but its not a huge issue for us, mostly just an annoyance.

The issues just started in the last 4 months, before that it worked fine, only thing that has changed is we moved to another building within the complex, but there are way more Shaw users in this building, where the other building seemed to be mostly Telus users based on the networks my computer shows.


I feel Shaw prices are more of an issue then anything, not sure why they charge such a premium over Telus.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Quite the tale but a lot of rubbish to be honest.

Something is interfering with the wireless signal (AC unit? Microwave? close by) or something on the router or PC network settings is configured/misconfigured to top out around 20Mbit.

Full speed via the ethernet cable shows everything is running perfectly in the Shaw network. Simply using wireless should have no bearing especially at the close range you're using. You'd expect some sort of drop off, perhaps to the speeds you're seeing, if you're a fair distance from the router or if obstacles (a number of walls) exist. As it's 802.11g then it won't ever make it to the full 60Mbit as 11g tops out at 54Mbit as you've seen. At a few feet distance it should be getting that speed or very near it.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

What else is on your wireless network? Is anything forcing the router to adopt a slower speed?

I'm getting 144mbps both ways on my wifi network and 26mbps from my 25meg Telus connection. That's pretty constant over all 3 floors as we have a hard-wired Telus router on the top floor and one of their extenders hard-wired in the basement.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Wireless?

Internet?!?

Are you guys from the future?

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Withabix
We are with Shaw and get great wireless speeds but replaced the supplied Shaw router with a decent linksys dualband one- the Shaw guy even openly admitted that the Shaw routers were complete crap - would switching out the crappy router for a decent one help?

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Yeah, it's probably just a cheap router. Our free ISP router maxes out at 18Mbps on the wifi if you turn encryption on.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

It probably would - at least Shaw allow you to use a different router.

Telus don't, but their Actiontec router and extender aren't bad and they are both dual band.

Telus don't let you access a server remotely however, which is a bit of a pain - I like to access my home server via the internet, but can't.

I had managed to force it to work once (a long night and many beers...) but then Telus accessed it when we had a fault and reset everything to factory settings - I can't remember how i did it....I think they've changed the firmware to stop the work-around....

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I just had several exchanges of e mail between Shaw customer service in Vancouver Island and myself regarding their rather iffy modem/router that was supplied as part of my recent upgrade. We get wifi dropping out some days even on the laptop next to the router and other phones, i pads cannot connect. We never had these issues with the original set up and our own router. There are literally hundreds of complaints about the Shaw Cisco unit yet they denied any issues and instead blamed interference.
I have seen the article with the endless list of possible causes for interference and it seems that it is a very good get out clause for Shaw. "Maybe your neighbour has something interfering with the unit" they said. Jesus so you are telling me we cannot have 2 people living side by side who can both benefit from reasonable in home wifi? It's 2015 i don't buy it!

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I would defer to you techy guys anyday- I'm way out of my depth but we bridged the crap supplied router and then use the Linksys WRT1900AC as the true wireless router and it works a treat with 2 ipads-, 3 iphones, as well streaming on PC/Mac and two TV all in different parts of a sizeable house- No interference with the neighbour networks either :cool:

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

It is likely that your router or laptop network adapter only supports the "g" protocol. Although the "g" protocol indicates link speeds up to 54 mbps, that includes the WI-FI overhead which is very large and usually limits the real data maximum throughput to about 20 mbps (usually less than 18 mbps when not next to the router). Normally the "n" protocol can have a maximum link speed of 150 mbps (N150) or 300 mbps (N300) (possibly more for some routers and network adapters) but even if the router and laptop have link speeds of 300 mbps, the typical router normally won't have real data throughput of more than about 60 mbps. If your router supports the "n" protocol on the 2.4 GHz band, there should be option in the router configuration to set the buffer size to either 20 MHz or 40 MHz. By default, most routers default to 20 MHz on the 2.4 GHz band which normally gives a maximum link speed of about 144 mbps for N300 and about 72 mbps for N150.

All of this is very confusing but if you look the attached thumbnails, that may possibly clear things up. The first thumbnail is the link speed of different types of routers, the second thumbnail is typical maximum throughputs of different types of routers, the third thumbnail is the link speed based on number of spatial streams and buffer size, and the forth thumbnail is the performance of different N300 routers on the 2.4 GHz band. The fifth thumbnail is a screen shot of about 20 routers in my complex each configured with different maximum link speeds. At the bottom of the thumbnail you can see that there are about 80 routers in the complex using the 2.4GHz band.

First check the specifications of your router model to determine what it supports ("g", "n", and/or "ac" protocols). If it supports the "ac" protocol, it will support the "g" and "n" protocols on the 2.4 GHz band and the "n" and "ac" protocol on the 5 GHz band. Usually most "ac" routers will support the maximum 300 mbps "n" protocol on the 2.4 GHz band if configured for a 40 MHz buffer. If the router is only a single band "n" router, it may only support the maximum 150 mbps "n" protocol and then performance can possibly be very poor (highly unlikely that the maximum data throughput will get to 60 mbps and probably significantly lower).

If your router supports the "n" protocol, then check the network driver of your laptop in the control panel->device manager and see if it indicates that it supports the "n" protocol. Typically most manufacturers will indicate 802.11bgn for a description of the driver if the "n" protocol is supported. If the "n" protocol is supported, that still doesn't tell you if N150 or N300 is supported. To try to determine if you are using N150 or N300, go to control panel->network->view status and look at the "speed". If it indicates 65-72 (20 MHz buffer) or 150 mbps (40 MHz buffer), you are using N150 but if it indicates 117-144 (20 MHz buffer) or 300 mbps (40 MHz buffer), you are using N300.

If your router has the "n" protocol capabilities but your laptop doesn't, then you will have to upgrade your laptop network adapter to improve performance. That can be done by either replacing the built-in network adapter under the cover at the bottom of your laptop or installing a USB network adapter. The following laptop dual band network adapter will likely work but I can't guarantee that it will. If there aren't enough antennas in your laptop, it might work but the link speed will likely be between 117-130 mbps but hopefully that will be enough to get a data throughput of 60 mbps.



If you want to make sure that the adapter will work and you can get a 300 mbps link speed, then select a USB N300 or "AC" network adapter from the following links. If you chose a mini/micro USB adapter, there is a possibility that the antennas in the adapter aren't that good and performance may suffer due to dropped packets. If your router is not a dual band "AC" router, an "AC" adapter won't give you any better performance than a "N" adapter.

Amazon.com: usb network n adapter wireless: Electronics

Amazon.com: usb network ac adapter wireless: Electronics

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I can only dream of Internet speeds such as yours... Our speed test shows about 3mbps😢 Enough for Netflix for the kids but Iplayer struggles to stream..

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Chugging along at 10 mbps outside, not sure what it is inside. Doesn't cause any problems in viewing.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Not sure what our speed is but we watched Have I got News For You last night on iplayer without a hitch. It buffered once for about 5 seconds, otherwise seemless! Almost like living in England - but without UKIP.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

A few things to look at. I did say to the Shaw rep a couple of times that it seemed to be to be an issue with the Shaw wireless Gateway (modem/router), laptop wireless equipment or both but each time she said no and went on about nodes in the network etc

This is the unit that Shaw supply:

https://community.shaw.ca/docs/DOC-1293

"802.11 b/g/n" means it is capable of higher than 54 Mbps?

Looks like setting up bridge mode to use a different wireless router is a big secret according to the various threads on the Shaw forum:

https://community.shaw.ca/thread/10646?start=0&tstart=0

Is it just a matter of switching off the DPC3825 wireless function and connecting the wireless router using an ethernet cable?

Looks like there is a newer modem/router available for an extra cost:

http://www.shaw.ca/store/internet/ho...hero1-all-shaw

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

if you are given a 'free' wireless router from Shaw (probably motorola) ask them to set it to bridge mode and then go out and buy your own decent router.

I have the free one bridged (it's just a cable connecting to the two together) to my Airport Extreme and have had no further connection problems.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I just got Bell to install their dual band router on our fibreop install. Now consistently getting 100mbs down and 30 or so up. í ½í±

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

The router appears to be a single band N300 router which should get real data throughput speeds well above 20 mbps (probably about 60 mbps). Therefore your problem is likely with your laptop network adapter.

What is the manufacturer and model number of your laptop? If it was purchased within the past 5 years, it should have a "N" network adapter installed but will likely only have N150 capabilities. Most manufacturers install a single band N150 network adapter card in their laptops by default but can be upgraded to a dual band N300 or "AC" adapter when ordering or upgrading. Even with a N150 network adapter card in your laptop, performance should be significantly above 20 mbps.

A way to check if the problem is with the laptop network adapter is to use a Smart phone, IPad, or IPod Touch and connect to your router using WI-FI and run the speed test. Your Smart phone, IPad, or IPod touch should have a single band "N" network adapter installed and therefore the speed test should indicate significantly above 20 mbps.

Another possibility that can cause very slow speeds is if you live in a apartment complex, condo complex, or urban area. In that case the 2.4 GHz band can be very crowded causing very poor performance on the 2.4 GHz band. The only solution in that case is to upgrade both your router and laptop to dual band and use the 5 GHz band. The 5 GHz band should be significantly less crowded and supports only the faster protocols and therefore should solve the problem since there should be significantly more air time available for your router.

If you live in a rural or suburban area, it likely won't make any difference in performance whether the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band is used since even though you may possibly see other routers, the signal strength is likely very weak and won't likely interfere with communications between your router and laptop.

If the problem is with the laptop network adapter (most likely problem), the problem can't be solved by changing routers.

That is a dual band "AC" type router/modem (Hitron CGNM-2250 DOCSIS 3.0 Wi-Fi Modem). However it likely won't improve your performance if you don't have a dual band "AC" network card in your laptop. You can have the fastest router made but if you laptop network adapter card doesn't support those protocols and/or bands, performance will be poor.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Good heavens...not just pilots on the forum but someone with their own airport too.:eek:

Anyone own a marina? (Apart from Oink ;))

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

The laptop is a Toshiba L300D - about 5 years old with the slower type network card I think.

With the Iphone the connection speed is approx 38 Mbps so as you suggest the laptop network card seems to be slowing the connection.

I'll have to check the connection speed for the other computers in the house and see what network cards they have.

Thanks...

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I believe the iPhone only has a N150 network adapter and suspect that is why you are only getting 38 mbps instead of about 60 mbps.

The easiest way to improve the network performance of your laptop is to purchase a USB N300 network adapter. You just plug it in to a USB port and install the driver. After the driver is installed, it will disable your on-board network adapter and enable the USB network adapter.

If in the future you want to disable the USB network adapter and enable the on board network adapter, go to the device manager->network adapters and disable the USB network adapter and enable the on-board network adapter.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Your laptop only supports the "b" and "g" protocols according to the specs. Apparently it was designed before the "n" protocol was introduced in 2009.

From the specs:

Wireless LAN Standard - IEEE 802.11b/g

Toshiba Satellite Pro L300D-EZ1001V Notebook Laptop specs

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

So getting the USB N300 network adapter wouldn't be of any benefit for the laptop?

One of the desktops (in the same room as the modem router) has a N150 adapter and was getting approx 40 Mbps today which seems ok.

It looks then that the Shaw modem/router and broadband service is basically ok if I'm paying for Broadband 50.

I also have a second router plugged into the Shaw modem/router which is configured using DDWRT for the HMA VPN service. This is quite handy as it means I can just switch between the two routers for either a Canadian or UK IP address. However, the connection speed of the second router is way down at approx 3 Mbps typically - good enough for Iplayer either on the ASUS box or Xbox 360 but sometimes slightly slow. Is there anything in the arrangement that could be causing the second router to be so slow?

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Installing a USB N300 network adapter should improve the performance of the laptop to about 60 mbps since the on-board network adapter will be completely disabled and everything needed to communicate via WI-FI (network adapter, transmitters, receivers, antennas, etc.) is in the USB N300 network adapter.:nod:

:thumbup:

Shaw may not be providing you with the highest performing router on the market but it will likely be able to do at least 50 mbps and probably 60+ mbps if you have the correct network adapter hardware on your laptop and PCs. If in the future you upgrade to a higher speed connection (75-100 mbps), then that router likely won't be able to keep up with the line speed. If you upgrade, you'll likely have to get an "AC" type router and "AC" type network adapters for your computers to get those speeds.

That is likely not a router problem but a VPN problem. The problem with VPN is that all data to and from the UK is unencrypted and encrypted by the a VPN server. If there are 100 users using the VPN server and all are using 3 mbps, the VPN server would require a 300 mbps balanced connection (300 mbps up and 300 mbps down) to support those users. To try to support 10 mbps per user for 100 users, then a 1 gigabit per second balanced connection would be required (2 gigabits per second total).

Balanced connections are OC type connections, are very expensive, and become extremely expensive at the higher speeds (tens of thousands of dollars per month at the higher speeds). Therefore a VPN service can't afford to lease a very high speed OC connection when they are only charging about $5-$7 per month per user. Therefore the primary bottleneck for VPN is the low throughput (connection speed) of the VPN server.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_Carrier_transmission_rates

However there is a solution and that is to use Smart DNS such as Overlay's Smart DNS service instead of VPN.

SmartDNS - OverPlay Smart DNS

Smart DNS should be much faster than VPN since only the country centric authentication is done by the Smart DNS server and all other traffic (the video) is direct to and from the home computer and the video services web site. Therefore if you want to watch a BBC video, the speed will primarily depend on packets getting to and from the UK, the upload connection speed of the BBC web site, and your ISP download connection speed.

The reason that Smart DNS works is that Smart DNS exploits a hole in the country centric authentication code in video servers and authenticates the Smart DNS server's IP address and passes the client's IP address to the video service as the authenticated IP address. Each service that is supported by Smart DNS has to have custom designed authentication and IP address transfer code so therefore Smart DNS only supports specific services. Normally most users just configure their primary router to use the Smart DNS server as their DNS server and if that web site is not supported for Smart DNS, the server just acts like a normal DNS server and just returns the IP address of desired server. Therefore with Smart DNS, there isn't any need for a 2nd router or enabling or disabling. DNS lookup will be a little slower since packets have to travel to the UK but you probably won't notice the difference in speed when accessing non supported Smart DNS services. Therefore if you run a speed test using OOKLA on a UK server using VPN, you'll probably get about 3 mbps download speed but if you run a speed test using OOKLA on a UK server using Smart DNS, you'll probably get about 30 mbps download speed.

The BBC, Netflix, and other video services know about the hole in the authentication code and could patch the code to stop the fake country centric authentication process but they haven't just like they haven't stopped VPN servers from using their service (VPN could also be easily stopped if the video services really wanted to stop the users from using VPN). To stop VPN services from using their video services, all that would be required would be a table of UK VPN services IP addresses in the country centric authentication process which would not allow access if a IP address is in the table. Since the only purpose of using a VPN or Smart DNS service to access video web sites is to defeat country centric authentication, video services web sites have every right to block those capabilities if they desired.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

It's funny that the Shaw guy said that if it continued to be an issue then bridging would be a possibility yet they appear to deny its even possible on the community support from Shaw forums when people have asked about such a thing.
This thread has now become very highly technical with the info being posted by Michael so i need time to digest and see if anything helps or i could just have another beer and forget it exists. :confused:

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Routers have different antenna systems, chipsets, processors, and/or software that can significantly affect WI-FI performance especially as the computers get further away from the router. If a person has performance issues in various parts of their home, then using a second router with a better antenna system, chipset, and/or software can possibly solve that problem.

Normally when PC Magazine runs performance tests for routers, they don't check the performance next to the router but typically they have 5 different locations with the closest being about 10' feet away and no walls and the furthest being on another floor with several walls between the computer and router. Testing that way shows significant differences between routers. Usually for the same type of routers, the test for the closest distance is usually fairly similar but as they get further from the router, differences in performance become obvious. By the time they get to the 5th location (typically on another floor on the other side of a house inside a bathroom with the door closed), some computers can't even establish a connection with the router while other routers will be able to communicate at a 5 to 20 mbps rate.

In the case of the OP, he was next to the router and only had a throughput of 20 mbps. This is an indication that the "g" protocol is likely being used since that is about the maximum throughput that the "g" protocol can produce.

Since the "N" and "AC" protocols became available, understanding how to get the best throughput out of a router is beyond the average person's capabilities. "N" type routers can have link speeds up to 900 mbps (N900) but if your computer only has a N150 or N300 network adapter card, the throughput will only be as fast as the slowest protocol. "AC" type routers can have link speeds above 2500 mbps on the 5 GHz band but very few network adapters support link speeds above 867 mbps and typically most computers don't have network adapters that even support the "AC" protocol by default (typically the network adapter has to be upgraded to support the "AC" protocol).

There are uses for very fast "AC" routers such as AC3200 routers which have a total maximum link speed of 3200 mbps. To use those speeds, the person must understand what they want to accomplish and how to accomplish it. However for most people, an AC3200 router would be overkill and a AC1200 or N600 dual band router would probably accomplish the same thing. If their internet connection speed is below 60 mbps, then a N300 router is likely all they will need.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Even though you probably have a N150 adapter in your computer, you may be able to get your throughput higher than 40 mbps and maybe even to 60 mbps. N150 network adapters use 1 spatial stream (1 antenna) and if the router is configured to use a 20 MHz channel, the maximum link speed will either be 65 mbps or 72.2 mbps depending on whether the router is communicating with a 800 ns GI or a 400 ns GI but if the router is configured to use a 40 MHz channel, the maximum link speed with be either 135 mbps or 150 mbps depending whether the router is communicating with a 800 ns GI or a 400 ns GI.

If your network adapter is not N150 but instead a N300 adapter, that uses 2 spatial streams (2 antennas) and if the router is configured to use a 20 MHz channel, the maximum link speed will either be 130 mbps or 144.4 mbps depending on whether the router is communicating with a 800 ns GI or a 400 ns GI but if the router is configured to use a 40 MHz channel, the maximum link speed with be either 270 mbps or 300 mbps depending whether the router is communicating with a 800 ns GI or a 400 ns GI.

Those figures can be seen in the following link in the Data rates table using MSC Index 7 for N150 adapters and MSC Index 15 for N300 adapters.

IEEE 802.11n-2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


You can determine which link speed is being used by going to Control Panel->Network and Internet->View Network Status and Tasks->View Status on your computer and the "speed" should indicate either 65, 72.2, 135, or 150 if using a N150 network adapter or 130, 144.4, 270, or 300 if using a N300 network adpater.

Therefore if you configure your router to use a 40 MHz channel, you should see the network status "speed" change from 65 or 72.2 to 135 or 150 for a N150 adapter or from 130 or 144.4 to 270 or 300 and hopefully your performance will improve.

If the network status speed doesn't change after you configure your router to use a 40 MHz channel, that likely means that your network adapter driver also has to be configured to use a 40 MHz channel (some network adapter drivers will automatically use a 40 MHz channel if available while others require you to configure the driver to allow a 40 MHz channel to be used).

To configure you network adapter so that it uses a 40 MHz channel, go to Control Panel->Hardware-and Sound->Device Manager->Network Adapters and double click on the network driver and then click on the "Advanced" tab and look for a configuration parameter that refers to the channel width. It will probably have options of "20 MHz only" and "auto" and if "auto" is selected, the link speed should change to 135 or 150 for N150 adapters or 270 or 300 for N300 adapters if the router is configured to use a 40 MHz channel.

If you live in an urban area or anywhere there can be a lot of routers, it is not recommended to use a 40 MHz channel on the 2.4 GHz band since the band is usually very over crowded and the larger channel may possibly reduce the performance of your router and cause increased interference with other routers.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I had shaw for a number of years, same issues low speed most of the time then i was informed that with Shaw you "share" so if the OP moved to a building with more shaw users that's something to do with it, I had the 50mps shaw but rarely got over 25mps, i switched to Telus which i was informed is fibre optic to the box in the street, i get a constant 23mps now and i pay less than i was for shaw. They do have faster packages but 23 is fast enough for me.
I got all this info from a close friend who is in IT, he talked a lot of techno babble but basicly said ditch shaw and go with Telus.
I had shaw come and test everything like most here are suggesting, didnt help, bought my own router too, didnt help.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Currently most cable providers reliably provide the speeds that they advertise but often those speeds can't be reliably attained due to performance issues on the internet and/or WI-FI issues.

Many web sites have difficulty reliably maintaining speeds above 20 mbps. In the SF bay area with about 3 million home users and probably another 2 million businesses users, it is often difficult to find an OOKLA test server that isn't overloaded and can serve the test at 60 mbps. A test server can possibly have a maximum connection speed of 300 mbps but if more than 5 users with 60 mbps ISP connections are simultaneously using that server, test results will indicate less than 60 mbps.

Even servers from Microsoft and Google which have very high connection speeds often can't maintain ISP connection speeds when thousands of users are simultaneously using their web sites especially for downloads.

Therefore often there may be little benefits of a 60, 100, or 150 mbps ISP connection over a 25 mbps connection.

A case where a 60, 100, or 150 mbps ISP connection may be very beneficial is if multiple devices are used simultaneously such as children and adults using different computers. In that case, a 25 mbps connection will likely cause poor performance. However even with a high speed ISP connection, performance can suffer if the correct router and network adapters are not used or are configured incorrectly.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

OK i work in the trucking industry thats why i asked a friend who has been in IT all his life to come and help as Shaw seemed unable to, I took his advice and dumped shaw and now have a constant speed, the speed i'm paying for which isnt much to ask. I'll never use Shaw again unless i move and have no other option

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Not sure about this strictly speaking. My husband and I are often in different rooms streaming Netflix on a 25mbps connection, and it works fine. At my parents' place, they only have an 8mbps connection ("only") and it works fine with often two televisions streaming.

Factoring in gaming might start to change that, but Netflix and iPlayer seem to behave just fine - certainly the 25mbps connection we have at home, which is reliably 25mbps, seems to stand up just fine.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Only issue i had with Telus was wireless TV, Didn't realise the router for that in spare room was behind my big fridge and seemed to block it, once i moved that router its great, Also Telus stream 3D movies and i don't need a 3D player etc and Shaw didn't do that when i was with them ? Maybe they do now ???
I tried a bridging router etc or at least my buddy did, they even replaced all the cable in the house, but after lots of screwing around and him even going through it all with Shaw on the phone i dumped them.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Netflix streams primarily using MPEG-4 (H.264) compression and has started to upgrade to HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding- H.265) for 4x HD movies. MPEG-4 is a pretty efficient compressor and can stream HD action movie at it highest quality at less than 12 mbps and low action HD movies at less than 6 mbps so with a 25 mbps connection, 2 Netflix movies at it's highest quality should be able to be streamed easily.

HEVC requires only about 1/2 the bit rate of MPEG-4 for the same quality. Netflix would like to stream all HD movies using HEVC to reduce their bandwidth requirement and therefore costs for it's OC connection and to also pacify ISPs that are complaining about the bandwidth usage for Netflix movies. However very few devices (Roku, Smart TVs, Chromecast, Apple TV, Blue Ray players, and operating systems) currently have codecs to decode HEVC video streams.

The way Netflix works is when a movie is selected to be played, first the Netflix server checks which video codecs the device supports. If the device supports a HEVC decoder and the movie has been encoded using HEVC, it will stream the movie using HEVC. If the device does not support HEVC or the movie isn't encoded with HEVC, then MPEG-4 is used if the device supports a MPEG-4 decoder. I'm not sure how many different codecs are supported by Netflix but I believe Netflix can stream using MPEG-2, DivX, and possibly other codecs.

Once Netflix determine which codec to use, it then checks the speed of your ISP connection and that will determine the quality of the video that it streams (bit rate). According to articles, Netflix has up to 200 copies of each movie on it's severs that were previously compressed with different compressors (MPEG-4, HEVC, MPEG-2, DivX, etc.) at different compression ratios (bit rate requirements and therefore quality differences). For a HD action movie, Netflix may possibly have copies of the movie compressed at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 mbps.

Once the correct codec and bit rate is determined for the movie, Netflix streams about 5-10 seconds of the movie to the device before it starts to play the movie. The reason is that the internet and ISP connections can vary in speed and that 5-10 second buffer in the device allows the movie to continue to play even if transfer rate slows. If the device buffer empties, Netflix will pause the movie until the buffer gets full again.

With your 25 mbps connection, there should seldom be problem. When the first movies starts, Netflix determines that you have a 25 mbps connection and will stream the highest quality video that is available for that movie (up to 12 mbps depending on the movie). When the second movie starts, Netflix determines that your connection speed is no longer 25 mbps but greater than 12 mbps and will also stream the highest quality available. Even if 2 action movies are playing at the same time, that shouldn't give you a problem since the bit rate drops as the action slows.

For your parents 8 mbps connection, for one movie that's probably not a big issue since Netflix will stream up to a 8 mbps quality but when the second movie starts, the quality may be very low (possibly 1 or 2 mbps). Not only can the second movie have a very low quality but the full bandwidth of the connection is being used which can cause both movies to intermittently pause if the internet, ISP, and/or WI-FI connection speed changes.

Whether using a 8 mbps or 25 mbps connection for Netflix, pause issues can occur if another computer automatically starts downloading Microsoft, anti-virus, or other updates. I originally had a lot of problems with Netflix pausing when I subscribed in 2010. Often I would start watching a Netflix movie and the movie would eventually pause every few minutes. Finally I realized that the problem was with the WI-FI where the throughput would vary from 3 mbps to 16 mbps depending on the number of people in the condo complex using their computer. So I upgraded to a single band "N" type router but the problem persisted. Finally I upgraded to a dual band "N" type router using the 5 GHz band, the WI-FI speed remained constant at 25 mbps, and the problem disappeared. The reason that the 2.4 GHz band didn't work when I upgraded to the single band "N" router was because all the slow "g" routers were using most of the air time leaving my faster "N" router with very little air time. Since then, most people in the complex have upgraded to newer routers and the 2.4 GHz WI-FI band is significantly better but will still vary in throughput. Therefore I currently use only the 5 GHz band except for devices such as printers and Smart phones which don't support the 5 GHz band.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

I've noticed on netflix the quality of the picture has gone down a lot recently, almost blurry. The TV works fine on everything else, just not netflix.

Is this a connection issue with the internet or a netflix issue? Anyone else have any trouble? During the same time frame, can't watch an entire program or movie without is freezing and having to reload.

Our internet download is up to 25 but speed test website never shows it above 15.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Netflix does have lower quality streaming options which kick in if the internet connection is slower. I see them from time to time on my PC...looks bad as you pointed out. Normally I just refresh and it goes back to the more "HD" looking version as my connection runs at 25Mbit (more than enough)

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

That is probably it then. It never did it before, whatever happened in the last couple of months with Shaw, there is nothing but issues with internet these days.

Maybe it's Shaw's way of getting people off netflix, lets make their internet so bad netflix doesn't work well....;) (that was a joke)

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Actually if i remember correctly there where some accusations not long ago that people like Shaw where restricting the band width for Netflix etc, never saw how that ended ?

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

Would not surprise me if they were, netflix is really bad at the moment, can't go more then a few minutes without is stopping to load, its blurry and just not worth watching.

Everything else on the internet works fine, just not netflix.

Its been a recent issue for us, ever since they came and replaced our old very out of date modem with some new one which appears to be a pile of junk.

Re: Internet Connection Speed
 

There where reports in the media and online so guessing it was true ?
If you don't use cable try Tech savvy internet

https://teksavvy.com/

I have had all good reports about them, Couple of friends have it and love their service.