jimf

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

Danny B

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.

Atlantic Xpat

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

Michael

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.

BristolUK

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

Anyone own a marina? (Apart from Oink )

jimf

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...

Michael

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.

Michael

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

jimf

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?

Michael

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.



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.

printer

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.

Michael

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.

Michael

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.

Juggernaut1064

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.

Michael

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.