Internet Shaw300 why not to upgrade.

[#1]

I recently got Shaw 300 and what a disappointment it has been and unfortunately I signed a 2 year contract.

First I had to trade the Hitron model in for a Arris XB6 model so I could get the 300 mbps speeds.

My devices on the Shaw 150 Hitron model use to connect at 150 MBPS

My devices on the new Shaw 300 Arris XB6 connection connect at 60 MBPS and struggle to ever achieve even 100 MBPS and upload of only 15 mbps.

The only way I can get 300 is if I hardwire connect my laptop to the back of the router, and it only has 2 Ethernet ports.

The WIFI signal on Shaw 300 tends to drop and is very unstable and slow.  On my cell phone I use Wi-fi calling which use to give me a solid signal over wi-fi when my Telus signal would get weak inside my house. No whenever I'm on wi-fi calling, my call randomly drops because the Arris XB6 router for Shaw 300 provides an unstable connection.

Streaming quality is horrible, since the router glitches so much.

My Netflix movies buffer and go blurry, My Facetime/Skype calls get dropped, range goes from high to low and leaves your devices with no wifi connection and worst part is Shaw technical service who I have called a few times takes 90 minutes to get a hold of and they will blame your devices for all the problems and slow connections. They want to charge me a $100 installation fee, when the installation is so simple and I am tech savy to fix my problems. I know there is nothing wrong with my installation.

So while I pay way more, my connection on Shaw 300 is considerably slower, lower range and more unstable than my Shaw 150 connection was using the Hitron Modem.

[syman]

The exact same problem, I was told by the SHAW technician, who came out to check my problem - you have to buy a new laptop. Your laptop does not support download speed 300 Mbps.

FYI - yes, I have an older MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011), but based on my conversation at Apple store, it should support 300 Mbps.

[#3]

He's lying to you. As long as your devices connect to and are supported by the 5ghz wifi band, you can actually get speeds even higher than 300mbps over wifi.  My neighbor just got Telus 300 up and 300 download and I tested a couple of my laptops on his wifi and all of my devices were able to get that speed over wifi!!!!. Infact Shaw usually buys all of their ideas from Comcast Cable in the usa and they were the first to use the Arris XB6 modems for 1gb connections....and people there complain about only getting 800 mbps.......... Clearly Shaw has released a product and device they are having problems with delivering.

[corbin]

According to the Apple website your laptop has 802.11n. Even at 5G, it will NEVER hit 300 Mbps on wifi.

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011) - Technical Specifications 

802.11n 3x3 MIMO supports a 450 Mbps PHY rate (half duplex), not file transfer rate (you have to subtract signalling, time other devices are using the air, half-duplex, errors and re-transmissions, and wifi+IP headers). Now if that worked perfectly you'd get more like a max of 200 Mbps at 5GHz. However if there are other devices, and some distance between you and the AP... you'll be lucky to get 150 Mbps. Google it and you'll see that real-world throughput of less than 200 Mbps is the norm for 802.11n.

You really do need 802.11ac to see 300 Mbps speeds. It'll be worth getting an upgraded wifi dongle or wiring in if you want to see those speeds.

[corbin]

ruthless wrote:

 As long as your devices connect to and are supported by the 5ghz wifi band, you can actually get speeds even higher than 300mbps over wifi.  

Not with 802.11n.

With 802.11ac ... sure. If it isn't a typical phone, yes. A 2016 or newer macbook pro? sure.

[syman]

This is exactly what I did next, I bought this one https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B011T5IF06/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_U6HJBbRYGPTPH  but I did not get any speed increase. I believe that my current laptop/built in wi-fi link speed should be 450 Mbit/s. And problem is that with a new router I do not get even 120 Mbit/s. Since I got the new router, my speed is down and there is nothing what can be done?!? I have to get a new computer?!? Please ......

[#7]

Your screen shot is about the same speeds I'm getting on my speed tests. I'm Lucky to break 100 mbps on Shaw 300 while my Shaw 150 with the Hitron modem use to always give me 160 mbps.... and I have tried alot of different devices also with the same results.

[corbin]

450 Mbps PHY rate on your 3x3 MIMO 802.11n wifi adapter, not throughput rate, as I explained. Imagine you can only get 33-50% of PHY rate as throughput normally. (That's a rough estimate, but a good rule of thumb).

This adapter you bought is actually slower than the adapter in your computer already. It's a 1x1 MIMO 802.11AC running at 150Mbps PHY rate @ 2.4GHz (max PHY rate) or 433 Mbps PHY rate @ 5GHz.  On both counts its slower than the 802.11n built into your laptop.

From the product description:

2.4 GHz 150Mbps, 5GHz 433Mbps

You need something like this, which has 866 Mbps PHY rate @ 5 GHz, so even at 1/3 of PHY rate it should get around 289 Mbps throughput.

https://www.amazon.ca/USB-AC53-Nano-Dual-Band-Wireless-802-11AC/dp/B071KV2SMV/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=ele... 

Or this would definitely get the speed when you need it (but not the most all-day every-day friendly adapter, unless you mostly work at a desk and not your lap):

https://www.amazon.ca/USB-AC53-Nano-Dual-Band-Wireless-802-11AC/dp/B01I7QFR10/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=ele... 

Just examples. You need AC1200 or AC1900 adapters. 

Ruthless - you are having a different problem, probably a compatibility issue with the modem wifi chipset, it uses a very different one from the Hitron (8x8 MU-MIMO 802.11AC wave 2) shaw-colin‌, shaw-lance‌, shaw-matt‌ should be able to collect your info.

[syman]

Thank you for such a detailed explanation. I have ordered for a test (link removed)… and I will get back to you after the adapter arrives

[bogdancan]

Just received yesterday the XB6 modem/router. I am using my own router ASUG ROG AC 5300 and iMesh configured with another Asus RT-AC68U. With Shaw 150 had no issues at all and everything was "rock" solid...Since yesterday my internet is "C.R.A.P" and I have no words to describe the frustration....spent over 3 hours with support last night just to determine the XB6 is a massive piece of garbage. The modem is not working properly in "bridge" mode. When is in bridge, my laptop hard wired in the modem can  not identify any Ethernet connection. When I'm using wifi, I can not get over 175 Mbps on any of my wireless networks...on my Asus or Xb6. After 3 hours of troubleshooting and factory reboot for both XB6 and Asus....results were the same. Could not get the XB6 Ethernent port to work if the modem was  in "bridge". Second Ethernet port became active only when modem had the wifi activated. Could not get over the 175 Mbps, wired or wireless. This morning I did another complete factory reset for both Asus and XB6 and I got 354 Mbps wired and 296 Mbps wireless on  ALL wifi networks (off course 5GHz only). My happiness did not last to long...this evening the speed dropped again 54 - 150 Mbps (on 5 GHz with QoS set on Gaming on Asus). As you can see I did not mentioned Latency or Upload at all because those #s are there as advertised by Shaw. I'm getting better Latency than with my Shaw 150 ( 5 - 10 Ms to Shaw server in Calgary -ookla speedtest results) and  upload is 15 - 21 Mbps. I'm hearing more and more people complaining about this Internet 300 and I personally think that bandwidth sharing at peak hours 6:00 PM to 00:00 AM is a real issue. Shaw will send another tech next week to troubleshoot and eventually replace the modem...

Any feedback is appreciated!