Shaw speed problems October 17, 2020?

[ziggurcat]

Been having some speed problems this evening - have the Fibre+ 750, ran a speed test, hardwired, and am only getting 150MBps download, and less than 20MBps upload (which should be up to 100MBps upload, now).

It starts at a normal rate based on the device it's plugged into, but drops significantly as the test goes on.

Any known issues tonight?

[mdk]

@ziggurcat -- Any known issues tonight?

It depends. In what region are you? Northern Vancouver Island? Calgary?

Check Shaw's "outages" page: https://support.shaw.ca/t5/service-updates-outages/tkb-p/service-updates

for your region.

[cjjohnst738]

My wifi speed was excellent for 6 months . It has been slow and intermittent for over a year now . I pay for 600 Mbps . It NEVER goes over 350 and to make matters worse it drops FREQUENTLY to less than 30.I cannot hardly wait to go back to tTelus . SHAW DOES NOT CARE. 

[mdk]

@cjjohnst738 -- for over a year

That is unfortunate.

What did Shaw Support do, when you contacted them (currently, online chat has priority over telephone) to get free trouble-shooting? They can remotely logon to your cable-modem, to view the incoming signal-strength, and other values. They could also schedule a technician to open the Shaw "demarcation" box on the outside of your house, to measure via that access.

[mdk]

@cjjohnst738 -- My wifi speed was excellent for 6 months . I pay for 600 Mbps . It NEVER goes over 350 .

Run the Shaw Speed Test, with a CAT-5e Ethernet cable between your computer and your cable-modem. What speeds do you get?

Note that this Speed Test requires a CPU running at least 2.5 Ghz to run the test at its full speed (on an 300 Mbps account).

Is your WiFi adapter using "Wireless N" or the newer (and much faster!) "Wireless AC" protocol to communicate?

Try to minimize the distance between your WiFi-using computer and your cable-modem, and then run the Speed Test.

With the above results, I recommend that you contact Shaw Support (currently, online chat has priority over telephone) and get them to trouble-shoot.

[mdk]

@ziggurcat --  20MBps upload (which should be up to 100 MBps upload, now)

To get that faster speed:

1. Shaw needs to have rolled-out that service in your area,
2. you need to have the BlueCurve cable-modem, not any other model,
3. you may need to power-off the BlueCurve, and then power-on, to get it provisioned with the new settings,

Check with Shaw, to see about #1 and whether they have done #3.

[ziggurcat]

It could easily be my device, so I haven't ruled that out.  

I ran speed tests shortly after I was made aware of that increase and at that time, the speed test did, in fact, show an upload speed that surpassed even 100MBps even testing it out wirelessly on my laptop. 

My modem is the BlueCurve Gateway modem (model TG3482G). 

[mdk]

@ziggurcat -- an upload speed that surpassed even 100MBps even testing it out wirelessly on my laptop

If your laptop has a "Wireless N" network adapter, its theoretical maximum is 150 Mbps. So, "over 100" is reasonable.

If your laptop has a "Wireless AC" network adapter, its theoretical maximum is over 1000 Mbps -- probably faster than what your cable-modem is currently provisioned.

[ziggurcat]

It's a 2012 laptop, so it's wireless N.  

Getting around 150Mbps DL wirelessly on this thing is expected - I think it really only hits around the 300-ish Mbps DL when testing wired (though now it's peaking at around 350 then dropping down to around 125 once the test has completed).  Those number don't concern me because that's normal/expected results, but it becomes a bit of a problem when those tests yield as low as 4Mbps to 70 or 80Mbps LD speeds.  And it becomes a bit of a concern when the upload speed has reached 100Mbps, but is now only doing around 60Mbps.  

Zoom should not be telling me that my internet is unstable if my internet package is max 750Mbps download/100Mbps upload, even on my 8-year old HW, but I am also aware that my laptop is getting a little long in the tooth, which is why I wasn't ruling out my device.  I also ask if there's any known signal issues so that I may rule that out as a possibility, and turn my attention to the actual HW.  

[mdk]

@ziggurcat -- Zoom should not be telling me that my internet is unstable if my internet package is max 750Mbps download/100Mbps upload

Compare to driving on a highway, posted as "maximum 100 Km/Hr; trucks 90 Km/Hr". It's not always possible (rush-hour, wet roads, MVA blocking one lane) to travel at the maximum speed.  Similarly, even though you know the maximum speed for your Internet connection, it may be a "transient" condition that your instantaneous speed is much slower. That is when ZOOM complains.

Note that there are many "hops" on the Internet between a computer and a server, such as "zoom.us" ---

$ tracert zoom.us

  10 ms  rc1bb-be20.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.75.245]  -- Vancouver
  12 ms  rc1st-be25.vc.shawcable.net  [66.163.69.198]  -- Vancouver
  25 ms  rc3no-be11-1.cg.shawcable.net   [66.163.72.69]  -- Calgary
  44 ms  rc2nr-be110-1.wp.shawcable.net [66.163.76.58]  -- Winnipeg
  67 ms  rc3fs-be25.mt.shawcable.net       [66.163.76.22]  -- Montreal
  66 ms  66.163.66.70 -- router configured to NOT respond to "traceroute" traffic

If any one of those routers gets "busy", your end-to-end speed will be diminished.