Advertised vs. Actual Fiber Speed

[wfallen]

An Amplifi 'Instant Router' arrived yesterday. Cost: $108.16 ($99 plus CA taxes)

Approximate wifi speeds on a 2016 Macbook Pro:

My Apple Airport Extreme router speeds were around 100Mbps downloads, 70Mbps uploads.

Amplifi 'Instant Router' speeds are now around 475Mbps downloads, 427Mbps uploads.

While there was a glitch in the set-up (fixed, I think, by a firmware update to the router), my interactions with Sonic and Ubiquiti tech support were excellent.

[quote="wfallen"]I now see a $99 Amplifi router, which would fit my needs. All I need is the single, built-in mesh point.

https://store.amplifi.com/products/ampl ... ant-router

[alxyang24]

An Amplifi 'Instant Router' arrived yesterday. Cost: $108.16 ($99 plus CA taxes)

Approximate wifi speeds on a 2016 Macbook Pro:

My Apple Airport Extreme router speeds were around 100Mbps downloads, 70Mbps uploads.

Amplifi 'Instant Router' speeds are now around 475Mbps downloads, 427Mbps uploads.

While there was a glitch in the set-up (fixed, I think, by a firmware update to the router), my interactions with Sonic and Ubiquiti tech support were excellent.

I now see a $99 Amplifi router, which would fit my needs. All I need is the single, built-in mesh point.

https://store.amplifi.com/products/ampl ... ant-router

Great to hear, just curious, does the screen on the front tell you the wired speed test results? I presume those are faster than your wireless results posted above!

[wfallen]

The readout on the router touchscreen is a bit confusing, with 375Mbps reading there as 37.5Mbps.

Just since this morning the Sonic speed test seems also to have shifted its decimal point to the left, such that 375Mbps now reads as 37.5Mbps. (Bits, bytes?)

The max speeds on the router screen read out around 40.0 Mbps, i.e. about the same as on wifi. So apparently no faster on Ethernet.

Confusing. Though there may be something I'm missing. In any case, the speeds are good for my purposes.

[/quote] Great to hear, just curious, does the screen on the front tell you the wired speed test results? I presume those are faster than your wireless results posted above!

[wfallen]

Using the Oookla 'Speedtest' app (v.1.5) from the App Store on a 2016 Macbook Pro. Speeds do vary with each trial, but the ranges are consistent enough, and plenty good enough for me.

Wifi:
Download > 400Mbps
Upload > 400Mbps

Ethernet (with an Ethernet-to-USB-C adapter connecting the Amplifi 'Instant Router' to the Mac ):
Download > 800
Upload > 800

Ethernet (with adapter connecting the Sonic modem directly to a USB-C port on the Mac):
Download 1,000Mbps
Upload 1,000Mbps

I don't know if these speeds will vary according to neighborhood traffic, broader network traffic, time of day, etc.

[dane]

Sounds like the Amplifi is a bottleneck. Another customer with an Ethernet-connected computer behind an Ethernet-connected Google WiFi device reported similar speeds.

Connecting Ethernet capable devices directly to the Sonic residential gateway (or to an Ethernet switch that’s directly connected) is recommended for best performance. Putting a consumer WiFi router in the middle can reduce throughput substantially - generally by half.

Some folks do this chaining of devices because they’ve only got a single Ethernet jack where the devices are located. In this scenario, either move the Sonic residential gateway (Pace or SmartRG box) to that location to get four ports, or place a Gigabit Ethernet switch at that location to serve the multiple devices.

-Dane

[gah2154]

I had Sonic fiber installed about a week ago in south Berkeley. First day was 800+/900+ down/up with the tech here and a new TP-Link gigabit router. After that it has been very erratic. Typically in the 250+/ 500+ down/up range. Does Sonic do speed limiting for fiber the same way it did for ADSL? I always found that very annoying that speed would be knocked down, but never back up again after a minor event like noise or data overload on the line.

[cdrayson]

Sonic doesn't ever throttle their customers speed. Lots of things can slow down performance - a surprising number of apps access the internet in the background, and other devices on the network may use some of it. Browsers are also notoriously flakey about testing speeds, if that's how you're checking it. There is a speedtest app which gives better results than their website. For best results, reboot your computer, quit every app except the speedtest one, and make sure no other devices are running on your network.

[gah2154]

OK, tested again today and got 452/542. Then switched to a Netgear router and got 993/764. Then switched back to my original TP-Link router and got 957/790. So, very unpredictable even for a small home office with one wired computer and 2 Wi-Fi cell phone.

[Larns576]

Internet traffic and server speeds can vary from test to test. There's no way to get consistent speed test results every single time unless you can control all traffic from your PC to the Speedtest servers.

Using the desktop app (versus using IE or Chrome or Firefox) can greatly improve speed tests.

[racker]

Also, Speedtest servers are often not reliable at high speeds (500+ Mbps) simply because hardly anyone has speeds that fast, so why should they build out + reserve server resources for those few lucky people?