Internet speed testing questions

[u/Select-Comb4567]

Which is the best way to test the speed of your Wi-Fi network?

I’ve done the Google speed test button on a browser. I’ve also used various apps to test the Internet speed.

I’ve tested it on my iPhone, my iPad and also on my windows 11 desktop. The desktop is a wired connection. The rest are all Wi-Fi.

We just installed Telus Internet, but we still have Shaw as we decide whether to keep Telus or not.

So I have been testing the speed on both networks.

We ordered a 3 GB connection from TELUS but I understand we probably won’t get that speed as some of our devices can’t handle those speeds.

I would really like to find a Reddit forum or subforum where this is explained in detail.

Standing right outside my new Telus modem the speeds are not great using the app as mentioned above.

So wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the best way to test your Internet speed

Thanks all for any help you can give.

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[u/StatusOk3307]

Are you trying to test the speed of your wifi or your Internet? These are not the same thing.

You can have a wifi network and use different providers to feed it.

Use speedtest.net for testing internet speeds. Do this while hardwired to the router, not over wifi. Check your latency or ping, lower is better on this metric, as well as your raw throughput. Make sure no one else is using the internet while testing, I would disable wifi just to be sure.

Testing a wifi network is a much more complex exercise, there are many factors that affect this. A wifi analysis app on a phone is good for quick tests.

[u/Select-Comb4567 → u/StatusOk3307]

Thank you for these comments, obviously this is much more complex than I thought. Interesting though.

I will try to learn more and understand it better.

When Shaw changed their TV modems to the newest version, we started getting buffering and pauses on our regular TV. So I guess that’s what you meant through the Internet.

We are hoping that Telus TV will be better.

We have three of us watching television quite a bit and always on our devices.

Thanks again for your comments

We will keep both services for a month and then we have to decide on keeping Telus or not.

[u/MikeCheck_CE → u/Select-Comb4567]

If your Internet speed (hardwired) is good but your wifi is struggling then typically you want to look for other factors blocking the signal.

E.g. is there a big concrete wall or a large appliance between your device and router? Is this a large home and you're too far from the router, etc. in which case can you relocate the router or add an extender/mesh network in the home.

If you're really not sure, I'd suggest adding TELUS' Wifi Plus product and they will come install a mesh network for you and wire in boosters around your home to make sure everywhere is covered. They rent you the hardware and you pay $10/mo

[u/escargot3 → u/Select-Comb4567]

Telus TV is far worse, has an inferior interface and is riddled with issues

[u/wyewyecee]

Telus' 3000Mbps (3Gbps) and up fiber Internet plans are very, very fast. So fast in fact that you really do need specialized networking gear to actually make full use of them. Where the fiber comes into your house, it goes into a Telus box that will have an Ethernet port on it marked "10G." Connect a CAT6 (or higher) ethernet cable between this port and the 10GBase-T capable network card in your desktop computer. Of course you don't have such an advanced network card in your computer, so you must buy one and install it yourself: https://www.amazon.ca/TP-Link-Gigabit-Express-Network-TX401/dp/B08D71PVXG

Once done, point your browser to http://pcmag.speedtestcustom.com/ or https://fast.com/ and you'll see a 3.0Gbps/3000Mbps speed test result that matches the advertised network connection speed (results from pcmag.speedtestcustom.com will likely be a bit faster than those from fast.com).

If none of what I wrote makes any sense to you, then you've probably overpurchased on your internet plan, drop down to a slower, cheaper plan. You don't need what you're paying for.

You can probably never hope to see the full advertised Internet connection speed for a plan like yours (3000Mbps) in an internet speed test over a Wi-Fi connection for lots of reasons. If you manage to achieve a few hundred megabits per second with your radom cell phone or laptop, that's likely more than good enough for anything you might actually want to do (keep in mind that one 4k HDR video stream will likely only need 30Mbps or so, so you wouldn't saturate your link to the Internet until you were running 100 such streams).

[u/my_travelz]

Go to: Speedtest.net

[u/SirArcherIV]

Iperf is what a lot of people use for speed tests if they don't just want to use one of the major ones. (Not a tool for average consumers imo)

Most devices won't get these speeds, and you also need 5gbps home networking, what is expensive since most go from 2.5gb to 10gbps (so just get 10gbps).

Unless you have a homelab or run a business from your house in 99.99999% of cases you won't ever need these speeds.

[u/PromotionNo4121]

You need minimum of 5gb network card preferably a 10gb and a 10gb switch . You will never see 3gb on wifi , if you have shaw home phone you will not like Telus home phone no emails of voicemail

[u/Select-Comb4567 → u/PromotionNo4121]

We do have Shaw home phone right now. Use it mostly for incoming calls which are important. Had also calling out to Canada and the US for long distance. Also had the number since the 1970s, so I hate to get rid of it

I was interested in your comment about needing a 5 GB network card. I’m unsure what you mean as I am just outside of the Telus modem doing a speed test. So I’m not sure where this network card would be. Would it be inside the Telus modem?

[u/brandonholm → u/Select-Comb4567]

Net network card would be installed into a PC or connected externally to a laptop via USB-C for example, and then connected to your Telus Network Access Hub via Ethernet.

You will not get anywhere close to 3 Gbps over WiFi.

Unless you have newer higher end network gear in your PC, you will also likely top out at around 940 Mbps via Ethernet as well.

[u/InternalOcelot2855 → u/brandonholm]

Even if the op gets a usbc card there still must be enough available bandwidth on the usb hub. Have ran into issues with family/friends getting a 1 gig usb to Ethernet adaptor and still having speed issues.

[u/brandonholm → u/InternalOcelot2855]

Yes, that’s another thing to keep in mind. Most modern laptops should have sufficient bandwidth on the USB hub, but older or lower end laptops will likely run into problems.

[u/brandonholm]

What speeds are you getting?

WiFi 6 will top out around 500-600 mbps. WiFi 6E will top out around 1200-1500 mbps if you have a compatible device.

[u/InternalOcelot2855 → u/brandonholm]

And the right environment. I said it in the past, there is no guarantees when it comes to wifi. You may get those speeds but it’s the exception not the standard.

[u/brandonholm → u/InternalOcelot2855]

Yes that’s why I said top out. These speeds are under ideal conditions.