If you're getting good performance out of the modem, in terms of ethernet data rates, going to Bell Fibe or any other ISP which uses an all-in-one modem isn't going to help as the wifi performance of those boxes are probably the same no matter who supplies them. Have a look at the following post which is similar to the problems you are experiencing. Hopefully it will answer some questions:
If you're having problems with the modem itself, log into the modem, navigate to the STATUS..... DOCSIS WAN page, copy the downstream and upstream tables and paste them into this thread. Those are the cable signal levels, which might be of interest. If there are cable issues, they can be a pain to sort out when it comes to apartments, condos, highrises etc. That is due to the Multiple Dwelling Unit (MDU) that is used in the building sometimes instead of a connection to an external neighborhood node. The signal levels will say a lot if there are any issues going on.
Edit: corrected to read: "are probably the same no matter....."
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RogersSannecia
A wifi extender might help, but, my advice is to buy a good router with external antenna and gigabit WAN and LAN ports. That would probably be a better solution than a wifi extender.
Here is some food for thought. Load inSSIDer on your laptop, which is a wifi monitoring application. When loaded on a dual band laptop, inSSIDer will monitor both 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks that can be detected by your laptop. Have a look to see what you're competing with in both bands. In a suburban area, the 2.4 Ghz band is usually pretty crowded and tough to work in, so, I'm not surprised that you're having problems. Usually the 5 Ghz band is less crowded and easier to find a clear channel. After you have a look at the display, you might be able to determine if there is any 2.4 Ghz channel that is clear enough that it might work with the present modem. Never know unless you have a look, using something such as inSSIDer. The program link below is for the last freebie version. A new version is out now that will handle 802.11ac networks in the 5 Ghz band, and which will work on a 802.11n laptop. The new version will read the broadcast management frames and display the 802.11ac networks that are running in the 5 Ghz band. Its worth the $20 U.S. to buy, so that you can see all of the networks that are nearby.
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html
What you want to see on the graphical display is that your network is the highest network shown, which indicates that it has the highest received power of all the received networks. Generally you want somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 45 dBmW separation between your network and any other network that is on the same or overlapping channel. So, while your network should be the tallest on the display, everything else should be well below yours. When that power level separation decreases, you end up with interference and possibly with problems maintaining a wifi network. Your only option is to change to a channel with less overlap from the competition. By looking at that display you might conclude that the 2.4 Ghz band is hopeless and that its time to move up to the 5 Ghz band, if you can. If you have devices already running in the 5 Ghz band, look at channels 149 and higher. If you can switch to any of those channels, do so, as the output power for those channels is higher, resulting in better signal levels, signal to noise ratios and data rates.
Fwiw, the Hitron modem does not support beamforming, which is part of the 802.11ac spec. That allows the modem/router to aim a focused signal towards the laptop/device, etc, etc. The result is better signal levels, signal to noise ratios and data rates at the device. The RT-AC68U as an example, now replaced by the RT-AC68P supports implicit and explicit beamforming, meaning that the router can determine on its own where the device is and focus a directed wavefront in the device's direction (implicit), or, in conjunction with the device, direct a focused wavefront toward the device (explicit). Here's a link that provides some explanation:
The other part of this is the actual device itself, or, more importantly, the wifi card. We've run into far too many examples of new, really nice laptops that are well thought out except for the cheap wifi card that was included. End result, much disappointment at the wifi performance. The way to determine that, for a laptop, is to drill down into the Device Manager, grab the wifi adapter model name and number from the Device Manager display and run a search for the manufacturers data. A 1x1, meaning a single antenna for transmit and receive will limit your data rates. A 2x2 meaning 2 antenna is normal but not guaranteed. This or better yet, 3x3 will provide better data rates. If you run a search you will also come across posts regarding difficulties that other users might be running into with that card, so it may give you a better idea of what you can do to improve the wifi performance.
Can you log into your modem, navigate to the STATUS.... DOCSIS WAN page, copy the downstream and upstream tables and paste them into the thread. Those are the RG-6 cable signal levels and signal to noise ratios which might be of interest. The copy and paste process will paste in the text components of the tables, so you don't have to grab a screen image and insert that.
On the wifi side, can you have a read thru my post #47 above and load inSSIDer onto your laptop or pc to have a look at the wifi environment. If you want to insert an image of that into the thread it would help to see whats on the wifi side of the modem. If you use Microsoft Paint to paste in the image so that you can save it and insert that into the thread, you can use MS Paint to paint over your MAC address prior to saving and posting.
With both of those on hand, cable and wifi data, we'll have a much better idea of what the problem might be.
| 1 | 597000000 | 256QAM | -1.300 | 2 | 40.366 |
| 2 | 591000000 | 256QAM | -1.300 | 1 | 40.366 |
| 3 | 603000000 | 256QAM | -1.400 | 3 | 40.366 |
| 4 | 609000000 | 256QAM | -1.500 | 4 | 40.366 |
| 5 | 615000000 | 256QAM | -1.900 | 5 | 40.366 |
| 6 | 621000000 | 256QAM | -1.900 | 6 | 40.366 |
| 7 | 633000000 | 256QAM | -2.000 | 7 | 40.366 |
| 8 | 639000000 | 256QAM | -2.100 | 8 | 38.983 |
| 9 | 645000000 | 256QAM | -2.000 | 9 | 40.946 |
| 10 | 651000000 | 256QAM | - 2.000 | 10 | 38.983 |
| 11 | 657000000 | 256QAM | - 2.100 | 11 | 40.366 |
| 12 | 663000000 | 256QAM | - 2.000 | 12 | 40.366 |
| 13 | 669000000 | 256QAM | - 2.100 | 13 | 38.983 |
| 14 | 675000000 | 256QAM | - 2.200 | 14 | 38.983 |
| 15 | 681000000 | 256QAM | -2.200 | 15 | 38.983 |
| 16 | 687000000 | 256QAM | -2.300 | 16 | 38.983 |
| 17 | 693000000 | 256QAM | -2.300 | 17 | 38.983 |
| 18 | 699000000 | 256QAM | -2.600 | 18 | 38.983 |
| 19 | 705000000 | 256QAM | -2.600 | 19 | 38.983 |
| 20 | 711000000 | 256QAM | -2.800 | 20 | 38.983 |
i had tried to make my wifi not interfere with my surronding networks
Ok, what is it that the doctor says? I have your good news and your bad news. Which would you prefer?
Your cable's downstream signal levels are good, as are the signal to noise ratios. Can you post the upstream table as well? You should have three upstream channels running.
Wifi is a problem. You're in a pretty tough spot with a lot of competition for 2.4 Ghz channels, and from looking at the signal levels of those other modems, I don't think that you're going to get the improvement that you need on the 2.4 Ghz side of the house. My immediate reaction would be to move up to the 5 Ghz band. Do you happen to have anything that is dual band capable that you can load inSSIDer on and see whats running in that band? The 5 Ghz space on the application is empty as that device, laptop or pc doesn't support 5 Ghz. It would be good to see what you would be competing with in that band if you decided to make that jump.
Your network signal level is at -49 dBmW. The nearest competition is at -67 dBmW. Thats only an 18 dBmW separation, where you really need in the neighborhood of 40 to 45 to run a wifi network without much difficulty at all. Looking at the competition, it won't get much better, no matter what channel you try.
Are you running a laptop or a wifi pc? If its a laptop, can you post the exact laptop model number and also drill down the following path: Start ..... Control Panel ..... Device Manager ..... Network Adapters. Copy the entire name field for the wifi adapter and post it as well. With that we can look up the specs and see what the wifi card can do. Its possible that the wifi card could be replace with a dual band card, allowing you to run on a 5 Ghz network. @VivienM is the expert on this who can tell you if the wifi card can be replaced. That depends on the manufacturer as some whitelist cards which can be used, or in other words, lock out other wifi cards from being used on the laptop. The other consideration is a USB wifi dongle such as the Asus USB-AC56. That dongle is 802.11ac capable which would really improve your data throughput compared to what you're probably seeing now.
You could also use a router that has Implicit Beamforming capability. Beamforming is part of the 5 Ghz 802.11ac specification, but, Asus routers have an implicit capability in the 2.4 Gh band which allows the router to determine the direction to the device and time the individual antenna transmissions to aim a coherent wavefront in the direction of the device. That results in an increased signal level at both ends and a higher data rate. Is it enough to overcome the competing routers and modems running nearby, good question. It would be an interesting test. If you were on a single floor condo or house, you could combine a router with higher gain antenna. The higher gain antenna flattens the vertical energy distribution of the router and extends in the horizontal direction, again, resulting in higher signal levels and data rates.
So, there are some options. Its really a question of what you happen to be running and what can be done to kick those devices up into the 5 Ghz band.
Your upstream signal levels are good. If you have an ethernet adapter, that absolutely should make a difference. I think anyone who has a choice in gaming via ethernet or wifi should run via ethernet just to get away from any potential wifi interference. For wifi, all it takes is for one of your close neighbors to bring home a new modem or router and you are potentially hooped when it comes to running anything via wifi.
Actually you want it to go higher. The scale starts at zero at the top and drops as you go down the chart. So, the only thing you really control is your network. And the only way to push the signal level up is to run a better router or move the modem. Even then, I wouldn't guarantee that will be enough to make a difference, that is, enough that the receive level for your network is high enough to run the network without any difficulties. Are you in an apartment, condo, house, etc, etc?
If you can relocate the modem to another place that is closer to the console you might be able to run the console without any problems, just depends on the distance.
There are a few things that come to mind, along with a few questions:
1. What level of service are you on? 5/1, 30/5, 60/10, 100/10, 250/20
2. What modem do you have as seen by the product sticker on the back of the modem?
CGN2, CGN3, CGN3ACR, CGN3ACSMR or other
3. Are you streaming in high def?
4. Is your ethernet connection via house ethernet or store bought Cat 5e or 6 cable?
5. Can you log into your modem, navigate to the STATUS .... DOCSIS WAN page, copy the downstream and upstream tables and paste them into the thread. Those are the RG-6 signal levels and signal to noise ratios which will be worth looking at. The copy and paste process will paste in the text components of the tables, so you don't have to insert a screen capture into your next post.
With that info we can start to figure out what the problem might be.
@Mike1255 if you're going to use a router, please ensure that the modem is running in Bridge mode instead of Gateway mode. In Bridge mode, the modem acts as a modem only, so you need a router behind it, running in full router mode. To change the modem's operating mode, log into the modem using 102.168.0.1 or 192.168.100.1 if the modem is still in gateway mode and you have a pc or laptop connected directly to the modem. Navigate to the BASIC .... GATEWAY FUNCTION tab, and disable the Residential Gateway Function. Save the change and the modem will reboot into Bridge mode. While the modem is rebooting, power cycle the router. From this point you will need to be connected to the router.
When you are connected to the router, you can log into the modem by using 192.168.100.1 which will reach the modem thru the router. You can log into the modem to check the DOCSIS power levels for example or change the operating mode of the modem back to Gateway mode by reenabling the Residential Gateway Function. The modem will reboot back into Gateway mode with the previous settings intact. If you were to run a Factory reset while the modem is in Bridge mode, it will reboot into Gateway modem with the settings back at their default values.
I'm going to send you a list for your Asus router that you can follow to set it up and with additional instructions to check your wifi environment for competing wifi modems and routers. If you're trying to use a 2.4 Ghz network, its very possible that you live in a very crowded neighborhood, in terms of 2.4 Ghz channel usage. If thats the case, even a very good wifi router will have a hard time in an environment like that. It also depends to a degree on the wifi encryption settings which are part of the list headed your way. 5Ghz usually isn't terrible to operate in, however, its possible, in some neighborhoods to expect those channels to be occupied as well. You will only know when you've had a chance to check out the channels that are in use.
You will see a number overlaid on your avatar at the upper right hand side of the page when you are logged into the forum. Follow that avatar link down to your profile and drill down into the message page for the incoming message. You can simply hit the respond button to forward any questions to me, or you can post further questions in the forum.
1. First step is to review the various settings in the Asus router. Set/change those as required and reboot the router when all is said and done.
2. Then check out the wifi environment and determine what the best operating channels might be, if there are any at all. You might find that the 2.4 Ghz band is a write-off if its too crowded. If so, then it will be time to kick as much as possible up into the 5 Ghz band.
Edit: message sent, check the message inbox.
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