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@Leo123321 If Wi-Fi is performing poorly on one device but working fine on others, I would start by checking to see whether your Wi-Fi drivers are fully up to date. (For my Windows PC, I had to download the latest drivers directly from Intel.)
@Leo123321 it doesn't make sense that your ethernet is that slow, unless of course you find that both ethernet and wifi were running slow. If you're using the modem without a router, and your ethernet and wifi data rates are slow, then I'd be looking at the signal levels inbound to the modem, and I'm assuming that you have coax cable service to the modem.
1. Can you let us know what internet plan you're on, in terms of download and upload speeds;
2. Layout or describe your network, in terms of how your ethernet network is set up, from modem to device
including any switches and house ethernet wiring that might be in use. And ... the number of devices that
are connected via wifi.
3. on your ethernet connected pc, right click on the internet symbol on the lower right hand corner of the
taskbar. Select "Open Network and Internet Settings", which brings up the Network Status page.
a. Is the network set to Public Network or Private Network?
b. Select "Properties" to bring up the Network Profile. Check the "Link Speed (Receive/Transmit)". With a
modern ethernet controller, you should see 1000/1000 Mb/s. If it only reads 100/100 Mb/s or
10/100 / 10 /100 Mb/s, then there's an issue, either with the ethernet connectors, the cable or the port
controllers in the modem or pc.
4. Are you running Windows 10 or 11 on your pc?
5. Just to check, do you have coax service to your home, or are you on Fibre to the Home (FTTH) which requires
an Optical Network Terminal connected to the modem via ethernet, where that ethernet cable connects to the
XB8 modem's port 4 (lower right hand port)
Ok, with a little more information, we should be able to figure this out. I might ask for more info, depending on your responses.
@Leo123321 if you look at your monitor, you should see a computer screen icon in the lower right hand corner of the monitor (running on ethernet), or possibly a wifi symbol if the pc is connected via wifi. If you right click on those symbols you should be able to select
"Open Network and Internet Settings", which brings up the Network Status page.
a. Is the network set to Public Network or Private Network on that page?
b. Further down, Select "Properties" to bring up the Network Profile. Check the "Link Speed Receive /
Transmit)".
Connected via the powerline adapter, you should see 1000/1000 Mb/s. Connected via wifi, you should see
the transmit / receive data rates.
If you look at the back of the modem, is there a coax cable connected to the modem, or, an ethernet cable connected to port 4 (lower right hand port) that connects to a fibre optic terminal. You should be able to recognize the fibre cable, if its there and the fibre optic terminal. The terminal would be a Nokia model, which you should be able to see on the bottom of the terminal, assuming that you have one in your apartment.
Ok, as a general overall comment, you're between a rock and a hardplace.
Using wifi in an apartment environment is most likely a very tough environment to operate in. You're in close quarters, relatively, with numerous wifi modems and routers operating nearby. End story, you probably have a lot of competition for transmit time. You and your neighbours, up and down, and near the apartment are all competing for transmit time slots. And, depending on what floor you live on, your RF horizon might be increasing the problem. As you go higher, your distance to the RF horizon increases, and your modem and pc can see, and end up competing with a higher number of external users. So, you end up suffering a higher delay time before your pc can transmsit ... end result higher ping times.
Using wifi for gaming, even in a normal neighbourhood is a poor second choice to gaming via ethernet.
Using powerline adapters should be considered as a last choice / very poor choice in terms of the data rates that it can supply. They can be very hit and miss depending on whether or not both adapters are connected to the same backplane of a circuit breaker panel, and whether or not there is enough circuit cable length to allow for cross-talk between the two circuits that the adapters might be running on. The additional factor is electrical noise .... and in an apartment I would guess that there is a significant amount of electrical noise in the building electrical system. End result, very slow data transfer rates between the two adapters. The adapters might run very well in a different environment, but, in an apartment, they might run very poorly, which you seem to be experiencing.
So, in both cases, you have some difficult challenges to contend with.
Here's a couple of questions for you;
1. Are you in a new apartment which might have ethernet cabling that isn't finished with the appropriate
connectors? Or are you in an older apartment which might only have coax and telephone ports on the
wallplates.
2. If you look at a wallplate with coax and/or telephone ports, what do you see, a coax port, a telephone port?
3. If you're really curious, pull off a wallplate from the wall and have a look behind it to see if there are any other
cables behind the wallplate that aren't in use. Please indicate what colour the cables are, if there are any
behind the wallplate.
4. What model of modem do you have. Here's a reference page to the Rogers modems currently in use:
https://www.rogers.com/support/internet/setup-install
You can see the three Ignite model modems in the upper left hand row. Which model do you have?
5. Where is the modem located. Is it in an open area such as the living room / dining room, or is it located in a
comms closet?
6. Are the apartment walls wood, or concrete. Concrete walls would cause a bigger loss in terms of signal levels
and data rates
7. What floor are you on?
Food for thought, most apartments have more than one coax cable outlet, usually one per room if in fact. If you happen to have a coax cable connected modem, it might be possible to move the modem to a room that is more central to the apartment, and therefore closer to your room. That would result in higher received signal levels at both ends of the wifi network and an increase in the data rates. I don't think it would reduce the latency that you're experiencing. Moving the modem would depend on finding a better central location for the modem.
Looking at your wifi adapters, my personal opinion is that placing the wifi antenna behind a pc is probably the worst location that you can think of, as the pc's steel case would shield the antenna for receive and transmit purposes. The only exception I can think of is if the antenna are pointed in the direction of the modem. That would depend on how your room is laid out. Other than that direct path possibility, the pc case would shield the antenna.
So, thinking aloud here, you're better off with an antenna system that sits apart from the pc. Something like this:
That's the same idea as your current wifi but its an advanced version with a higher data rate and 802.11ax capability. Your current adapter is only an 802.11ac version.
Here's a Shaw modem wifi comparison, which also applies to Rogers modems:
https://support.shaw.ca/t5/internet-articles/guide-fibre-gateway-xb6-xb7-xb8/ta-p/5114
If you look at the XB7 and XB8, you can see that they're 802.11ax capable, so, it might be an idea to switch your adapter to one that supports 802.11ax as well. How much will it improve your wifi data rates? Don't know as its impossible to predict with the information on hand. This is a try and see exercise.
If you happen to have an XB8 modem, that modem is 6 Ghz capable, which is just starting to see wider use. So, anyone who is currently using a 6 Ghz network, instead of a 2.4 or 5 Ghz network, should be seeing much faster data rates, range from the modem or router considering. The 6 Ghz networks have a much higher bandwidth, but, 6 Ghz suffers from reduced ranges compared to the 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks. Depending on your range to the modem and what's in between the modem and your pc, that might work or it might not work if you switched your wifi adapter.
As of yet, I haven't looked around to see what other adapters are out there, that are of a similar nature. Asus does make similar adapters, but, once again I haven't looked around. At the extreme end, you can buy a router and run it in a media bridge mode, where the router communicates with the modem, over wifi, using 4 or more antenna, versus the two that you currently have. The higher the antenna count, the higher the number of data streams that are supported back and forth, and the higher the data rates back and forth. Your pc would be connected via ethernet to the router. Once again a better adapter or router would improve the data rates, but, I don't believe it would improve the latency. That's a product of the RF environment that you're in.
Ok, that's enough for now. I'm still thinking about this. Even with the best of circumstances, using ethernet, you're still dealing with traffic loads in the whole apartment as well as the traffic loads from the neighbourhood. That runs over coax cable and fibre optic. That traffic affects everyone in the neighbourhood, and ..... there's no way around that traffic unless you switched to a fibre optic system.
@Leo123321 I've seen a recent post in the DSLReports forum regarding slower performance when the network type is selected to Public instead of Private. I'll have to find it once again to see what is said.
Do you have a fast laptop with an ethernet port or another pc that is closer to the modem that you can use for ethernet test purposes? Along that same thought, for experimental purposes, consider buying a Cat-6 cable of sufficient length, 50ft?? Whatever works. Its worth an experiment to run ethernet speedtests to see what the modem can really deliver over ethernet to your pc. Either buy a long Cat-6 cable, or move the pc to the modem temporarily to run speedtests via ethernet. It would be knowing that the modem can actually deliver over 1 Gb/s.
To test the modems data rate, considering that you're on a 1.5 Gb/s plan, you need a 2.5 Gb/s port on a pc, or, with a pc that only has a gigabit ethernet port you would also need a second device, wifi or ethernet that would allow you to run simultaneous speedtests on both devices. The question of the day is, is the modem really delivering 1.5 Gb/s??
@Datalink wrote: The question of the day is, is the modem really delivering 1.5 Gb/s??
This is very easy to confirm using the Home Connect App. See the following link:
I get 1.9 Gbps download using the Home Connect app and get exactly the same thing on https://www.speedtest.net/ on my Mac Mini M2 E10. I used to get 55 Mbps up, however, my area must have been recently updated and I now get 175 Mbps or more up.
https://www.speedtest.net/result/16318194567
Almost every time there is slow speed, the issue is with the equipment or connection inside the customer home. Numerous previous threads on the topic - sample link below.
No doubt there are issues afoot in this case. But, there are also numerous posts in the forum where apartment MDU's and cabling are in terrible shape and can't support the data rates that customers are paying for. That is well beyond the customer.
If @Leo123321 can run a test using the Home Connect App, ok, let see what the results are.
@Leo123321 : You will need to contact Rogers since your speed appears to be very slow to the Gateway using Home Connect. Did you run the test a second time?
You may wish to PM the mods on this forum - I've usually found them quite helpful:
When logged into the forum, click on @CommunityHelps . On the page that comes up, you'll see a link on the top right of the screen to "send a message". If you're using a tablet or phone, you may need to switch your browser to the desktop version. How to do that will depend on the device but a web search should find it. There may be some back and forth required while Rogers get your personal information to look into your account. Personal information is not allowed in this forum.
When logged into the forum, check the envelope icon at the top right of the screen for messages. You would usually also receive an e-mail that you have a PM, but it may have ended up in your spam folder...
@Leo123321 wrote:
I did the speed test again and apparently i get "120% more than my plan" but this is when no one is using a device in the morning.
Speed tests are meant to be performed when your network is idle.
@Leo123321 can you load Wifiinfoview onto your pc and run that program when you pc is connected via wifi? That is available from https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html
Run that in a full screen mode and do a screen capture using Ctrl prt Scr (Control key and simultaneous Print Screen button). After that, start Windows paint and paste into the program. That will dump the screen capture into Windows Paint. Save that as a jpeg and in a post, attach that jpeg to the post.
When you have the program running, you can sort the data up and down by pressing the column headers at the very top. That will sort the column up or down, depending on the starting point. Please sort the data by using the Frequency column, or possibly the Channel Range.
It would be worth looking at the received signal level at the pc, although the modems Band Steering might not do us any favours in sorting out the issue.
@Leo123321 ok, thanks for the screen shot. Are there any wifi pods connected to the modem? And .... if you log into the modem drill down to the Gateway > Connection > Wi-Fi > Edit 5 Ghz, is the Channel selection greyed out, indicating that you have no control over it, or is it selectable? If you can select it, change it to Channel 161 and Select 20/40/80 as the Channel Bandwidth.
Let me know if those selections are available. If you have pods connected to the modem, then those selections will not be available as Rogers will lock down the modem to channels 36 to 48, and most likely 20/40/80 for the Channel Bandwidth
There are only 2 other users on your channel (44) which isn't bad. I was assuming that there would be a lot more. That said, if you can change the channel to a high 5 Ghz channel that will allow the modem to run up to 5x the current output power, power density considered. So, that higher power level can make a huge difference in network performance.
Ok, thats bad news. Rogers is controlling your wifi and has locked your modem down to the low power channels which run a maximum of 200 milli-watts conducted power. The high channels are allowed to run a maximum of 1 watt conducted power, taking into consideration the power density.
Are you running wifi pods which are connected to the modem, or do you have just the modem?
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