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bliggs

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
287
267
Broken Arrow
Cox (or any cable Co. for that matter) will ALWAYS blame your equipment as the problem until you upgrade and show them that you have the latest recommended hardware. I Have the same plan with Cox, 150Mbps. I can promise you that you will never ever hit that mark, regardless of what modem/router you upgrade to. Not unless you can get all of your neighbors to not use their internet at the same time as you ;).
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
Cox (or any cable Co. for that matter) will ALWAYS blame your equipment as the problem until you upgrade and show them that you have the latest recommended hardware. I Have the same plan with Cox, 150Mbps. I can promise you that you will never ever hit that mark, regardless of what modem/router you upgrade to. Not unless you can get all of your neighbors to not use their internet at the same time as you ;).

I routinely get 15% above what's advertised here. I may be an outlier, but YMMV.
 

bliggs

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
287
267
Broken Arrow
I routinely get 15% above what's advertised here. I may be an outlier, but YMMV.

Very true and service provider speeds are always unpredictable and they even say in the fine print that your internet speeds may vary, which effectively gets them off the hook. Good that you are at least getting what you are paying for, and a little more...
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,482
16,197
California
Cox (or any cable Co. for that matter) will ALWAYS blame your equipment as the problem until you upgrade and show them that you have the latest recommended hardware. I Have the same plan with Cox, 150Mbps. I can promise you that you will never ever hit that mark, regardless of what modem/router you upgrade to. Not unless you can get all of your neighbors to not use their internet at the same time as you ;).
Eh... I think it varies by provider. I have Spectrum (ex-TWC) and I get about ten percent above the advertised speed no matter the time of day. No complaints here.

8866990.png
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
Eh... I think it varies by provider. I have Spectrum (ex-TWC) and I get about ten percent above the advertised speed no matter the time of day. No complaints here.

Same here, although they say they're Spectrum, everything still says TWC on it. My speeds are consistent as well with them.
 
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bliggs

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
287
267
Broken Arrow
Eh... I think it varies by provider. I have Spectrum (ex-TWC) and I get about ten percent above the advertised speed no matter the time of day. No complaints here.

View attachment 685147
That's great! I wish there were other providers here that I could choose from but unfortunately, Cox is about it. We do have Windstream but their idea of high speed internet is 3Mbps :rolleyes:
 
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jeremysteele

Cancelled
Jul 13, 2011
485
396
Eh... I think it varies by provider. I have Spectrum (ex-TWC) and I get about ten percent above the advertised speed no matter the time of day. No complaints here.

View attachment 685147

Same here. Had a funny issue with twc when they upgraded to TWC-Maxx in my area (before spectrum rebranding) and I got the 300 mbit/20mbit service. Basically the modem I got was compatible, but my router was too old (first gen n device, with only 100 mbit ethernet ports).

So yeah, I was running around like a headless chicken for a day trying to figure out why I only got a max of 100 mbit, but my upload was a-ok. Thought for sure the router was newer. But nope, I gave my new awesome router to my parents, and I was using an older one apparently. Oops.

Ended up buying a top of the line netgear ac router with some insanely powerful antennas. No more issue ;)

Regularly get around 320 mbit/25 mbit, which is fine by me. I do miss VZ FiOS though, but they dont have it out this far :(
 
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kiwipeso1

Suspended
Sep 17, 2001
646
168
Wellington, New Zealand
Speaking as the token member of the decent internet speed community (New Zealand), I typically get 98~99 % of advertised speeds while the outside equipment is in good condition, if there is something rusted or otherwise impacting on the condition of the co-ax cable from the fibre street connection, then I could get around 75~80 % of advertised speeds.

It'll be weather affected if there is cable or copper and the line isn't well maintained, but that is typically a thing to check every 4 or 5 years. For the next few months, I'm getting 130/10 until the 1000/100 is more reliable in my suburb and we will upgrade then.
 
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Longer Lane

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2015
44
10
Looks like I can add a new twist. Just to check all the eventualities: degradation of the signal can occur if the modem is down the line behind many splitters. So just to be on the safe side: connect it as close as possible where the cable comes in.
Yet, a degradation to 75mbs is too much.

LL
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
Looks like I can add a new twist. Just to check all the eventualities: degradation of the signal can occur if the modem is down the line behind many splitters. So just to be on the safe side: connect it as close as possible where the cable comes in.
Yet, a degradation to 75mbs is too much.

LL

75mbs? What is that? Usually signal is measured in dbmV. Also a signal that's too strong can overwhelm the front end of the modem.

SNR also matters too, so don't focus too much on one metric.
 
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McGiord

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2003
4,558
290
Dark Castle
For cable modems, check with your ISP for compatibility, but I highly recommend the Arris SurfBoard 6190. The reason you need to check with your ISP is to ensure they can keep the firmware up to date.

http://surfboard.com/products/sb6190/
Thanks! That is the one I bought.
[doublepost=1489619076][/doublepost]
He asked for a modem, but maybe he meant router. I skipped that particular model due to its price. I opted for the Linksys EA8500 and have been more than satisfied.
I was looking for a modem only.
[doublepost=1489619415][/doublepost]
Looks like I can add a new twist. Just to check all the eventualities: degradation of the signal can occur if the modem is down the line behind many splitters. So just to be on the safe side: connect it as close as possible where the cable comes in.
Yet, a degradation to 75mbs is too much.

LL
Actually the ISP installation tech removed a couple or cable splitters and the signal improved, he said "there were about 12dB loss and reduced it to about 4dB."
I may do a test moving the modem to the main cable drop without the splitters and check it out...

My service is supposed to be 500Mbps down and 50 up. Currently getting the down well but the up speed is around 40.
With the 802.11ac wireless network I can get sustainable 400 Mbps, I will continue testing.

What kind of speeds you get?
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
My service is supposed to be 500Mbps down and 50 up. Currently getting the down well but the up speed is around 40.
With the 802.11ac wireless network I can get sustainable 400 Mbps, I will continue testing.

What kind of speeds you get?

You can see the status report of your Arris at http://192.168.100.1. It lists signals and errors and such. If you desire, I can report back my details.

I only have a max of 50Mb/5Mb available, and I have been getting 70Mb/6Mb consistently with my gear.

EDIT: I am attaching a screenshot of my status page. I also forgot to mention my old cable modem would only support 16QAM, whereas the SB6190 supported 256QAM.

status.png
 
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