Asus router suggestion for >1200Mbps via WAN port (Comcast)

[drinkingbird]

To be clear almost every single time I do speedtest I can do over 1Gbps.

OTHER than speed tests, what are you doing that pulls that kind of bandwidth?

 

[Tech9]

People invest heavily in speedtest. Time to purchase some Ookla stock, I guess.

 

[Wisiwyg]

This... what will you need >1gb for on a consumer line? I've found IRL that anything over 600mb for a home service ~6-10 clients, PS5, etc, and it doesn't skip. But - that said, I have 1gb down and 20 mb up service from Comcast, regularly can speedtest at >1.1gb. Modem/Router setup below.

 

[Bodin Praphanthongchai]

OTHER than speed tests, what are you doing that pulls that kind of bandwidth?

For a single device I have to say NONE. But I have almost 100 devices on the network. Those smart devices maybe 40-50 devices already. We do streaming and gaming mainly. I have to say our traffic pretty congestion especially in the evening and weekend. We have like 8-12 people in the house everyday. The problem is we needed more upload and we hope that we can get Mid-Split upgrade from Xfinity very very soon.

 

[Bodin Praphanthongchai]

People invest heavily in speedtest. Time to purchase some Ookla stock, I guess.

Indeed!!!

 

[drinkingbird]

This... what will you need >1gb for on a consumer line? I've found IRL that anything over 600mb for a home service ~6-10 clients, PS5, etc, and it doesn't skip. But - that said, I have 1gb down and 20 mb up service from Comcast, regularly can speedtest at >1.1gb. Modem/Router setup below.

100M would probably be plenty for that. I'd much rather have faster upload and cut the download way down. I have 300/300 and would rather that than 2.0/20 even.

Keep in mind Comcast for many many years has designed their network for speedtests. Your downloads are much faster for the first few hundred megs then it throttles back. They used to advertise it as a "feature" called powerboost, now they just do it quietly.

 

[drinkingbird]

For a single device I have to say NONE. But I have almost 100 devices on the network. Those smart devices maybe 40-50 devices already. We do streaming and gaming mainly. I have to say our traffic pretty congestion especially in the evening and weekend. We have like 8-12 people in the house everyday. The problem is we needed more upload and we hope that we can get Mid-Split upgrade from Xfinity very very soon.

Smart devices are mostly using very little. Your issue is more the number of clients per AP most likely, the more clients (even if they aren't sending traffic), the slower each one gets. And yes, your upload speed is likely a limiting factor with all the stuff those smart devices are collecting and sending upstream.

Full duplex gig would be enough for hundreds of people, 8-12 is nothing. If you can get fiber, even 200/200 would likely serve your needs fine with room left over, or go for full gig with them, not much more usually.

 

[Tech9]

Those smart devices maybe 40-50 devices already.

Minimum bandwidth required.

We have like 8-12 people in the house everyday.

They all must have 2x UHD TVs each. All that will fit in Gigabit ISP line.

 

[Tech9]

If you can get fiber, even 200/200 would likely serve your needs

Indeed. I would trade my 500/30 cable for 200/200 fiber right now. I don't need Gigabit. Speed doesn't exceed 100Mbps for 4 people.

I want to see Traffic Monitor - Last 24 hours, not phone speedtest numbers. Then I'll know who's happier - the user or the service provider.

 

[Bodin Praphanthongchai]

Minimum bandwidth required.



They all must have 2x UHD TVs each. All that will fit in Gigabit ISP line.

We have like 55-75" OLED each room streaming Dolby Vison and Dolby TrueHD or Atmos depend on the files on Plex media sever. And everyone have gaming laptop or gaming PC, iPad, iPhone or Android phone. I think this is pretty normal when you have big family living toghether. Don't you think? Not to mention about working devices that you got from the company and working from home.

 

[drinkingbird]

We have like 55-75" OLED each room streaming Dolby Vison and Dolby TrueHD or Atmos depend on the files on Plex media sever. And everyone have gaming laptop or gaming PC, iPad, iPhone or Android phone. I think this is pretty normal when you have big family living toghether. Don't you think? Not to mention about working devices that you got from the company and working from home.

Ugh, where to start.

Size and panel type of the TV have nothing to do with bandwidth.
Dolby TrueHD (audio protocol) can only be sent over an HDMI cable with HDCP, even if you could send it over streaming, the entire point is that it is uncompressed, would defeat the entire purpose. And I highly doubt the speakers in your TV are anywhere near good enough to tell the difference anyway (I don't think any TVs even support TrueHD, no point).
Dolby Atmos is an audio surround sound protocol that requires HDMI and a stereo with at least 7 speakers.
Dolby Vision again requires hard wire, a high end TV, and is HDCP protected.
Streaming a file from your LAN media server does not use the internet.
Even if you could stream an 8K video from the internet (none exist yet that I know of) it is highly compressed. You really think streaming companies like netflix and your ISP have the infrastructure to support even 50 people watching a >1 GIG stream at the same time? No, they're compressing the heck out of it, even the BEST quality 4K streams are under 30 megs, and most are compressing more than that.

Everything you list above, you're probably never exceeding 100 megs, other than maybe downloading a game occasionally. But your ISP doesn't want you to know that.

 

[drinkingbird]

We have like 55-75" OLED each room streaming Dolby Vison and Dolby TrueHD or Atmos depend on the files on Plex media sever. And everyone have gaming laptop or gaming PC, iPad, iPhone or Android phone. I think this is pretty normal when you have big family living toghether. Don't you think? Not to mention about working devices that you got from the company and working from home.

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that 20 megs upload wasn't cutting it anymore. Even 50 megs is borderline. But don't hold your breath for DOCSIS 4. It is an expensive rollout and they will focus the first couple years on areas where it benefits THEM - areas with lots of business customers or ones that have competition from fiber. For everyone else, they're more than happy to sell you something you'll never use, they don't need to add capacity, and they get more money for nothing.

If you have to upgrade to >1G to get faster upload, so be it. But don't waste a bunch of money on new hardware chasing download speedtests, when the next generation is coming out soon, not only will it have better features (like 2.5G ports will become pretty standard) for similar price as current devices, but the current generation will drop in price. Especially when you're already paying to rent their Wifi6 gateway with 2.5G port, you could just use that in the meantime for stuff you really want to be able to hit >1G.

 

[aex.perez]

Waiting on that next 388 release (with a better WiFi driver, hopefully!) and the AX88 Pro along with if it'll have Merlin support, then a couple of AX6000's (All have 4x4 antenna for both 5 and 2.4Ghz) for the mesh nodes (replacing AX88 4x4/AX86 3x3) - using those mesh nodes for double duty, extending WiFi and their embeded switches, get my backhaul using 2.5Gb is where I'm headed today. All my Nest Cams are on 5Ghz, more BW consumption but so much more detail too when set to high bandwidth usage.

But with 3 streaming 4KTV's (Samsung 55-85") and DirecTV stream boxes (all wired using 100Mb for the TV and 1GbE for the DirecTV boxes), several NEST cameras, thermostats and a soundbar (wireless 5Ghz), IPads/IPhones and tablets (wireless 5/2.4 Ghz), a couple of Laptops (Wireless 5 and/or 2.4Ghz AX) and a older gaming rig (wired), washer, water heater, Amazon Echo's and some lightbulbs. My (symetrical) 1Gb AT&T Fiber is more than adequate, even with occasional Zoom/Chromecast sessions thrown in. Heck even connecting at 1GbE (as shown on the router), the Netflix Speedtest on those DirecTV boxes come in at ~92Mb (CPU constrainted likely). But even if all three were running at a 100%, that still under 300Mb total...

Can't say I've ever seen bandwidth demand/consumed anywhere near 1Gb at the router. Granted that may change as more 4K content streams and MATTER (for IoT devices) becomes more deployed, but then again I can't think of a single time that all of these devices are running at full tilt so there's that too...

Even streaming from Disney+ at the big 4KTV, with Marvel Movies, 4K, UHD, Dolby Atmos (11 speakers between the TV and Soundbar), IMAX format, and so on it'd only pulling in the single digits in terms of Mbits. Though I have seen older content on Netflix/YouTube at 4K pull 15Mbs at peak but that was years ago with an older codec with poor compression and yet still a fraction of my provisioned 1Gb Fiber.

More bang for my buck is with a smarter/more efficient design on LAN side and a router/mesh node with a better/faster CPU especially as MATTER (IoT) evolves, but that's my specific use case...
Your mileage will vary...

 

[Bodin Praphanthongchai]

Ugh, where to start.

Size and panel type of the TV have nothing to do with bandwidth.
Dolby TrueHD (audio protocol) can only be sent over an HDMI cable with HDCP, even if you could send it over streaming, the entire point is that it is uncompressed, would defeat the entire purpose. And I highly doubt the speakers in your TV are anywhere near good enough to tell the difference anyway (I don't think any TVs even support TrueHD, no point).
Dolby Atmos is an audio surround sound protocol that requires HDMI and a stereo with at least 7 speakers.
Dolby Vision again requires hard wire, a high end TV, and is HDCP protected.
Streaming a file from your LAN media server does not use the internet.
Even if you could stream an 8K video from the internet (none exist yet that I know of) it is highly compressed. You really think streaming companies like netflix and your ISP have the infrastructure to support even 50 people watching a >1 GIG stream at the same time? No, they're compressing the heck out of it, even the best quality 4K streams are under 20 megs.

Everything you list above, you're probably never exceeding 100 megs, other than maybe downloading a game occasionally. But your ISP doesn't want you to know that.

Yes, you are right playing lossless files through Plex Media server didn't use Internet bandwidth at all. I'm totally agreed. I do understand Home Theater System, Audiophile, Lossless Audio Passthough HDMI. We have 2019 Shield TV Pro playing bd rip full bitrates that we rip by ourselves or download from our friends from local encrypted server. The Shield TV connected to AVR with the Klipsch speakers system that support Dolby Atmos 9.2.4 channels. We have mixed sound bar that also support HDMI 2.1 Dolby Vision and Atmos so we get the most out of it for sure. This is going to be out of topic. lol

Anyway if you can get a really good deal for this speed won't you get it? But I have to say I would go with Fiber if I can. For now just get what I can.

 

[Tech9]

Don't you think?

Show your 24h traffic and speeds in Traffic Monitor. There is nothing to think about numbers.

 

[drinkingbird]

Yes, you are right playing lossless files through Plex Media server didn't use Internet bandwidth at all. I'm totally agreed. I do understand Home Theater System, Audiophile, Lossless Audio Passthough HDMI. We have 2019 Shield TV Pro playing bd rip full bitrates that we rip by ourselves or download from our friends from local encrypted server. The Shield TV connected to AVR with the Klipsch speakers system that support Dolby Atmos 9.2.4 channels. We have mixed sound bar that also support HDMI 2.1 Dolby Vision and Atmos so we get the most out of it for sure. This is going to be out of topic. lol

Anyway if you can get a really good deal for this speed won't you get it? But I have to say I would go with Fiber if I can. For now just get what I can.


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Unfortunately that $50 will skyrocket on you once your initial term runs out, but you can cancel and re-sign up at that point.

I have 300/300 for $30 a month. I can get 1.0/1.0 (well really 950/950 due to limitation of the 1G port in the ONT) for $50, and it is not worth $240 extra a year for something I'll never use.

The fact that they can force you to buy >1G service just to get reasonable upload speeds shows you just how bad Comcast is. Guess what, in areas where they compete with other companies, they give 50M upload on even the 400M tier. Those will be the same areas to get DOCSIS 4 and Mid split too.

 

[Tech9]

and it is not worth $240 extra a year

ISPs offer high speed for "a little more" knowing very well few subscribers will actually use it. They share the line between more subscribers and collect multiple times $240 more per year. The subscribers use Internet the same way as before, but the ISPs get more money. They just take what they can.

 

[Bodin Praphanthongchai]

Unfortunately that $50 will skyrocket on you once your initial term runs out, but you can cancel and re-sign up at that point.

I have 300/300 for $30 a month. I can get 1.0/1.0 (well really 950/950 due to limitation of the 1G port in the ONT) for $50, and it is not worth $240 extra a year for something I'll never use.

The fact that they can force you to buy >1G service just to get reasonable upload speeds shows you just how bad Comcast is. Guess what, in areas where they compete with other companies, they give 50M upload on even the 400M tier. Those will be the same areas to get DOCSIS 4 and Mid split too.

Unfortunately, my place only have Cable Internet, I just moved from RCN to Xfinity because of there offer this offer will last for 24 months and hopefully I can renew. I don't think we will have any Fiber Internet anytime soon. This is the best option that I got for now. I would take Fiber 500/500 or even 300/300 or anything that have more upload at least 100mbps but no choice. Our big problem right now is not able to do any activities that related to upload due to super low speed upload but we have to stick with it. lol

 

[Bodin Praphanthongchai]

Show your 24h traffic and speeds in Traffic Monitor. There is nothing to think about numbers.

Yes, I do understand that we didn't use maximum speed all the times. But when it spike at least you have more buffer.

 

[drinkingbird]

Unfortunately, my place only have Cable Internet, I just moved from RCN to Xfinity because of there offer this offer will last for 24 months and hopefully I can renew. I don't think we will have any Fiber Internet anytime soon. This is the best option that I got for now. I would take Fiber 500/500 or even 300/300 or anything that have more upload at least 100mbps but no choice. Our big problem right now is not able to do any activities that related to upload due to super low speed upload but we have to stick with it. lol

There is no such thing as renew with Comcast/Xfinity. You either need to switch back and forth between two companies to keep becoming a new customer, or cancel and sign up under a different name every couple years, which unfortunately means you have to lose internet for a part of the day and return old equipment and get new. But it is a good way to get fresh equipment every couple years too.

FIOS finally realized everyone was doing that and just made the monthly charge never expire. Actually they just dropped mine down from $40 to $30. Before that I would literally schedule my service to cancel at 11:59PM on the last day of my 1 year (it would shut off around 2-3AM) and place a new order scheduled for the following day and activate it when I got up in the morning.