Basics: te connection between charts and ther real world?

[brucew268]

I'm a bit confused. My ISP says that my fibre modem provides up to 38 Mbps downloads and 19.5 Mbps uploads. But I am getting close to 70 Mbps. I understand reasons that might make it slower, but faster?

Also, if WAN>LAN throughput is a measure of the best speed I can get through my WAN connection, which seems to be my connection to the Fibre modem, then what would 800 Mbps do for me compared to say 150 Mbps? I can only get 70 Mbps through the internet anyway. And my device ethernet cables are connected to a switch which governs their speed (Gigabit).

If I have not completely missed the idea above, then fast wireless speeds are mostly of benefit comunicating between devices on my network, and is not really going to help me on the internet, right?

 

[fistv]

So you are paying for 38 and getting 70 ? personally I'd keep quiet about it I got 20 for a while when they did the docis upgrade at my provider, at some point someone looked at the accounts/configs and dropped me down to the 5 I was paying for. Was nice while it lasted.

 

[thiggins]

Could be that your ISP has provisioned you incorrectly for a higher throughput service. Enjoy it while it lasts!

You are correct, a router with routing throughput significantly higher than your ISP service does not provide benefit for internet performance. But high routing speed is an indicator of available router processor power, which can provide higher LAN (local) wireless and storage performance.

 

[azazel1024]

Final question, yes, that is correct. Well, so long as the wireless speeds are faster than your internet connection, any improvement in wireless only helps LAN side performance. Of course if you are far from your router, your device speeds might be below your internet connection capability, so an improved router can help litteral edge cases.

As for faster, could be any number of reasons. They might not have your connection appropriately limited. Or it could be that they provide other services over the connection so it is artifically higher and you are not signed up for one of the services that would slow down the connection otherwise. Example, Verizon FIOS has their TV and VOIP on seperate channels/frequencies on their optical network, so there is no impact on your internet connection. HOWEVER, their VOD DOES go over your internet connection, which is probably why they "spice up" their general packages by around 5-8Mbps or so. For instance, my 75/35 clocks in at 83/36. Pretty dependenable to get those speeds. When it used to be 50/25 it would measure around 56/25. Way back when it was a 25/25 connection it would measure in at 32/25.

As for router WAN capability, so long as it is above the speeds your ISP provides, it is effectively meaningless. That said, if you are layering on a bunch of firewall rules, port forwarding, etc CAN slow things down. So having more leeway never hurts so that if you setup a bunch of firewall rules and stuff, if you halve your WAN capability...you'll still be above what your ISP provides.

 

[brucew268]

I won't tell my ISP if you don't

Thank you for those clarifications... kind of what I thought. But being not terribly literate in networking issues, I assumed I was missing something.