[RT-AC86U] Switching to Verizon slows WiFi (not ethernet)?

[George5000]

Hey all, weird problem. Short version is: I have Verizon FIOS and Comcast active. If I switch the wan ethernet feeding the router from one to the other, my iPhone X gets full wi-fi bandwidth from Comcast, but only half (50 Mbps of 100) from Verizon FIOS. My computer over ethernet gets full on both. Is there some router settings that need to be tweaked for FIOS?

More info:
- I'm using Ookla speedtest.net and the iOS app, same test server every time. (Tried verizon's speed test a few times with similar results.)
- I'm testing both connections with the router in the same location and phone within ~5 feet of router.
- Comcast I get 177 Mbps on both my computer (ethernet) and iPhone. (5Mbps upload as expected for cable.)
- Verizon on my computer I get the 100 Mbps (paying for 100/100) or very close.
- Verizon on the iPhone varies widely with multiple tests. Often I just get around 45 Mbps. A few times I have gotten into the 80/90s which is almost full speed. But it is quite inconsistent.
- Verizon upload is consistently 119 Mbps on all devices and tests.
- After switching to Verizon, I plugged Comcast back in as a sanity test and got the same numbers.
- Rebooting the router, or just switching ethernet seems to have the same effect.
-QoS and AIProtection are off.

So... I'm writing this up and do another test on Verizon and of course I get 96.8/119. Pretty much full speed. I wait 20 minutes and get 100/119. Wait another 20 minutes and I'm back to 50.0/119. Multiple tests over the next hour are similar. Then I try again and I'm back up to 100/119. So it's very inconsistent. I never had to do this much testing with Comcast, cause it was always consistent when checked.
Edit: oh and I test against my computer each time which continues to get 100 Mbps (or close enough) over ethernet at the same time my iPhone is only getting 50.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

[George5000]

Ok, I finally thought to check what now seems obvious... the speed test itself. I had checked with verizon's speed test on my iPhone and it reported full speed. However, I was suspect that it was biased, plus it took longer and didn't report dynamic results.

But then I started wondering if there was just a bug in the ookla speedtest app. I started trying different servers than the one it was defaulting to and all were giving much better speeds... most reporting full speed. I also tried some web based speed tests (fast.com) and it showed full speed on my phone as well. Finally, I changed the server on the speedtest app to the exact same one I had been getting good results with Comcast (a Comcast server ironically) and I got full speed results from my Verizon connection too.

So... I'm going to lay the blame here on the speedtest iOS app. Somehow the combination of a particular server and iOS did not play well. (I'm not sure why, but don't know how else to explain it.)

So all is well and it wasn't the router's fault.