Internet speed-Update

[Charlie_D_]

I have Spectrum for internet and when cable is hooked to the lap top I have a 70+ mbps. My router is a Linksys EA 8350. When my devices go through my router and cable run to the router from the modem I have for the last 3 days been getting 1.3 to 3.0 mbps. I have 4 wireless video security cameras with the DVR recorder wired to the router that eat up 4 mbps each. One, sometimes 2 cameras will loose their signal during the day and then come back on line at some point. I have 4 additional cameras and when swapping the online cameras with one of the others I get the same issue. I have, in the past, been getting 6-7 mbps. I also have a Netgear extender half way between my lap top and the cameras. Distance from router to the furthest 2 cameras is about 50 feet. I do expect to loose some speed because of walls and obstructions. When I check the signal from the extender through my Android I get "excellent" on strength.

I understand that speed is lower when the devices are synced to the router but with 70+ mbps I would think my speed would be faster.

The router has a built in internet speed check built in the system and it is consistent with Spectrum. My incoming signal from Spectrum enters through their modem and is wired to a separate modem then to the router.

I am hoping I made clear the issues and asking if anything else can be done to improve those issues. I have thought about moving the router to the attic but I would have to add another cable to it and then run a 30-40 foot cable from the router to my camera DVR which is hooked to the router and the monitor so I can see the recordings the DVR stores.

If I unplug the DVR from the router and power it down the speed increases to 9.1 mbps

UPDATE Thought I would update this post as a thank you for the help.
I used an old router to establish a hardwired access point for the cameras. I have good connection for my cameras. After resetting my DVR and camera system I used the access point to connect the cameras to the access point with a separate and different password. At this time the cameras are the only thing connected to t. Signal is 40+ mbps and cameras have given good video and have stayed on line 100% for a week.

I have not been able to log on to my access point via my lap top BUT my Android tablet and both Android phone do connect to my access point anywhere in the house.

[Charlie_D_]

UPDATE Thought I would update this post as a thank you for the help.
I used an old router to establish a hardwired access point for the cameras. I have good connection for my cameras. After resetting my DVR and camera system I used the access point to connect the cameras to the access point with a separate and different password. At this time the cameras are the only thing connected to it. Signal is 40+ mbps and cameras have given good video and have stayed on line 100% for a week.

I have not been able to log on to my access point via my lap top BUT my Android tablet and both Android phone do connect to my access point anywhere in the house.

[tatest]

70+ MBPS at the cable modem gets shared by all the devices connected to your router (which might not even have that much throughput with only a single device). The router itself might have a much lower maximum rate than the cable modem or the service rating.

What the router can handle gets split up among everything connected, determined by maximum speed of each device and how busy each is, and how much they are throttled by WiFi bandwidth on however many radio channels.

Add up the bandwidth being used by each device, and you'll have an idea of how much of that 70 MBPS (or lower router limit) is being used where. Expect as much as a 50% cut in the total if the router is really busy, and most devices are on WiFi, because of the wait times built into collision detection and prevention protocols.

When collisions are high, the whole system can come to almost a standstill, everything connected spending more time in "wait" than sending or receiving packets. When be had family gatherings at my brother's house, the single-channel 2.4 MHz WiFi would come to a standstill about when the smartphone count reached 10-12 devices busy browsing or facebooking.

[AsheGuy]

Charlie D. wrote:
LittleBill-Thank for for your latest post. Your description is very clear and easily understood. I will continue to explore some options.

Anyone have opinions on why my speed when using wifi fluctuates throughout the day?

.

I haven't seen any description of your environment, maybe I missed it. Are there other wi-fi access points competing with yours?

If so, there are tools to manage the chaos, I use Inssider that is free.

[turbojimmy]

LittleBill wrote:
if you want to give a certain AP setup a try, get the 3 device Netgear orbi,( no idea on the size of your house) and see if it has enough power for you, this may get it done,as it backhauls the data over the AP's on 5.8 while giving out a 2.4 (like i mentioned above, this may be your best shot and easiest, may not be the cheapest.

Google Mesh is a bit less expensive option that may help with the crowding on the 2.4 Ghz band. They don't have a dedicated 5 Ghz band for talking to each other like Orbi does but most tests I've read say that it doesn't really affect performance much.

Google Mesh

Like I said before, I have 4 Nest cams on the Google Mesh network. I, too, had tried extenders and whatnot but the cameras either kept dropping offline or would warn me that video quality was suffering because of low bandwidth. But, unlike the OP's cameras, the Nest cams will switch between 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz depending on signal strength. When I was having trouble I had Nest take a look at the signal strength and they said my biggest issue was that they were constantly trying to switch between 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz because the 5 Ghz was marginal (as you know the trade-off for the 5 Ghz speed is distance/obstruction limitations). I disabled 5 Ghz on my outdoor access point so I know at least 2 of the cameras operate exclusively at 2.4 Ghz. The other 2 are likely 5 Ghz given the proximity to the Google Mesh devices. But then I also don't have an NVR in the mix...

[Charlie_D_]

LittleBill-Thank for for your latest post. Your description is very clear and easily understood. I will continue to explore some options.

Anyone have opinions on why my speed when using wifi fluctuates throughout the day?

.

[LittleBill]

So I'm going to try to break this down best i can.

first lets forget about the "70mbit internet" it has literally nothing to do with this.

Your issue is simple, your wifi router EA6350 simply can't push that much data over wifi.

Wifi has 2 bands 2.4/5.8

your camera's only support 2.4 which is bad, 2.4 is the slower band with limited bandwidth and limited channels. buying a faster "dual band" router will do nothing. the camera's will not use the faster 5.8 if im reading the limited docs on the specs for the camera correctly.

Wifi on 2.4 is a half duplex medium,which means it can only talk to one device at a time. so to break it down, if its talking to one camera, it can't talk to the next one, till the first one is done talking, (high level here). Also depending on how good the connection is between the 2, contributes to how fast they talk to each other and before the router/AP can talk to another camera or your laptop (they are all waiting in line to talk). Since your using a NVR, the camera's literally never stop talking over the wifi since the NVR even if its using motion detection still needs a live stream to detect motion. hopefully that was clear.

wireless camera's suck, yea they make install easy, but wifi is a prick and is a shared spaced so alot of it can be interfered with and you can't control that.

options,

if you can hardwire any of it, do it, if you can't run a network cable, look into Powerline adapters, or MOCA adapters.

your other option is if you have the 2.4ghz channels available (remember anyone can use them)

is to buy another AP/AP's (access point, wireless router), set it to a completely different SSID (wireless name) and on a different 2.4 40MHZ channel (can only use 1,6,11 without them interfering with each other) and move all the camera's/dvr's to use only that SSID /router.

since your trying to use extenders (horrible idea they have to rebroadcast on the same channel unless you bought the dual band units, which you can use to connect to the main router on 5.8, while providing a 2.4 signal to the camera's (might be an option)

there is alot of testing here unfortunately. moving a wifi ap/router 3 feet can make a huge difference in signal levels.

there is a reason i spent 2 weeks hardwiring my entire house.

a nvr setup with 8 camera on wireless is a disaster waiting to happen. as you have found out. it can be done, but most consumer gear is not up to the task.... good luck.

if you want to give a certain AP setup a try, get the 3 device Netgear orbi,( no idea on the size of your house) and see if it has enough power for you, this may get it done,as it backhauls the data over the AP's on 5.8 while giving out a 2.4 (like i mentioned above, this may be your best shot and easiest, may not be the cheapest.

link to orbi

and again your internet only comes into play when your trying to remote view the camera's. everything between the nvr and the camera's is local and never leaves the house thus never using your 70mbit download speed.

to add another wrinkle 70mbit is your down speed, when your trying to view your camera's remotely thats actually a upload, which is generally much slower something like 5-6mbit. you will never be able to view all camera's at high resolution remotely.

[Charlie_D_]

Anyone have suggestions on why my wifi speeds are all over the map when I check the speed with everything on wifi.

With the current set up in my office I am limited to movement of the equipment without having to drill holes in the walls and running hard wire everywhere. Thought about moving the router to center of house but I would also have to move Spectrum modem, my modem, router and NVR recorder. I may be able to hide behind some furniture but connecting the monitor to the NVR would not be feasible so I would be unable to see what the cameras are viewing and to view alerts and what has been recorded.

If you are thinking of me using my cell phone or tablet to remote viewI do that but I loose the capability to use any of the features except the few seconds of an alert. My phone app gives me the option of setting "home" or "away." Away will alert me when motion is detected but it can sometimes be a nuisance when lizards, wasps or spiders cross the viewing area. I plan to explore the mesh someone mentioned but the price may be prohibitive.

Thanks for your patience.

[Charlie_D_]

LittleBill wrote:
disconnect all camera's and NVR (disconnect everything on the EA6350 period ), hardwire the laptop into the EA6350, and speed test there.

provide model of camera's/NVR

As I have said before. When I hard wire to lap top from router and everything else bypassed I reach 70+ mbps.
My cameras are Zmodo with a Zmodo NVR. Zmodo Wireless Home Security Cameras System - 1080p 8CH HDMI NVR - 4 HD Wide Angle Weatherproof Outdoor Camera System. I am using only 4 channels.

[LittleBill]

disconnect all camera's and NVR (disconnect everything on the EA6350 period ), hardwire the laptop into the EA6350, and speed test there.

provide model of camera's/NVR

[AsheGuy]

Charlie D. wrote:
I have the same setup as you EXCEPT I have the Spectrum modem for telephone, internet and cable.

Maybe, but I don't think so. I don't have an NVR in my system, cameras only use wi-fi when triggered by noise or movement and then only for the time to transmit a 12 second video to the cloud storage supplied by the camera company. Also if I open an app and view a live video feed from a camera it obviously uses the wi-fi. If I am monitoring a camera with my phone app, I would not usually be doing anything else at the time so the camera is not really competing for my wi-fi bandwidth.

Apparently you are using your wi-fi to live stream video to your NVR from each camera, that is not my setup. Maybe others following this thread do have such a setup and can help. Wi-fi (as others have suggested) does have to be optimized if you are in a metropolitan environment where you have multiple wi-fi access points competing for the available channels.

And, as you have supposed, the distance to some of your cameras may be an issue.

[Charlie_D_]

[img][/img]AsheGuyI have the same setup as you EXCEPT I have the Spectrum modem for telephone, internet and cable. My first post said I have a NVR for recording and playback. I then lapsed into calling it a DVR. It has 1T of storage.

When the Arris modem is hardwired into laptop and bypassing the router I was receiving 65-70mbps as I stated in one of my earlier posts. When going through my router with 2 Android phones, one tablet and one laptop I am getting 41-44 mbps. After rebooting the 2 cameras several times with no success I deleted them last night. I reset my router back to factory and reinstalled it.I rebooted the Spectrum modem. I deleted the camera NVR and deleted and reinstalled the app on my cell phone. I reinstalled 4 cameras and mounted them outside. They are staying on line except for one.
Occasionally it will drop of and then back after a couple of
seconds. I have updated the cameras firmware. My speeds are now 22-23mbps.


I just checked my speed again on my lap top and wirelessly. In the office it is 23.7. Took my table to the cameras I have issues with and speed is 1-2.:h. I am assuming that distance is too great for a solid connection to those cameras.

I have continued to check speed in the office with lap top on wifi. The signal strength has been all over the place from mid to upper 40's to as low as 8.4.

[austinjenna]

Editing this post because with the incoming feed hardwired directly and bypassing the Spectrum modem I have lost phone signal. I am now back incoming signal with splitter going to both my modem AND Spectrums modem

You should have mentioned that you have there home phone service as well. If thats the case then yes you need the spectrum modem but at that point it is being used just for the phone.

Have you hardwired your laptop to the router and run a speed test? Is it good?

Have you checked if there might be a firmware update for the router?.

Have you rebooted the router? Is the wifi still bad after that?

If after all the above has been done. Try changing the channels on the router.

Report back then

[AsheGuy]

Charlie D. - I think earlier you said you were a novice. You are asking for help but those of us that might be able to help need what several others have asked for, i.e. a diagram of exactly what devices and functions you are trying to get to work with the speed you expect.

For example, I have Spectrum for Internet/TV (not phone), security cameras that are wi-fi connected, a personal router/modem that I use to connect to Spectrum for Internet access. I have a DVR but it is used only for TV use. My security cameras are wi-fi connected to the Internet and access to them is via apps on my phone and tablet from anywhere, an entirely different setup from what you have.

So your use of wi-fi, Internet, DVR, etc is entirely different from what I use. And the same may be true for others trying to figure out what you have. So without specific info on your devices and how they are connected, these discussions just go in circles.

[LittleBill]

again,

please draw a wiring diagram. and again DVR's do not need internet to function, i believe you proved that above