Forum Discussion

mikar59's avatar
mikar59
New Contributor II
6 months ago

Bandwith speed issue

So I have been doing a Ookla speedtest at various times of the day over the last week. My download speeds have been about  27-30 mbs and upload speeds of 60+ mbs.  Months ago my download speeds were easily in the 70+ mb range, often higher than that. By the way, I am on the 500 mb plan.  I have tried to figure it out with no luck. Checked my router to see if anything has changed. Nothing. Disconnected my VPN, hardly made a difference. Checked it on WIFI on my laptop, then on my desktop with a wired conection. No change, download speeds about the same. Basically nothing has changed that should account for this difference. Thinking I may be throttled by Cox, I went to my data usage in my account,  where  the "other" category accounted for 41% with a week and a half to go, but last cycle it was 14%???  Fortunately I am not having any issues viewing, or doing what I want on the internet, but I am concerned in the fact I am not getting NEAR what I am paying for. This is also the first time I have ever seen my download speeds being consistently  beaten by a good bit by the upload speeds. I do not know when this started, I do not routinely check my speeds on a regular basis. Any thoughts?

  • mikar59's avatar
    mikar59
    New Contributor II
    6 months ago

    So lets add to the mystery a little bit. For one week or so, checking at various times of the day starting at 7:00 am, my download speeds have been in the 28-30 mbs range as I mentioned above. About 15 minutes after this first post, I did another speedtest and all of a sudden I was running 92 mbs and 84 mbs with the VPN on. That is a helluva coincidence, but it gets better. 5 minutes after I got this reading I did yet another speedtest and this time it popped right back down to 30 mbs once again. Any ideas? Literally 5 minutes apart and my download speeds went down by 2/3's, just like they jumped 2/3's after my post. This is strange as all get out.

    • Darkatt's avatar
      Darkatt
      Honored Contributor
      6 months ago

      Are you testing over WiFi or over Ethernet? That can make a difference.  Thew ONLY accurate test is using a direct connect, ethernet. Also, try a different speed test, as a congested path to the server you are reaching could affect your result. 

      https://fiber.google.com/speedtest/  has me at 598 and 57

      https://www.speedtest.net has me at 494 and 54

      Same computer, over ethernet. 

       

      • mikar59's avatar
        mikar59
        New Contributor II
        6 months ago

        this latest test was WIFI, but as I said in my post, I ma getting the same numbers via a cable and direct access to the router. Also, I have used multiple testing options figuring that may be an issue, but no, I get the same results no matter the test, no matter if it is WIFI or direct.  I am not a pro by any means, but I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable. I have tried everything I can think of

  • CurtB's avatar
    CurtB
    Honored Contributor
    6 months ago

    My reported download has gone from 597Mbps to 33Mbps.  Reported upload is 54Mbps.  I'd never heard of an upload being faster than the download either.   Reported upload earlier this evening was 3Mbps.  I'm seeing the fluctuation in upload speed too.

    Current speeds

    Previous speeds

      

    • CurtB's avatar
      CurtB
      Honored Contributor
      6 months ago

      mikar59   Rebooting the modem fixed my issue.  Reboot your devices and see what happens.

       

      • mikar59's avatar
        mikar59
        New Contributor II
        6 months ago

        I have rebooted the router but I have not rebooted the whole system including the modem. I will give that a try. the only time I have resorted to that is on occasion, I seem to lose my internt connection totally, then reboot and it has always brought me back.

        Well, I just rebooted the entire system, not just the router and it seemed to work for now. Popping downloads in the 100 mbs range, so just rebooting the router did not have much affect but rebooting the router AND the modem seems to have done it. Maybe something was hung up in the transfer between the two. Someone may know, but not me nor do I care. Thanks for pointing me in a direction I had not yet chosen

    • mikar59's avatar
      mikar59
      New Contributor II
      6 months ago

      Wow, even more of a discrepency than I am seeing. If you come across an answer, please let me know

  • jrodatz23's avatar
    jrodatz23
    New Contributor II
    6 months ago

    My thoughts are that cox sucks cox. Every month, same issue. Literally an outage at LEAST once a month. I pray this company goes bankrupt. I'm switching as soon as I'm approved for AT&T fiber. Cox is the only IP I've ever had this issue with. 

    • mikar59's avatar
      mikar59
      New Contributor II
      6 months ago

      Unfortunately I do not have a choice, at least not in the foreseeable future. At least I still have access without to much issue. Could be worse. Just hate not getting what I am paying for